The Master Mind of Mars is an Edgar Rice Burroughs science fiction novel, the
sixth of his famous Barsoom series. Burroughs' working titles for the novel
were A Weird Adventure on Mars and Vad Varo of Barsoom. It was first published
in the magazine Amazing Stories Annual vol. 1, July 15, 1927. The first book
edition was published by A. C. McClurg in March, 1928.
Burroughs had been unable to place the novel in his standard, higher-paying
markets like the Munsey magazines and the Street & Smith line. Some critics
have speculated the publishers were put off by its satirical treatment of
religious fundamentalists. He eventually sold it to publisher Hugo Gernsback
for ,250 -- only a third of the rate paid by magazines like Argosy All-Story,
where the previous book in the series had first appeared. Gernsback chose the
novel's final title and made it the cover feature in his newest magazine.
In this novel Burroughs shifts the focus of the series for the second time,
the first having been from early protagonists John Carter and Dejah Thoris to
their children after the third book. Now he moves to a completely unrelated
hero, Ulysses Paxton, an Earthman like Carter who like him is sent to Mars by
astral projection.