''Beyond the Farthest Star'' is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

novel by American writer

Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best-known for creating the characters Tarzan and John Carter, he ...

. The novel consists of two novellas, "Adventure on Poloda" and "Tangor Returns", written quickly in late 1940. The first was published in '' The Blue Book Magazine'' in 1942, but the second did not see publication until 1964 when it was featured in '' Tales of Three Planets'' along with "

The Resurrection of Jimber-Jaw "The Resurrection of Jimber-Jaw" is a 1937 short story by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, about an unfrozen 50,000-year-old caveman. The story was originally printed in ''Argosy'' magazine, and later reprinted as one of three stories in the ...

" and ''

The Wizard of Venus ''The Wizard of Venus'' is a science fiction novella by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, as well as the title of a collection in which it was later published together with an unrelated story. "The Wizard of Venus" is the final story in Burrou ...

''. Burroughs likely intended ''Beyond the Farthest Star'' to be the opening of a new series comparable to the

Barsoom Barsoom is a fictional representation of the planet Mars created by American pulp fiction author Edgar Rice Burroughs. The first Barsoom tale was serialized as ''Under the Moons of Mars'' in 1912 and published as a novel as ''A Princess of Mars' ...

Pellucidar Pellucidar is a fictional Hollow Earth invented by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs for a series of action adventure stories. In a crossover event, Tarzan, who was also created by Burroughs, visits Pellucidar. The stories initially involv ...

sequences, but declining health and Burroughs's World War II service as a war correspondent prevented this from happening. However, the story saw new life in 1972, when it was adapted by comics writer

Marv Wolfman Marvin Arthur Wolfman (born May 13, 1946) is an American comic book and novelization writer. He worked on Marvel Comics's ''The Tomb of Dracula'', for which he and artist Gene Colan created the vampire-slayer Blade, and DC Comics's '' The New Te ...

and artist Dan Green as one of the back-ups in DC Comics' version of the Tarzan comic book; the story itself lasted until January 1973 (issues #212–218, then ''Tarzan Family'' #61). This is the only known comics version to date. In 2021, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. released a restored edition of ''Beyond the Farthest Star''. Comparison with Burroughs’ original typescript showed that the 1942 magazine publication was heavily edited, with a substantial number of line edits on almost every page, and several lengthy and meaningful passages—some more than a page long—excised throughout. That altered and abridged text had been used as the basis for all succeeding book editions of the novel.

Copyright

The

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

for this story has expired in Australia, and thus now resides in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

there. The text is available via

Project Gutenberg Australia Project Gutenberg Australia, abbreviated as PGA, is an Internet site which was founded in 2001 by Colin Choat. It is a sister site of Project Gutenberg, though there is no formal relationship between the two organizations. The site hosts free eboo ...

References

External links

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Edgar Rice Burroughs Summary Project page for ''Beyond the Farthest Star''
American science fiction novels Novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs 1964 American novels 1942 American novels Ace Books books {{1940s-sf-novel-stub