Editing Mars in fiction (section)

== Early depictions ==
<imagemap>
File:Solar system.jpg|alt=A photomontage of the eight planets and the Moon|thumb|Early depictions of Mars in fiction were often part of [[Planetary tours in fiction|tours of the Solar System]]. Clicking on a planet leads to the article about its depiction in fiction.
circle 1250 4700 650 [[Neptune in fiction]]
circle 2150 4505 525 [[Uranus in fiction]]
circle 2890 3960 610 [[Saturn in fiction]]
circle 3450 2880 790 [[Jupiter in fiction]]
circle 3015 1770 460 [[Mars in fiction]]
circle 2370 1150 520 [[Earth in science fiction]]
circle 3165 590 280 [[Moon in science fiction]]
circle 1570 785 475 [[Venus in fiction]]
circle 990 530 320 [[Mercury in fiction]]
</imagemap>
Before the 1800s, [[Mars]] did not get much attention in fiction writing as a primary [[Setting (narrative)|setting]], though it did appear in some stories visiting multiple locations in the [[Solar System]].<ref name="SFEMars">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2024<!-- 6 May --> |title=Mars |encyclopedia=[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]] |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/mars |access-date=2024-05-09 |edition=4th |author1-last=Killheffer |author1-first=Robert K. J. |author2-last=Stableford |author2-first=Brian |author2-link=Brian Stableford |author3-last=Langford |author3-first=David |author3-link=David Langford |editor1-last=Clute |editor1-first=John |editor1-link=John Clute |editor2-last=Langford |editor2-first=David |editor2-link=David Langford |editor3-last=Sleight |editor3-first=Graham |editor3-link=Graham Sleight}}</ref><ref name="WestfahlMars" /> The first [[Planetary tours in fiction|fictional tour of the planets]], the 1656 work ''[[Itinerarium exstaticum]]''<!-- no English title --> by [[Athanasius Kircher]], portrays Mars as a volcanic wasteland.<ref name="CrossleyDreamworlds">{{Cite book |last=Crossley |first=Robert |title=[[Imagining Mars: A Literary History]] |date=2011 |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |isbn=978-0-8195-6927-1 |pages=24–26, 29–34 |language=en |chapter=Dreamworlds of the Telescope |quote=But Mars holds little interest for the Marquise and the philosopher. The few data generated by seventeenth-century science suggest that Mars is so similar to Earth that it "isn't worth the trouble of stopping there". Martians, it would seem, are probably too much like us to afford many of the pleasures of novelty that other habitable worlds promised. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v3TDEDfEPdEC&pg=PA24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Stableford |first=Brian |title=The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction |date=2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-01657-5 |editor-last=James |editor-first=Edward |editor-link=Edward James (historian) |pages=16 |language=en |chapter=Science Fiction Before the Genre |author-link=Brian Stableford |editor-last2=Mendlesohn |editor-first2=Farah |editor-link2=Farah Mendlesohn |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=55wUHXiay-gC&pg=PA16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Udías |first=Agustín |date=2021 |title=Athanasius Kircher's Vision of the Universe: The Ecstatic Heavenly Journey |url=https://www.academia.edu/52517326 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220621030208/https://www.academia.edu/52517326/Athanasius_Kirchers_vision_of_the_universe_The_Ecstatic_heavenly_journey |archive-date=2022-06-21 |access-date=2022-06-21 |publisher=[[Universidad Complutense de Madrid]] |pages=11}}</ref> It also appears briefly in the 1686 work ''Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes'' (''[[Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds]]'') by [[Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle]] but is largely dismissed as uninteresting due to its presumed similarity to Earth.<ref name="CrossleyDreamworlds" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=Adam |title=The History of Science Fiction |date=2016 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-137-56957-8 |edition=2nd |series=Palgrave Histories of Literature |pages=65 |chapter=Seventeenth-Century SF |doi=10.1057/978-1-137-56957-8_4 |oclc=956382503 |author-link=Adam Roberts (British writer) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gq7LDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA65}}</ref> Mars is home to spirits in several works of the mid-1700s. In the anonymously published 1755 work ''[[A Voyage to the World in the Centre of the Earth]]'', it is a heavenly place where, among others, [[Alexander the Great]] enjoys a second life.<ref name="AshleyLostMars" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bleiler |first=Everett Franklin |title=[[Science-Fiction: The Early Years|Science-fiction, the Early Years: A Full Description of More Than 3,000 Science-fiction Stories from Earliest Times to the Appearance of the Genre Magazines in 1930: with Author, Title, and Motif Indexes]] |date=1990 |publisher=Kent State University Press |others=With the assistance of [[Richard Bleiler|Richard J. Bleiler]] |isbn=978-0-87338-416-2 |pages=780–781 |language=en |chapter=[Anonymous] |author-link=E. F. Bleiler |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KEZxhkG5eikC&pg=PA780}}</ref> In the 1758 work ''[[De Telluribus in Mundo Nostro Solari]]''<!-- Stableford refers to Swedenborg's earlier Arcana Cœlestia, an apparent error. --> (''Concerning the Earths in Our Solar System'') by [[Emanuel Swedenborg]], the planet is inhabited by beings characterized by honesty and moral virtue.