Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burroughs had more imagination than an army of writers and could write more imaginative prose than most of the SF authors of the current generation. His mind was made for storytelling. The lastborn brother of a family of all boys, he swore he could write better than the pulp stories that were being published at the time, and he proved himself right. He created Tarzan and a good number of novels based on that character. The best novels he wrote, however, were undoubtedly the moon series (beginning with The Moon Maid), and the Martian series (beginning with The Warlord of Mars). My favorite is A Fighting Man of Mars.