Burroughs' "The Land That Time Forgot" (1918)

A. C. McClurg & Co. 1924, J. Allen St. John

In 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs (creator of Tarzan and John Carter of Mars) wrote a sequence of  "lost world" stories for Blue Book Magazine (Aug, Oct, Dec 1918) which builds on some of the "dinosaurs-in-the-present" concepts made popular in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel The Lost World. Later published in book form as The Land That Time Forgot (1924), Burroughs' three-story saga describes the discovery of Caspak, a small South Seas (or Antarctic) continent surrounded by a cliff barrier. Within Caspak exists a unique tropical ecosystem populated by coexisting forms of life from past and future evolutionary history, including dinosaurs, cave-men and genetically-bred flying humanoids (although on a technological level all of the inhabitants remain on a pre-industrial level). 

Ace Books 1963, Roy G. Krenkel

The Caspak Trilogy

The first installment of the Caspak sequence, "The Land That Time Forgot", opens with the sinking of an American passenger ship by a German U-boat during World War I. Led by an engineer named Bowen Tyler,  survivors of the freighter (as well as from a torpedoed British tug) manage to surprise and commandeer the U-boat. The combined crews then wander around the Pacific until eventually stumbling across an underwater passage leading to Caspak's inland sea. There, the multinational group are forced to put their political differences aside in order to survive the dangers of this strange prehistoric land. When Tyler's female colleague Lys is abducted by one of the primitive natives, he goes on a solitary quest deep into Caspak's northwestern region in order to rescue her.

Amazing Stories Feb 1927, Frank R. Paul

The second installment, "The People That Time Forgot", describes a second expedition to Caspak led by Tyler's childhood friend Tom Billings, who had come across a "message in a bottle" thrown into the sea by Tyler at the end of the previous installment. After crossing Caspak's cliff perimeter in a seaplane, he promptly crashes in the southeastern region of the island. Fortunately, he quickly befriends a female native named Ajor, and together they make their way north along the eastern side of Caspak. As they navigate their way through encounters with various tribes of humans exhibiting more and more advanced evolutionary states, Billings ends up caught in a war between two of Caspak's more advanced tribes.

Canaveral Press 1962, Mahlon Blaine

The final volume, "Out Of Time's Abyss", follows Bradley, an English member of Tyler's first expedition who is abducted by a flying humanoid (Caspak's most evolved form). After several adventures in the labyrinthine island city of these bizarre "Wieroo", Bradley escapes with a female prisoner and together they settle down into a peaceful existence in the wilderness. However, when the Wieroo eventually close in, he and his comely companion are forced to escape further west, where they eventually get the opportunity to settle the score with some old enemies.

Temps Futurs 1982, Jean-Claude Gal

Although Burroughs' novel is written from the viewpoints of three different narrators, it is essentially a romantic survival epic describing the exploits of three modern men (of 1916) amongst the accelerated-evolution world of Caspak and its various creatures and tribes. 

(1973 Map)

The World of Caspak

Burroughs' lost world is unique from most in that it manages to juxtapose life from different ages of the Earth in territorial "zones" separated by landscape formations such as cliffs or bodies of water. While the southern-most area is dominated by dinosaurs and cave-men, the middle latitudes feature exotic prehistoric mammalian fauna such as sabre-tooth tigers and giant bears. The northern region is dominated by wildlife closer to the outside world and is populated by Homo sapiens with metal-working skills. The humanoids of Caspak can be divided into the following types (each with their own territory, from souh to north):

Alu: Speechless cave-men
Bo-lu: Neanderthals with clubs (can speak)
Sto-lu: Hatchet-wielding, white skinned primitives living in simple caves
Band-lu: Cro-Magnon's with spears 
Kro-lu: Archers, living in huts
Galu: Homo sapiens skilled with rope and wear metallic ornamentation
Wieroo: Cadaverous winged, male humanoids who live in cities on the island of Oo-oh, prey on the Galu and worship skulls

Additionally, "the Caspakian passes, during a single existence, through the various stages of evolution, or at least many of them, through which the human race has passed during the countless ages since life first stirred upon a new world". In other words, there is only one kind of inhabitant in Caspak, but each individual somehow metamorphoses (like a butterfly) from one species to another according to an evolutionary process paralleling that of the outside world from the last million years. Life begins when females (of all evolutionary levels and species) lays eggs which are then washed downstream to the southern-most body of water. There they hatch into tadpoles, after which a sequence of physical changes occur which transform them into land animals, then primitive humanoids and finally into Homo sapiens. For this reason, there are no human children or elderly on Caspak, as young Caspakians start out as tadpoles and die as adult Homo sapians.