<ref name="CrossleyDreamworlds" /><ref name="AshleyLostMars" /><ref name="StablefordMars" /> In the 1765 novel ''Voyage de Milord Céton dans les sept planètes'' (''[[The Voyages of Lord Seaton to the Seven Planets]]'') by [[Marie-Anne de Roumier-Robert]], reincarnated soldiers roam a war-torn landscape.<ref name="AshleyLostMars" /><ref name="StablefordMars">{{Cite book |last=Stableford |first=Brian |title=[[Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia]] |date=2006 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-415-97460-8 |pages=281–284 |language=en |chapter=Mars |author-link=Brian Stableford |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uefwmdROKTAC&pg=PA281}}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2022 |title=de Roumier-Robert, Marie-Anne |encyclopedia=[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]] |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/de_roumier-robert_marie-anne |access-date=2023-05-11 |edition=4th |author1-last=Clute |author1-first=John |author1-link=John Clute |editor1-last=Clute |editor1-first=John |editor1-link=John Clute |editor2-last=Langford |editor2-first=David |editor2-link=David Langford |editor3-last=Sleight |editor3-first=Graham |editor3-link=Graham Sleight}}</ref> It later appeared alongside the other planets throughout the 1800s. In the anonymously published 1839 novel ''[[A Fantastical Excursion into the Planets]]'', it is divided between the [[Roman gods]] [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]] and [[Vulcan (mythology)|Vulcan]].<ref name="CrossleyDreamworlds" /> In the anonymously published 1873 novel ''[[A Narrative of the Travels and Adventures of Paul Aermont among the Planets]]'', it is culturally rather similar to Earth—unlike the other planets.<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bleiler |first=Everett Franklin |title=[[Science-Fiction: The Early Years|Science-fiction, the Early Years: A Full Description of More Than 3,000 Science-fiction Stories from Earliest Times to the Appearance of the Genre Magazines in 1930: with Author, Title, and Motif Indexes]] |date=1990 |publisher=Kent State University Press |others=With the assistance of [[Richard Bleiler|Richard J. Bleiler]] |isbn=978-0-87338-416-2 |pages=5–6 |language=en |chapter=Aermont, Paul (unidentified pseudonym) |author-link=E. F. Bleiler |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KEZxhkG5eikC&pg=PA5}}</ref> In the 1883 novel ''[[Aleriel, or A Voyage to Other Worlds]]'' by [[W. S. Lach-Szyrma]], a visitor from [[Venus]] relates the details of Martian society to Earthlings.<ref name="CrossleyInventingANewMars">{{Cite book |last=Crossley |first=Robert |title=[[Imagining Mars: A Literary History]] |date=2011 |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |isbn=978-0-8195-6927-1 |pages=37–67 |language=en |chapter=Inventing a New Mars |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v3TDEDfEPdEC&pg=PA37}}</ref> The first work of [[science fiction]] set primarily on Mars was the 1880 novel ''[[Across the Zodiac]]'' by [[Percy Greg]].<ref name="HotakainenMarsFiction">{{Cite book |last=Hotakainen |first=Markus |title=Mars: From Myth and Mystery to Recent Discoveries |date=2010 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-0-387-76508-2 |pages=201–216 |language=en |chapter=Little Green Persons |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sPs3S5TYOEMC&pg=PA201}}</ref>

Mars became the most popular extraterrestrial location in fiction in the late 1800s as it became clear that the [[Moon]] was devoid of life.<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="MarkleyTurnOfTheCentury" /><ref name="CrossleyWells" /> A recurring theme in this time period was that of [[reincarnation]] on Mars, reflecting an upswing in interest in the [[paranormal]] in general and in relation to Mars in particular.<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="MarkleyTurnOfTheCentury" /><ref name="CrossleyParanormal">{{Cite book |last=Crossley |first=Robert |title=[[Imagining Mars: A Literary History]] |date=2011 |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |isbn=978-0-8195-6927-1 |pages=129–131, 138–140 |language=en |chapter=Mars and the Paranormal |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v3TDEDfEPdEC&pg=PA129}}</ref> Humans are reborn on Mars in the 1889 novel ''[[Uranie]]'' by [[Camille Flammarion]] as a form of [[afterlife]],<ref name="StablefordMars" /><ref name="MarkleyTurnOfTheCentury" /> the 1896 novel ''Daybreak: The Story of an Old World'' by {{Interlanguage link|James Cowan (journalist)|lt=James Cowan|qid=Q62658070}} depicts [[Jesus]] reincarnated there,<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="MarkleyTurnOfTheCentury" /> and the protagonist of the 1903 novel ''The Certainty of a Future Life in Mars'' by {{Interlanguage link|Louis Pope Gratacap|qid=Q18911244}} receives a message in [[Morse code]] from his deceased father on Mars.<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="MarkleyTurnOfTheCentury" /><ref name="CrossleyParanormal" /><ref name="Webster" /> Other [[supernatural]] phenomena include [[telepathy]] in Greg's ''Across the Zodiac'' and [[precognition]] in the 1886 short story "[[The Blindman's World]]" by [[Edward Bellamy]].<ref name="AshleyLostMars" /> 

