Stories by Charles B. Stilson

	According to Sam Moskowitz's "Under the Moons of Mars" such was the popularity of the stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs that the editor of All-Story Weekly encouraged their authors to write imitation Burroughs stories. However the only such stories Moskowitz talks about are Palos of the Dog Star Pack by J. U. Geisy (available as a Beb Books reprint), an established writer as All-Story, and Polaris of the Snows by first time writer Charles B. Stilson. Of the many imitators over the years, Charles B. Stilson, probably best caught the mood and feel of Burroughs. Where other would set their hero in another part of Africa, Stilson sent his hero to remote Antarctica, there to fight polar bears and killer whales! (In this Stilson was in keeping with his model since Tarzan originally fought tigers, which don't live in Africa) Following the death of his father, Polaris attempts to return to the United States. Along the way he rescues the beautiful Rose Emer and discovers a lost colony of ancient Greeks where a lecherous King plots Polaris elimination so he can marry Rose. Is Polaris up to the task? There isn't anything he can't do when he sets his mind to it. Polaris has the clean prose, relentless pacing, clever imagination found in all the best fiction Polaris - of the Snows -- 71 pages, $7.00
	So well received was Polaris - of the Snows that two sequels followed, Minos of Sardanes was the first in 1916. A year has past since Polaris Jarness and Rose Emer returned to America and reports of volanic activity in Antartics near where Sardanes, the lost Greek colony exists send Polaris back to the south pole to lead a rescue mission to the ancient kingdom. In alternating chapters we see Minos, new king of Sardanes, dealing with the loss of the mighty volcanos whose heat had kept his polar kingdom alive all these years. More troubling than the creeping cold of the valley is the fanaticism of the kingdom's new high priest. The nation is doomed because it had turned away from their volcano god and can only be appeased by mass human sacrifice. Will Polaris arrive in time to find anyone left alive to rescue. And what about the mission's commander, humiliated by Polaris once before, will he resist the temptation to get even? Minos of Sardanes -- sequel to Polaris - of the Snows -- 62 pages, $7.00
	The final volume in the trilogy, Polaris and the Goddess Glorian, appeared in 1917. Where the first two stories were adventure yarns featuring a relic culture, Glorian is a full blown fantasy set on the last, lost, remnant of Atlantis! Polaris, Minos, his new bride are on their back home after being rescued by Rose Emer. They find a solitary man floating in a mess of wood wreckage, breathing underwater due to the strange golden helmet he's wearing. First a storm blows them off the maps then a weird burst of light bursting up from the sea blows their navy cruiser to smitherings. They awake to find that they have been rescued by the man they had rescued but are held prisoner because they have come too close to Maeronica, last and remotest outpost of Atlantis. While Rose and the others are held prisoner for sacrifice later in the year, Polaris is spirited away to a kingdom in the north where the Goddress, Glorian, a liiving woman hundred of years old has predicted that a man resembling Polaris would lead her people to overthrow the Atlanteans who dominate their small island. But can he defeat a vastly larger and better equipped army in time to save Rose? Polaris and the Goddess Glorian -- sequal to Polaris - of the Snows and Minos of Sardanes - - 95 pages, $10.00
	For the next several years Stilson mainly wrote historical romance serials and science fiction short stories for All-Story Weekly. In 1919 he returned to fantasy with the two-part series, A Man Named Jones and Land of the Shadow People. A Man Named Jones starts with a very drunk Jones awakening to find a dead man under his table holding a large, raw emerald and the photograph of a lovely white women surrounded by Polynesians fiercely protecting her South Seas island from visitors. Jones vows to rescue the woman from her island prison, not knowing that the crew he's sailing with are as vicious a band of pirates imaginable. A Man Named Jones -- 76 pages, $8.00
	Land of the Shadow People picks up the story some years later when Jones is blackmailed into once again searching for the source of the mysterious emerald. What he finds is a strange race of chameleon people desperate to preserve the secret of their existence. Written in a crisp, modern style these two novels will provide hours of enjoyment. Land of the Shadow People -- sequel to A Man Named Jones -- 97 pages, $10.00