Ace Books reprinted The Moon Maid, the first book in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Moon trilogy, in 1962. The second and third books were combined into a single edition entitled The Moon Men, also issued by Ace in 1962.
The second book in the Moon trilogy was originally published as "The Moon Men," a four-part serial in Argosy All-Story Weekly from February 21 to March 14, 1925. The third book, "The Red Hawk," also appeared in Argosy All-Story Weekly, this time as a three-part serial from September 5 to September 19, 1925. Ed Emshwiller (1925-1990), also known as Emsh, did the cover art for the Ace edition of The Moon Men, but his picture actually illustrates the climactic action in "The Red Hawk." By a strange coincidence, Emsh was born in the same month in which "The Moon Men" was first in Argosy All-Story Weekly. His birthdate was February 16, 1925.
According to Irwin Porges, Burroughs' biographer, "The Moon Men" was originally an anti-communist story called "Under the Red Flag." Burroughs composed the first version of his story in April-May 1919 and submitted it to a number of popular magazines. It was rejected eleven times. Not one to give up so easily, Burroughs rewrote "Under the Red Flag," changing the Bolshevik overlords of his future United States into invaders from the Moon.
Now, a halt, so that I can point out two things:
First, my thesis in these related series on my blog has two parts. Part one is that Utopia made its way into pulp magazines by way of the Lost Worlds-type story (an imperfect idea, but I'll keep after it). Part two of my thesis is that Dystopia made a similar move by way of the Alien Invasion-type story. This double-thesis started developing in my little brain earlier this year, before I read Burroughs' Moon trilogy. I didn't read that trilogy because I was looking for evidence in support of my thesis. My reading was actually for an art project; reading The Moon Men was purely serendipitous. But here is as good as evidence as any for part two of my thesis: before they were tyrannical rulers from Earth's lone satellite, the Moon Men were Bolsheviks.
Second, if Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote "Under the Red Flag" in April-May 1919, then his Bolshevist president of the future United States, named Lantski Petrov, is a candidate for the first totalitarian in English literature, possibly in all of literature. Unfortunately, "Under the Red Flag" wasn't published in its original form. I wonder if it still exists in that form as a manuscript or typescript.
So "The Moon Men" came first, but before it could stand as a story, it would need a prequel, a setup. That's where "The Moon Maid" came in. It's pretty clear to me that "The Moon Men" is the real heart of Burroughs' Moon trilogy and that "The Moon Maid" and "The Red Hawk" are merely outgrowths of it. "The Red Hawk" flows naturally from "The Moon Men." I imagine it was a pretty easy work to complete. "The Moon Maid," written in 1922, is another story.
The Moon trilogy has a good reputation among Burroughs fans, but "The Moon Maid" really struggles in my opinion. In fact, I found reading it to be an unpleasant experience. There are flashes of real imagination to be sure, but Burroughs' prose, in this book at least, is pretty dreadful. It's not an attempt to describe a reality, even a fictional reality. It's more just a construction of words. Burroughs' characters are not recognizably human. They don't have human feelings. They don't talk like real people. As evidence, I offer some passages from "The Moon Maid":
The crewmen of The Barsoom face a dire choice, and so Julian speaks to them:
"I may speak only for myself, but to me it would be highly preferable to die immediately than to live on thus, knowing that there was no hope of rescue. Had Orthis not destroyed the radio outfit we could have communicated with Earth and another ship been outfitted and sent to our rescue inside a year. But now we cannot tell them, and they will never know our fate. The emergency that has arisen has, however, so altered conditions that I do not feel warranted in taking this step without consulting you gentlemen. It is a matter now largely of the duration of our lives. I cannot proceed upon the mission upon which I have been dispatched, nor can I return to Earth. I wish, therefore, that you would express yourselves freely concerning the plan which I have outlined." (p. 30)
Orthis lashes out at Julian and lays his claim to the Moon Maid:
"Go then to your hut and stop your meddling in the affairs of others--a habit that you developed in a most flagrant degree on Earth, but which will avail you nothing here within the Moon. The woman is mine. Ga-va-go has given her to me. Even if her father should fail to send the ransom her life shall be spared as long as I desire her. Your interference then can only result in your death, and do her no good, for provided you are successful in keeping me from her, you would be but condemning her to death in the event that her father does not send the ransom, and Ga-va-go has told me that there is little likelihood of that, since it is scarcely possible that his messengers will be able to deliver Ga-va-go's demands to Sagroth." (p. 87)
Julian sees his chance for escape and so speaks to the Moon Maid, a woman he loves by the way. Remember, time is of the essence here:
"Come," I said, "there has been given to us this chance for escape. Never again may such a fortuitous combination of circumstances arise. The Va-gas will be hiding in their huts, crouching in terror of the storm. I do not know whither we may fly, but wherever it be, we can be in no greater danger than we are here." (p. 92)
The problem of the complex physical environment (and the problem of the mechanistic solution to the hero's problems) arises:
"In the mouth of the tunnel," explained Nah-ee-lah, "there are long poles, each of which has a hook at one end. Ages ago there were no other means of ingress or egress to the city and those who came out to hunt or for any other purpose came through this long tunnel from the city, and from the ledge below they raised their poles and placed the hooked ends over the rim of the crater, after which it was a simple matter to clamber up or down the poles as they wished; but it has been long since these tunnels were used by the people of Va-nah, who had no further need of them after the perfection of the flying wings which you saw me using when I was captured by the Va-gas."
For those keeping score at home, that second sentence is 112 words long.
Finally, the Moon Maid's city Laythe is being destroyed by Orthis and his Kalkar soldiers. Disaster hangs over them, time is of the essence once again, and so Julian naturally speaks at great length and with great verbosity:
"Now, I understand, my Jemadav [i.e., ruler]," I said, "and I am commencing to have some slight conception of the time that must have elapsed since I first landed within Va-nah, for even since our escape from the Va-gas, Orthis has had time to discover the Kalkars and ingratiate himself among them, to conspire with them for the overthrow of Laythe, and to manufacture explosives and shells and the guns which are reducing Laythe this moment. Even had I not heard the name, I might have guessed that it was Orthis, for it is all so like him--ingrate, traitor, cur."
Boy, is he worked up. And that pithy first sentence, spoken while the bombs are falling, is only 72 words long.
I have gone through all of this excruciating prose so that you can see for yourself just what "The Moon Maid" is like. The evidence stands on its own. But I think this evidence and more points to the idea that Burroughs actually hacked out "The Moon Maid" (and didn't do much revision) so that he could get to "The Moon Men," a story into which he put far more effort and emotion. "The Moon Men" is not just a building up of words. There is genuine human feeling and human suffering in it. In "The Moon Men" Burroughs had something important to say. I think he made it a much better work as a result.
I'll quote once more from "The Moon Maid." I thought of these words as I finished reading this first book in Burroughs' Moon trilogy:
"[. . .] and I was more than relieved when the unpleasant function was concluded." (p. 145)
To be continued . . .
Original text copyright 2021, 2023 Terence E. Hanley
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