Several recurring [[:wikt:trope|tropes]] were introduced during this time. One of them is Mars having a different [[local name]] such as Glintan in the 1889 novel ''[[Mr. Stranger's Sealed Packet]]'' by [[Hugh MacColl]], Oron in the 1892 novel ''[[Messages from Mars, By Aid of the Telescope Plant]]'' by Robert D. Braine, and [[Barsoom]] in the 1912 novel ''[[A Princess of Mars]]'' by [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]. This carried on in later works such as the 1938 novel ''[[Out of the Silent Planet]]'' by [[C. S. Lewis]], which calls the planet [[Malacandra]].<ref name="CrossleyBestTradition" /> Several stories also depict Martians speaking Earth languages and provide explanations of varying levels of preposterousness. In the 1899 novel ''Pharaoh's Broker'' by {{Interlanguage link|Ellsworth Douglass|qid=Q56033709}}, Martians speak [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] as Mars goes through the same historical phases as Earth with a delay of a few thousand years, here corresponding to the captivity of the Israelites in [[Biblical Egypt]]. In the 1901 novel ''[[A Honeymoon in Space]]'' by [[George Griffith]], they speak English because they acknowledge it as the "most convenient" language of all. In the 1920 novel ''[[A Trip to Mars (novel)|A Trip to Mars]]'' by Marcianus Rossi, the Martians speak [[Latin]] as a result of having been taught the language by a [[Roman people|Roman]] who was flung into space by the [[Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD|eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year 79]].<ref name="CrossleyMasculinistFantasies" /> Martians were often portrayed as existing within a [[racial hierarchy]]:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Seed |first=David |author-link=<!-- No article at present (April 2024); Wikidata Q112491049 --> |title=Science Fiction: A Very Short Introduction |date=2011 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-162010-2 |pages=28–29 |language=en |chapter=Alien Encounters |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zUOFPjeUcF8C&pg=PA28}}</ref> the 1894 novel ''[[Journey to Mars]]'' by [[Gustavus W. Pope]] features Martians with different skin colours (red, blue, and yellow) subject to strict [[anti-miscegenation laws]],<ref name="CrossleyMasculinistFantasies" /> Rossi's ''A Trip to Mars'' sees one portion of the Martian population described as "our inferior race, the same as your terrestrian [[Negro|negroes]]",<ref name="CrossleyMasculinistFantasies" /> and Burroughs's ''Barsoom'' series has red, green, yellow, and black Martians, a white race—responsible for the previous advanced civilization on Mars—having become extinct.<ref name="MarkleyLimitsOfImagination" /><ref name="NewellLamont" />

=== Means of travel ===
{{Further|Space travel in science fiction}}
The question of how humans would get to Mars was addressed in several ways: when not travelling there via spaceship as in the 1911 novel ''[[To Mars via the Moon: An Astronomical Story]]'' by Mark Wicks,<ref name="CrossleyUtopia" /> they might use a [[flying carpet]] as in the 1905 novel ''[[Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation]]'' by [[Edwin Lester Arnold]],<ref name="HotakainenMarsFiction" /><ref name="Webster" /><ref name="CrossleyMasculinistFantasies">{{Cite book |last=Crossley |first=Robert |title=[[Imagining Mars: A Literary History]] |date=2011 |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |isbn=978-0-8195-6927-1 |pages=149–167 |language=en |chapter=Masculinist Fantasies |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v3TDEDfEPdEC&pg=PA149}}</ref> a [[Balloon (aeronautics)|balloon]] as in ''A Narrative of the Travels and Adventures of Paul Aermont among the Planets'',<ref name="SFEMars" /> or an "aeroplane" as in the 1893 novel ''[[Unveiling a Parallel]]: A Romance'' by [[Alice Ilgenfritz Jones]] and {{Interlanguage link|Ella Robinson Merchant|ca}} (writing jointly as "Two Women of the West").<ref name="CrossleyUtopia" /> They might also visit in a dream as in the 1899 play ''[[A Message from Mars (play)|A Message from Mars]]'' by [[Richard Ganthony]],<ref name="CrossleyUtopia" /> [[Teleportation|teleport]] via [[astral projection]] as in Burroughs's ''A Princess of Mars'',<ref name="GreenwoodMars" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Harpold |first1=Terry |title=Visions of Mars: Essays on the Red Planet in Fiction and Science |date=2014 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-8470-6 |editor-last=Hendrix |editor-first=Howard V. |editor-link=Howard V. Hendrix |pages=32 |language=en |chapter=Where Is Verne's Mars? |quote=In Edgar Rice Burroughs's novels, John Carter travels to Barsoom by means of "astral projection," a way of moving the mind without moving the body. |editor-last2=Slusser |editor-first2=George |editor-link2=George Slusser |editor-last3=Rabkin |editor-first3=Eric S. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XjIglebU6CIC&pg=PA32}}</ref> or use a long-range communication device while staying on Earth as in Braine's ''Messages from Mars, By Aid of the Telescope Plant'' and the 1894 novel ''[[W nieznane światy]]'' (''To the Unknown Worlds'') by [[Polish science fiction]] writer [[Władysław Umiński]].<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="CrossleyInventingANewMars" /><ref name="MarsAntologiaPolskiejFantastyki" /><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2024<!-- 22 February --> |title=Umiński, Władysław |encyclopedia=[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]] |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/uminski_wladyslaw |access-date=2024-03-03 |edition=4th |author1-last=Konieczny |author1-first=Piotr |editor1-last=Clute |editor1-first=John |editor1-link=John Clute |editor2-first=David |editor2-last=Langford |editor2-link=David Langford |editor3-link=Graham Sleight |editor3-first=Graham |editor3-last=Sleight}}</ref> [[Anti-gravity]] is employed in several works including Greg's ''Across the Zodiac'', MacColl's ''Mr. Stranger's Sealed Packet'', and the 1890 novel ''[[A Plunge into Space]]'' by [[Robert Cromie]].<ref name="AshleyLostMars" /><ref name="Webster" /><ref name="Baxter">{{cite magazine |last=Baxter |first=Stephen |author-link=Stephen Baxter (author) |date=Autumn 1996 |title=Martian Chronicles: Narratives of Mars in Science and SF |magazine=[[Foundation (journal)|Foundation]] |publisher=[[Science Fiction Foundation]] |issue=68 |pages=5–16 |issn=0306-4964}}</ref> Occasionally, the method of transport is not addressed at all.<ref name="CrossleyUtopia" /> Some stories take the opposite approach of having Martians come to Earth; examples include the 1891 novel ''[[The Man from Mars: His Morals, Politics and Religion]]'' by Thomas Blot (pseudonym of William Simpson) and the 1893 novel ''[[A Cityless and Countryless World]]'' by [[Henry Olerich]].<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="CrossleyUtopia" />