Tandem 1975

At one point in the dim past, a group of these Homo sapiens (Galu) had continued to evolve through a process of controlled breeding to become the winged Wieroo. Additionally, the most-valued trait among the Galu and the Wieroo is the ability to give birth to a living child rather than lay eggs. This evolutionary stage is considered the "highest form" of life in Caspak, and females with this ability are fought over or abducted by the ruthless Wieroo (who enforce a form of harem slavery on their captives).

Ace Books 1973, Frank Frazetta

Synopses

I. The Land That Time Forgot (Bowen J. Tyler’s Manuscript)

1. A tourist in Greenland discovers a floating thermos containing an odd manuscript: The narrator, an American submarine engineer named Bowen Tyler, describes being attacked by a German U-Boat while onboard an American liner in 1916. The liner goes down, but Tyler manages to gain the temporary safety of a single lifeboat. He also manages to save his Airedale terrier Nobs and an attractive female named Lys.
2. The three survivors are soon rescued by an English tug roaming the area. However, in short order the German sub attacks the tug as well. Although the tug's captain is killed, Tyler and the crew charge the sub and board it before it can destroy them. After a heated hand-to-hand battle, the sub is captured, although their own tug sinks. By an incredible coincidence, it turns out that Lys' German fiancé Baron von Schoenvorts (from an arranged marriage) is in command of the sub. Due to his familiarity with submarines, Tyler is made the new commander of the captured U-boat. He tries to reach England with it, but English ships immediately fire on the U-boat as soon as it approaches, believing it to be a German invader.
3. Several acts of sabotage lead Tyler to accuse Lys of helping her German fiancé to destroy the sub, but she storms off angrily. While trying to gain supplies from a Swedish ship, Tyler's crew are surprised by the German prisoners and von Schoenvorts retakes command, after which the U-boat rendezvous with a German freighter. However, Lys liberates Tyler from his chains, allowing him to fire the sub's torpedoes at the German freighter. While the Germans are still stunned by this development, Tyler's crew retakes the U-boat once again. Afterwards, Lys tells Tyler that she is innocent of collaboration with the Germans. 

4. 

   (Joe Jusko)
   

   When Tyler suspects one of his other crewmen of sabotaging the compass, he is nearly drowned as the traitor traps him outside while submerging the sub. However, Lys eventually shoots the traitor and Tyler is saved. The sub soon comes across an Antarctic continent rising up from the sea on high cliffs. The men believe that this place might be the mythical lost continent of Caprona. Following an underwater tunnel of freshwater current, they eventually surface behind the cliff barrier perimeter to discover a world of exotic plants and animals - including dinosaurs. With great difficulty, they kill a plesiosaur and eat it.
   
5. Tyler suspects that Caprona had once been a mountain but, due to an eruption, its central region had been blown away, leaving a gigantic continental crater shielded from the surrounding cold environment by the crater walls. After anchoring in a natural harbor, Tyler's men form a truce with their German prisoners and then head inland to search for meat. They soon encounter and kill an allosaurus by shooting it in the heart.
6. Upon returning to the beach area, Tyler's party is attacked by hundreds of savages made up of various forms of cave-men and ape-men. They repel them with guns and capture one of them (a Bo-lu named "Ahm"). Now with plentiful food and water, the visitors create a base camp ( "Fort Dinosaur") with a defensible perimeter wall. As weeks pass, Tyler and Lys learn Ahm's language, while an expedition of five (led by a man named Bradley) heads further inland and north to do some exploring. One day, the Germans discover an oil geyser near Fort Dinosaur, which gives the crew hope that they might use it to refuel the U-boat in order to return to civilization.
7. As the Germans proceed to refine the oil, Tyler and Lys fall in love. However, one day Lys goes missing, apparently abducted by ape-men during the night. At the same time, the Germans finish refueling the sub and begin to sail away, but not before shelling Fort Dinosaur as a parting gesture against the British sailors. Nonetheless, Tyler heads into the interior in search of Lys.
   
