November 6, 2025 an on this day 114 years ago in 1911, Edgar Rice Burroughs accepted an offer of $400>00 from All-Story Magazine for “Dejah Thoris, Martian Princess,” one of the many working titles for “A Princess of Mars.” Doesn’t seem like much, but $400.00 1n 1911 is about $13,800 today. That works out to about 19 cents a word in today's money - which is better than most magazines pay today. Other working titles were “The Green Martians,” “My First Adventure on Mars,” and of course, “Under the Moons of Mars.”
The check was dated November 15, 1911 and drawn on the Second National Bank of New York. It cleared.
A wealth of information about the novel and its genesis is available at: https://www.erbzine.com/mag4/0421.html
The drabble for today, “You Know What You Know,” was inspired by that transaction.
“Emma,” said Edgar Rice Burroughs, “All-Story sent a contract for my Mars book. $400.00! The check will be here in less than then days.”
“They paid you four hundred dollars! Wonderful! Exactly what are they buying?”
“The story. They bought the story.”
“I read that there are lots rights and rules. Which ones did they buy?”
“Emma, I’m really not sure. I’ll do some research.”
“So, you don’t know what you’ve sold them.?”
I don’t know what I don’t know. I’ll find out. But one thing that I do know for certain is that we need the four hundred dollars.”
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