=== Canals ===
{{Further|Martian canals}}
{{Quote box|quote=A [[Mercury in fiction#Tidal locking|clement twilight zone on a synchronously rotating Mercury]], a [[Venus in fiction#Jungle and swamp|swamp-and-jungle Venus]], and a canal-infested Mars, while all classic science-fiction devices, are all, in fact, based upon earlier misapprehensions by planetary scientists. |author=[[Carl Sagan]], 1978<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sagan |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Sagan |date=1978-05-28 |title=Growing up with Science Fiction |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/28/archives/growing-up-with.html |url-status=live |access-date=2022-07-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220712161346/https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/28/archives/growing-up-with.html |archive-date=2022-07-12 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> |width=400px}}
During the [[Opposition (astronomy)|opposition]] of Mars [[History of Mars observation#Martian canals|in 1877]], Italian astronomer [[Giovanni Schiaparelli]] announced the discovery of linear structures he dubbed {{lang|it|canali}} (literally ''[[Channel (geography)|channels]]'', but widely translated as ''[[canal]]s'') on the Martian surface.<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="CrossleyInventingANewMars" /> These were generally interpreted—by those who accepted their disputed existence—as waterways,<ref name="HotakainenCanals" /> and they made their earliest appearance in fiction in the anonymously published 1883 novel ''[[Politics and Life in Mars]]''<!-- Some sources give the title as "Politics and Life on Mars". This would appear to be an error, see https://books.google.com/books?id=dwtEAQAAMAAJ -->, where the Martians live in the water.<ref name="CrossleyUtopia">{{Cite book |last=Crossley |first=Robert |title=[[Imagining Mars: A Literary History]] |date=2011 |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |isbn=978-0-8195-6927-1 |pages=90–109 |language=en |chapter=Mars and Utopia |quote=In some cases, however, the method of passage to Mars is ignored altogether. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v3TDEDfEPdEC&pg=PA90}}</ref> Schiaparelli's observations, and perhaps the translation of {{lang|it|canali}} as "canals" rather than "channels", inspired [[Percival Lowell]] to speculate that these were artificial constructs and write a series of non-fiction books—''Mars'' in 1895, ''Mars and Its Canals'' in 1906, and ''Mars as the Abode of Life'' in 1908—popularizing the idea.<ref name="StablefordMars" /><ref name="ReadingMars" /><ref name="SFELowell" /><ref name="OldMars" /> Lowell posited that Mars was home to an ancient and advanced but dying or already dead Martian civilization who had constructed these vast canals for irrigation to survive on an increasingly arid planet,<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="StablefordMars" /><ref name="SFELowell" /> and this became an enduring vision of Mars that influenced writers across several decades.<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="ReadingMars" /><ref name="SFELowell" /><ref name="TheNewMartianNovel" /> [[Science fiction scholar]] [[Gary Westfahl]], drawing from the catalogue of [[early science fiction]] works compiled by [[E. F. Bleiler]] and [[Richard Bleiler]] in the reference works ''[[Science-Fiction: The Early Years]]'' from 1990 and ''[[Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years]]'' from 1998, concludes that Lowell thus "effectively set the boundaries for subsequent narratives about an inhabited Mars".<ref name="ReadingMars" />

Canals became a feature of romantic portrayals of Mars such as Burroughs's ''Barsoom'' series.<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="TheNewMartianNovel">{{Cite book |last=Crossley |first=Robert |title=Histories of the Future: Studies in Fact, Fantasy and Science Fiction |date=2000 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4039-1929-8 |editor-last=Sandison |editor-first=Alan |pages=152–167 |language=en |chapter=Sign, Symbol, Power: The New Martian Novel |quote=The three books [of Kim Stanley Robinson's ''Mars'' trilogy] indeed enact a forward-moving history, a utopia-in-progress, rather than an achieved ideal state. |editor-last2=Dingley |editor-first2=Robert |editor-link2=<!-- No article at present (June 2022); Senior Lecturer in English at the University of New England, NSW --> |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0p0YDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA152}}</ref><ref name="MillerMars">{{Cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Joseph D. |title=Visions of Mars: Essays on the Red Planet in Fiction and Science |date=2014 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-8470-6 |editor-last=Hendrix |editor-first=Howard V. |editor-link=Howard V. Hendrix |pages=17–19, 26–27 |language=en |chapter=Mars of Science, Mars of Dreams |author-link=<!