{"product_id":"2940012041067","title":"A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs","description":"A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA PRINCESS OF MARS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eby\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEdgar Rice Burroughs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo My Son Jack\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFOREWORD\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo the Reader of this Work:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn submitting Captain Carter's strange manuscript to you in book form,\u003cbr\u003eI believe that a few words relative to this remarkable personality will\u003cbr\u003ebe of interest.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy first recollection of Captain Carter is of the few months he spent\u003cbr\u003eat my father's home in Virginia, just prior to the opening of the civil\u003cbr\u003ewar.  I was then a child of but five years, yet I well remember the\u003cbr\u003etall, dark, smooth-faced, athletic man whom I called Uncle Jack.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe seemed always to be laughing; and he entered into the sports of the\u003cbr\u003echildren with the same hearty good fellowship he displayed toward those\u003cbr\u003epastimes in which the men and women of his own age indulged; or he\u003cbr\u003ewould sit for an hour at a time entertaining my old grandmother with\u003cbr\u003estories of his strange, wild life in all parts of the world.  We all\u003cbr\u003eloved him, and our slaves fairly worshipped the ground he trod.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe was a splendid specimen of manhood, standing a good two inches over\u003cbr\u003esix feet, broad of shoulder and narrow of hip, with the carriage of the\u003cbr\u003etrained fighting man.  His features were regular and clear cut, his\u003cbr\u003ehair black and closely cropped, while his eyes were of a steel gray,\u003cbr\u003ereflecting a strong and loyal character, filled with fire and\u003cbr\u003einitiative.  His manners were perfect, and his courtliness was that of\u003cbr\u003ea typical southern gentleman of the highest type.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis horsemanship, especially after hounds, was a marvel and delight\u003cbr\u003eeven in that country of magnificent horsemen.  I have often heard my\u003cbr\u003efather caution him against his wild recklessness, but he would only\u003cbr\u003elaugh, and say that the tumble that killed him would be from the back\u003cbr\u003eof a horse yet unfoaled.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen the war broke out he left us, nor did I see him again for some\u003cbr\u003efifteen or sixteen years.  When he returned it was without warning, and\u003cbr\u003eI was much surprised to note that he had not aged apparently a moment,\u003cbr\u003enor had he changed in any other outward way.  He was, when others were\u003cbr\u003ewith him, the same genial, happy fellow we had known of old, but when\u003cbr\u003ehe thought himself alone I have seen him sit for hours gazing off into\u003cbr\u003espace, his face set in a look of wistful longing and hopeless misery;\u003cbr\u003eand at night he would sit thus looking up into the heavens, at what I\u003cbr\u003edid not know until I read his manuscript years afterward.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe told us that he had been prospecting and mining in Arizona part of\u003cbr\u003ethe time since the war; and that he had been very successful was\u003cbr\u003eevidenced by the unlimited amount of money with which he was supplied.\u003cbr\u003eAs to the details of his life during these years he was very reticent,\u003cbr\u003ein fact he would not talk of them at all.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe remained with us for about a year and then went to New York, where\u003cbr\u003ehe purchased a little place on the Hudson, where I visited him once a\u003cbr\u003eyear on the occasions of my trips to the New York market--my father and\u003cbr\u003eI owning and operating a string of general stores throughout Virginia\u003cbr\u003eat that time.  Captain Carter had a small but beautiful cottage,\u003cbr\u003esituated on a bluff overlooking the river, and during one of my last\u003cbr\u003evisits, in the winter of 1885, I observed he was much occupied in\u003cbr\u003ewriting, I presume now, upon this manuscript.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe told me at this time that if anything should happen to him he wished\u003cbr\u003eme to take charge of his estate, and he gave me a key to a compartment\u003cbr\u003ein the safe which stood in his study, telling me I would find his will\u003cbr\u003ethere and some personal instructions which he had me pledge myself to\u003cbr\u003ecarry out with absolute fidelity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter I had retired for the night I have seen him from my window\u003cbr\u003estanding in the moonlight on the brink of the bluff overlooking the\u003cbr\u003eHudson with his arms stretched out to the heavens as though in appeal.\u003cbr\u003eI thought at the time that he was praying, although I never understood\u003cbr\u003ethat he was in the strict sense of the term a religious man.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSeveral months after I had returned home from my last visit, the first\u003cbr\u003eof March, 1886, I think, I received a telegram from him asking me to\u003cbr\u003ecome to him at once.  I had always been his favorite among the younger\u003cbr\u003egeneration of Carters and so I hastened to comply with his demand.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI arrived at the little station, about a mile from his grounds, on the\u003cbr\u003emorning of March 4, 1886, and when I asked the livery man to drive me\u003cbr\u003eout to Captain Carter's he replied that if I was a friend of the\u003cbr\u003eCaptain's he had some very bad news for me; the Captain had been found\u003cbr\u003edead shortly after daylight that very morning by the watchman attached\u003cbr\u003eto an adjoining property.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor some reason this news did not surprise me, but I","brand":"public domain","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47120922411248,"sku":"2940012041067","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012041067","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}