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When Edgar Rice Burroughs was writing his Martian tales, did he have specific locations in mind when he wrote about places like Helium or which dead sea bottoms were where the Tharks live?

Was he working with a map of Mars, picking locations where cities like Helium or Zodanga would be, or were the maps of Barsoom worked out to match the books?

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Leatham Mehaffey, in ERBzine 1438, wrote an analysis addressing this question. The conclusion he reached is that yes ERB did make extensive use of Percival Lowell's maps and descriptions of Mars when conceiving the Barsoomian equivalents. While he cannot provide conclusive evidence the parallels he draws strike me as most convincing

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  • Thank you for the link! That's a resource I didn't know about. Much appreciated.
    – Tango
    Commented Jan 14, 2012 at 0:51

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