-- No article at present (March 2022); Ph.D. in 1979 from the University of Texas and associate professor in the Department of Cell and Neurobiology at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California --> |editor-last2=Slusser |editor-first2=George |editor-link2=George Slusser |editor-last3=Rabkin |editor-first3=Eric S. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XjIglebU6CIC&pg=PA17}}</ref> Early works that did not depict any waterways on Mars typically explained the appearance of straight lines on the surface in some other way, such as [[simoom]]s or large tracts of vegetation.<ref name="CrossleyInventingANewMars" /> Although they quickly fell out of favour as a serious scientific theory, largely as a result of higher-quality telescopic observations by astronomers such as [[E. M. Antoniadi]] failing to detect them,<ref name="HotakainenCanals" /><ref name="TheNewMartianNovel" /><ref name="MillerMars" /> canals continued to make sporadic appearances in fiction for a while in works such as the 1936 novel ''[[Planet Plane]]'' by [[John Wyndham]], the 1938 novel ''Out of the Silent Planet'' by C. S. Lewis, and the 1949 novel ''[[Red Planet (novel)|Red Planet]]'' by [[Robert A. Heinlein]].<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="StablefordMars" /><ref name="CrossleyBestTradition" /><ref name="TheNewMartianNovel" /> Said Lewis in response to criticism from biologist [[J. B. S. Haldane]], "The canals in Mars are there not because I believe in them but because they are part of the popular tradition."<ref name="CrossleyBestTradition" /><ref name="TheNewMartianNovel" /> Eventually, the [[Mars flyby|flyby of Mars]] by [[Mariner 4]] in 1965 conclusively determined that the canals were mere [[optical illusion]]s.<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="StablefordMars" /><ref name="SFELowell">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2022 |title=Lowell, Percival |encyclopedia=[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]] |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/lowell_percival |access-date=2023-07-14 |edition=4th |author1-last=Westfahl |author1-first=Gary |author1-link=Gary Westfahl |editor1-last=Clute |editor1-first=John |editor1-link=John Clute |editor2-last=Langford |editor2-first=David |editor2-link=David Langford |editor3-last=Sleight |editor3-first=Graham |editor3-link=Graham Sleight}}</ref>

=== Utopias ===
[[File:A Plunge into Space, cover image.jpg|alt=Book cover for A Plunge into Space|thumb|''[[A Plunge into Space]]'', an 1890 piece of [[utopian fiction]] set on Mars]]
Because [[History of Solar System formation and evolution hypotheses|early versions]] of the [[nebular hypothesis]] of [[Formation and evolution of the Solar System|Solar System formation]] held that the planets were formed sequentially starting at the outermost planets, some authors envisioned Mars as an older and more mature world than the Earth, and it became the setting for many [[Utopian and dystopian fiction|utopian works of fiction]].<ref name="HotakainenMarsFiction" /><ref name="MarkleyTurnOfTheCentury">{{Cite book |last=Markley |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Markley |title=Dying Planet: Mars in Science and the Imagination |date=2005 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-8727-5 |pages=115–149 |language=en |chapter='Different Beyond the Most Bizarre Imaginings of Nightmare': Mars in Science Fiction, 1880–1913 |quote=Mars was defined by the ecological constraints dictated by the nebular hypothesis. The planet dominated fantasies of a plurality of worlds during this period [...] If Darwin and Lowell were correct, then the inhabitants of this older world should have evolved beyond nineteenth-century humanity—biologically, culturally, politically, and perhaps morally as well. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=loalUL6vakoC&pg=PA115}}</ref><ref name="GreenwoodMars">{{Cite book |last=Westfahl |first=Gary |title=[[The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders]] |date=2005 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-32952-4 |editor-last=Westfahl |editor-first=Gary |editor-link=Gary Westfahl |pages=499–501 |language=en |chapter=Mars |author-link=Gary Westfahl |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/greenwoodencyclo0002unse_f3t4/page/498/mode/2up}}</ref><ref name="HotakainenCanals">{{Cite book |last=Hotakainen |first=Markus |title=Mars: From Myth and Mystery to Recent Discoveries |date=2010 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-0-387-76508-2 |pages=27–41 |language=en |chapter=Martian Canal Engineers |quote=In those days the Solar System was thought to have been born by the accretion of a rotating cloud of gas and dust according to a "nebular hypothesis" proposed by the German Immanuel Kant and developed further by the Frenchman Pierre Simon de Laplace. The main difference with the current theory is that the cloud was thought to have condensed and cooled down starting from the outer edge so that the outer planets are older than the inner ones and thus evolved further. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sPs3S5TYOEMC&pg=PA27}}</ref> This genre made up the majority of stories about Mars in the late 1800s and continued to be represented through the early 1900s.<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="StablefordMars" /> The earliest of these works was the 1880 novel ''Across the Zodiac'' by Percy Greg.<ref name="MarkleyTurnOfTheCentury" /> The 1887 novel ''[[Bellona's Husband: A Romance]]''<!-- Several sources give the title as "Bellona's Bridegroom". This is an error, see https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/genone_hudor --> by [[William James Roe]] portrays a Martian society where everyone ages backwards.<ref name="CrossleyInventingANewMars" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Slusser |first1=George |title=Visions of Mars: Essays on the Red Planet in Fiction and Science |date=2014 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-8470-6 |editor-last=Hendrix |editor-first=Howard V. |editor-link=Howard V. Hendrix |pages=59 |language=en |chapter=The Martians Among Us: Wells and the Strugatskys |quote=a number of popular novels saw Mars as the perfect place for a utopian society. Examples are [...] ''Bellona's Bridegroom: ''[sic]'' A Romance'' |author-link=George Slusser |editor-last2=Slusser |editor-first2=George |editor-link2=George Slusser |editor-last3=Rabkin |editor-first3=Eric S. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XjIglebU6CIC&pg=PA59}}</ref> The 1890 novel ''A Plunge into Space'' by Robert Cromie depicts a society that is so advanced that life there has become dull and, as a result, the humans who visit succumb to boredom and leave ahead of schedule—to the approval of the Martians, who have come to view them as a corrupting influence.<ref name="CrossleyInventingANewMars" /><ref name="MarkleyTurnOfTheCentury" /> The 1892 novel ''Messages from Mars, By Aid of the Telescope Plant'' by Robert D. Braine is unusual in portraying a completely rural Martian utopia without any cities.<ref name="CrossleyInventingANewMars" /> An early work of [[feminist science fiction]], Jones's and Merchant's 1893 novel ''Unveiling a Parallel: A Romance'', depicts a man from Earth visiting two [[egalitarian society|egalitarian societies]] on Mars: one where women have adopted male vices and one where equality has brought out everyone's best qualities.<ref name="MarkleyTurnOfTheCentury" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Romaine |first=Suzanne |title=Communicating Gender |date=1998 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-1-135-67944-6 |pages=331 |language=en |chapter=Writing Feminist Futures |author-link=Suzanne Romaine |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ai95AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA331}}</ref> The 1897 novel ''[[Auf zwei Planeten]]'' (''Two Planets'') by [[German science fiction]] pioneer [[Kurd Lasswitz]] contrasts a utopian society on Mars with that society's [[Colonialism|colonialist]] actions on Earth. The book was translated into several languages and was highly influential in [[Continental Europe]], including inspiring rocket scientist [[Wernher von Braun]], but did not receive a translation into English until the 1970s, which limited its impact in the [[Anglosphere]].<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="MarkleyTurnOfTheCentury" /><ref name="CrossleyUtopia" /> The 1910 novel ''[[The Man from Mars, Or Service for Service's Sake]]'' by {{Interlanguage link|Henry Wallace Dowding|qid=Q65952198}} portrays a civilization on Mars based on a variation on Christianity where woman was created first, in contrast to the conventional [[Genesis creation narrative]].<ref name="CrossleyUtopia" /> [[Hugo Gernsback]] depicted a science-based utopia on Mars in the 1915–1917 [[Serial (literature)|serial]] ''[[Baron Münchhausen's New Scientific Adventures]]''<!-- Several variations on the title exist. This is the title under which it was originally serialized in Gernsback's The Electrical Experimenter, see https://archive.org/details/Electrical_Experimenter_1915_05/page/n3/mode/2up -->,<ref name="ReadingMars" /> but by and large, [[World War I]] spelled the end for utopian Martian fiction.<ref name="CrossleyBestTradition" />

In [[Russian science fiction]], Mars became the setting for [[Socialism|socialist]] utopias and revolutions.<ref name="DibsOnTheRedStar">{{Cite book |last1=Yudina |first1=Ekaterina |title=Visions of Mars: Essays on the Red Planet in Fiction and Science |date=2014 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-8470-6 |editor-last=Hendrix |editor-first=Howard V. |editor-link=Howard V. Hendrix |pages=51–55 |language=en |chapter=Dibs on the Red Star: The Bolsheviks and Mars in the Russian Literature of the Early Twentieth Century |editor-last2=Slusser |editor-first2=George |editor-link2=George Slusser |editor-last3=Rabkin |editor-first3=Eric S. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XjIglebU6CIC&pg=PA51}}</ref><ref name="WandererAmHimmelMars" /> The 1908 novel ''[[Red Star (novel)|Red Star]]'' (''Красная звезда'') by [[Alexander Bogdanov]] is the primary example of this, and inspired many others.<ref name="DibsOnTheRedStar" /> ''Red Star'' portrays a socialist society on Mars from the perspective of a Russian [[Bolsheviks|Bolshevik]] invited there, where the [[Class conflict|struggle between classes]] has been replaced with a common struggle against the harshness of nature.<ref name="MarkleyTurnOfTheCentury" /><ref name="CrossleyUtopia" /> The 1913 prequel ''[[Engineer Menni]]'' (''Инженер Мэнни''), also by Bogdanov, is set several centuries earlier and serves as an [[origin story]] for the Martian society by detailing the events of the revolution that brought it about.<ref name="MarkleyTurnOfTheCentury" /><ref name="CrossleyUtopia" /><ref name="DibsOnTheRedStar" /><ref name="AshgateExtraterrestrial">{{Cite book |last1=Eaton |first1=Lance |title=The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters |last2=Carlson |first2=Laurie |last3=Maguire |first3=Muireann |date=2014 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |isbn=978-1-4724-0060-4 |editor-last=Weinstock |editor-first=Jeffrey Andrew |editor-link=Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock |pages=219, 226 |language=en |chapter=Extraterrestrial |author-link2=<!-- No article at present (June 2022); Professor of English at North Shore Community College in MA, Ph.D. in American Literature at the University of Rhode Island, and middle name Ann per https://web.uri.edu/gws/meet/laurie-carlson/ --> |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uly8AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA219}}</ref> Another prominent example is the 1922 novel ''[[Aelita (novel)|Aelita]]'' (''Аэлита'') by [[Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy]]—along with its [[Aelita|1924 film adaptation]], the earliest Soviet science fiction film—which adapts the story of the [[1905 Russian Revolution]] to the Martian surface.<ref name="MarkleyTurnOfTheCentury" /><ref name="GreenwoodMars" /><ref name="JennerMarvin" /> ''Red Star'' and ''Aelita'' are in some ways opposites. ''Red Star'', written between the failed revolution in 1905 and the successful [[Russian Revolution|1917 Russian Revolution]], sees Mars as a socialist utopia from which Earth can learn, whereas in ''Aelita'' the socialist revolution is instead exported from the early [[Soviet Russia]] to Mars. ''Red Star'' depicts a [[utopia]] on Mars, in contrast to the [[dystopia]] initially found on Mars in ''Aelita''—though both are [[Technocracy|technocracies]]. ''Red Star'' is a sincere and idealistic work of traditional utopian fiction, whereas ''Aelita'' is a [[parody]].<ref name="CrossleyBestTradition" /><ref name="DibsOnTheRedStar" /><ref name="AshgateExtraterrestrial" />

=== ''The War of the Worlds'' ===
{{Further|The War of the Worlds}}
The 1897 novel ''The War of the Worlds'' by [[H. G. Wells]], which depicts an [[alien invasion]] of [[Earth]] by Martians in search of resources, represented a turning point in Mars fiction. Rather than being portrayed as essentially human, [[Martian (The War of the Worlds)|Wells's Martians]] have a completely inhuman appearance and cannot be communicated with. Rather than being noble creatures to emulate, the Martians dispassionately kill and exploit the Earthlings like livestock—a critique of contemporary [[British colonialism]] in general and its devastating effects on the [[Aboriginal Tasmanians]] in particular.<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="AshleyLostMars" /><ref name="MarkleyTurnOfTheCentury" /><ref name="CrossleyWells">{{Cite book |last=Crossley |first=Robert |title=[[Imagining Mars: A Literary History]] |date=2011 |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |isbn=978-0-8195-6927-1 |pages=110–128 |language=en |chapter=H. G. Wells and the Great Disillusionment |quote=But in the last decades of the nineteenth century, a discernible shift of locale took place. Fictional goings and comings between Earth and Mars took precedence over all other forms of the interplanetary romance. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v3TDEDfEPdEC&pg=PA110}}</ref> The novel set the tone for the majority of the science-fictional depictions of Mars in the decades that followed in portraying the Martians as malevolent and Mars as a dying world.<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="StablefordMars" /><ref name="GreenwoodMars" /> Beyond Martian fiction, the novel had a large influence on the broader science fiction genre,<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="JennerDeathStars">{{Cite book |last=Jenner |first=Nicky |title=4th Rock from the Sun: The Story of Mars |date=2017 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4729-2251-9 |pages=63–82 |language=en |chapter=Death Stars and Little Green Martians |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=od7oDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT65}}</ref><ref name="ScienceFictionAndEcology">{{Cite book |last=Stableford |first=Brian |author-link=Brian Stableford |title=A Companion to Science Fiction |date=2005 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-470-79701-3 |editor-last=Seed |editor-first=David |editor-link=<!-- No article at present (April 2024); Wikidata Q112491049 --> |pages=129, 135–136 |language=en |chapter=Science Fiction and Ecology |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PiphRocVYRwC&pg=PA129}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Webb |first=Stephen |author-link=Stephen Webb (scientist) |url= |title=All the Wonder that Would Be: Exploring Past Notions of the Future |date=2017 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-51759-9 |series=Science and Fiction |pages=104 |language=en |chapter=Aliens |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-51759-9_4 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TVPJDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA104}}</ref> and inspired rocket scientist [[Robert H. Goddard]].<ref name="Webb" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Science fiction meets science fact: how film inspired the Moon landing |url=https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/science-fiction-meets-science-fact-how-film-inspired-moon-landing |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210725122048/https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/science-fiction-meets-science-fact-how-film-inspired-moon-landing |archive-date=2021-07-25 |access-date=2022-08-20 |website=[[Royal Museums Greenwich]] |language=en}}</ref> According to science fiction essayist [[Bud Webster]], "It's impossible to overstate the importance of ''The War of the Worlds'' and the influence it's had over the years."<ref name="Webster" /> 

[[File:Orson Welles War of the Worlds 1938.jpg|alt=Photograph of Orson Welles surrounded by reporters|thumb|[[Orson Welles]] interviewed by reporters after his [[The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)|1938 radio adaptation]] of ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' caused a panic.]]
An unauthorized sequel—''[[Edison's Conquest of Mars]]'' by [[Garrett P. Serviss]]—was released in 1898,<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="StablefordMars" /><ref name="Roberts1850–1900">{{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=Adam |title=The History of Science Fiction |date=2016 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-137-56957-8 |edition=2nd |series=Palgrave Histories of Literature |pages=174, 177 |chapter=SF 1850–1900: Mobility and Mobilisation |doi=10.1057/978-1-137-56957-8_7 |oclc=956382503 |quote=[...] ''Edison's Conquest of Mars'' (1898) by Garrett P Serviss which was written as a more upbeat American sequel—unauthorised, naturally—to H G Wells's Martian invasion story ''The War of the Worlds'' |author-link=Adam Roberts (British writer) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gq7LDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA174}}</ref> as was a parody by {{Interlanguage link|Charles L. Graves|qid=Q16944166}} and [[E. V. Lucas]] titled ''{{Interlanguage link|The War of the Wenuses|qid=Q124090563}}''.<ref name="CrossleyInventingANewMars" /><ref name="Westfahl2022Venus" /> Wells's story gained further notoriety in 1938 when [[The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)|a radio adaptation]] by [[Orson Welles]] in the style of a news broadcast was mistaken for a real newscast by some listeners in the US, leading to panic;<ref name="SFEMars" /><ref name="StablefordMars" /><ref name="HotakainenMarsFiction" /><ref name="MarkleyLimitsOfImagination">{{Cite book |last=Markley |first=Robert |title=Dying Planet: Mars in Science and the Imagination |date=2005 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-8727-5 |pages=182–229 |language=en |chapter=Mars at the Limits of Imagination: The Dying Planet from Burroughs to Dick |author-link=Robert Markley |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=loalUL6vakoC&pg=PA203}}</ref> less famously, a 1949 broadcast in [[Quito]], Ecuador, also resulted in a riot.<ref name="Baxter" /><ref name="JennerDeathStars" /><ref name="HartzmanMarsInvadesPopCulture">{{Cite book |last=Hartzman |first=Marc |title=The Big Book of Mars: From Ancient Egypt to The Martian, A Deep-Space Dive into Our Obsession with the Red Planet |date=2020 |publisher=Quirk Books |isbn=978-1-68369-210-2 |pages=148–201 |language=en |chapter=Mars Invades Pop Culture |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4W-2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA157}}</ref> Several [[List of works based on The War of the Worlds#Sequels by other authors|sequels and adaptations by other authors]] have been written since, including the 1950 [[Superman]] comic book story "[[Black Magic on Mars]]" by [[Alvin Schwartz (comics)|Alvin Schwartz]]<!-- Westfahl (2022) incorrectly gives the name as "Alan" Schwartz --> and [[Wayne Boring]] where Orson Welles tries to warn Earth of an impending Martian invasion but is dismissed,<ref name="WestfahlMars" /><ref name="ReadingMars" /> the 1968 novel ''[[The Second Invasion from Mars]]'' (''Второе нашествие марсиан'') by [[Soviet science fiction]] writers [[Arkady and Boris Strugatsky]] where the Martians forgo military conquest in favour of infiltration,<ref name="ReadingMars" /> the 1975 novel ''[[Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds]]'' by [[Manly Wade Wellman]] and {{Interlanguage link|Wade Wellman|qid=Q121745664}} and the 1976 novel ''[[The Second War of the Worlds]]'' by [[George H. Smith (fiction author)|George H. Smith]] which both combine Wells's story with [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s [[Sherlock Holmes]] characters,<ref name="HotakainenMarsFiction" /><ref name="PringleTheMartians">{{Cite book |title=The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: The Definitive Illustrated Guide |date=1996 |publisher=Carlton |isbn=1-85868-188-X |editor-last=Pringle |editor-first=David |editor-link=David Pringle |pages=269–270 |language=en |chapter=The Martians |oclc=38373691 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/ultimateencyclop0000unse_a8c7/page/269/mode/2up}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Butler |first=Andrew M. |title=Solar Flares: Science Fiction in the 1970s |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-1-84631-834-4 |pages=54 |language=en |chapter=Big Dumb Objects: Science Fiction as Self-Parody |author-link=Andrew M. Butler |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qz4iCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA54}}</ref> the 1976 novel ''[[The Space Machine]]'' by [[Christopher Priest (novelist)|Christopher Priest]] which combines the story of ''The War of the Worlds'' with that of Wells's 1895 novel ''[[The Time Machine]]'',<ref name="HotakainenMarsFiction" /><ref name="PringleTheMartians" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mann |first=George |title=The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |date=2001 |publisher=Carroll & Graf Publishers |isbn=978-0-7867-0887-1 |pages=243 |language=en |chapter=Priest, Christopher |author-link=George Mann (writer) |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/mammothencyclope00mann/page/243/mode/2up}}</ref> the 2002 short story "[[Ulla, Ulla]]" by [[Eric Brown (writer)|Eric Brown]] which reframes the invasion as a desperate escape by a peaceful race from a dying world,<ref name="HotakainenMarsFiction" /><ref name="MarkleyTransformingMars" /> and the 2005 novel ''[[The Martian War]]'' by [[Kevin J. Anderson]] where Wells himself goes to Mars and instigates a [[slave uprising]].<ref name="CrossleyAlternativeVisions" /> The authorized 2017 sequel novel ''[[The Massacre of Mankind]]'' by [[Stephen Baxter (author)|Stephen Baxter]] is set in 1920 in an [[alternate timeline]] where the events of the original novel caused World War I never to happen by making Britain war-weary and isolationist, and the Martians attack yet again after inoculating themselves against the microbes that were their downfall the first time.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2020 |title=Sequels by Other Hands |encyclopedia=[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]] |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/sequels_by_other_hands |access-date=2022-06-06 |edition=4th |author1-last=Langford |author1-first=David |author1-link=David Langford |editor1-last=Clute |editor1-first=John |editor1-link=John Clute |editor2-last=Langford |editor2-first=David |editor2-link=David Langford |editor3-last=Sleight |editor3-first=Graham |editor3-link=Graham Sleight}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Alexander |first=Niall |date=2017-01-19 |title=Graphic Geometry: The Massacre of Mankind by Stephen Baxter |url=https://www.tor.com/2017/01/19/book-review-the-massacre-of-mankind-by-stephen-baxter/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221003140414/https://www.tor.com/2017/01/19/book-review-the-massacre-of-mankind-by-stephen-baxter/ |archive-date=2022-10-03 |access-date=2023-02-09 |website=[[Tor.com]] |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Dihal |first=Kanta |author-link=Kanta Dihal |date=2017-02-12 |title=Review: ''The Massacre of Mankind'' |url=https://theoxfordculturereview.com/2017/02/12/review-the-massacre-of-mankind/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220927102143/https://theoxfordculturereview.com/2017/02/12/review-the-massacre-of-mankind/ |archive-date=2022-09-27 |access-date=2023-02-09 |website=The Oxford Culture Review |language=en}}</ref>