8. After heading north, Tyler discovers a tribe of white-skinned hatchet-armed savages (Sto-lu) more evolved than the Bo-lu found in the south. He finds Lys among them, about to be forced into a primitive "marriage ceremony" with their leader. With the aid of his pistol, Tyler frees Lys and makes a temporary camp in the caves nearby. After making a truce with the Sto-lu, he is told that these savages will eventually go north to "become Galus". One day while hunting, Tyler gets lost, and finds a grave marker indicating the body of one of the members of Bradley's exploration party.
9. Tyler is then attacked by some spear-wielding savages (Band-lu), again more evolved than any he had met before. He eventually befriends them (somewhat) and helps one of the females go further north, as she has apparently evolved to a level more suitable to those of the north (a Kro-lu). After returning south, Tyler finds that his Sto-lu encampment with Lys has been destroyed and can find no survivors. After futilely searching for his missing love, he ends up back in the southern region of Caspak and makes a new camp at the top of the cliff barrier overlooking the outside ocean, hoping to someday catch sight of a passing ship.
10. One day, he spots Lys at the bottom of the cliff. After saving her from some hyaenadons (with his rifle), Tyler is attacked by one of the Sto-lu savages who had tried to claim Lys after Tyler had left the tribe. Tyler eventually kills his rival in hand-to-hand combat, after which he and Lys resign themselves to a primitive life on Caspak.

A. C. McClurg & Co. 1924, J. Allen St. John

 II. The People That Time Forgot (The Adventures of Thomas Billings)

1. After Bowen Tyler's manuscript is sent back to his family estate, Tylers' childhood friend Thomas Billings organizes a rescue mission equipped with a seaplane. When his ship eventually reaches the cliffs of Caprona, Billings alone flies his plane up to the cliffs and beyond in order to scout the region.
2. While engaging in a foolhardy aerial duel with a pterodactyl, Billings crashes his plane in a tree. After climbing down, he saves a young girl (Ajor, apparently a near-civilized Galu) from one of the speechless ape-men (an Alu) with his rifle. Together, they find refuge in a cave and the eager Ajor begins to teach Billings the language of Caspak. At one point during the night, a gigantic bear tries to attack them, but Billings holds it off with fire until a sabre-toothed tiger attacks the bear from without.
3. The pair soon head further north and make camp in a cave inside a cliff. Later while looking for firewood, Billings is captured by some Band-lu and left as a sacrifice to a giant reptile living in a cave complex. Fortunately, the brave Ajor finds and frees him, and together they head deeper into the cave labyrinth to find escape. After several days of hazardous, lightless exploration, they emerge into the open air.
4. While searching for a path down to the valley below, the pair are halted by a Band-lu savage named To-mar. When Billings saves To-mar's mate from a cave-lion with his rifle, he pledges friendship to the man. For a time, To-mar and his mate So-al accompany Billings and Ajor north towards Galus.

5. 

   Ace Books 1977, Maurice S. Carter

   One day, Ajor tells her friends that she is the daughter of Jor, the chief of the Galus, and one of the few Galus not born from an egg. Due to her unique status (as a child-bearer), she had been promised to an ambitious Galu warrior named Du-seen whom she despised. After escaping from the Galus, she had been captured by a Wieroo, a flying humanoid even further up the evolutionary scale than the Galus. Later, while the Wieroo had been occupied with some pterodactyls, Ajor had managed to escape her abductor, after which she had run into Billings. When the quartet reaches the borders of Kro-lu, Billings and Ajor part from To-mar and So-al so that they can find their way to the Kro-lu on their own. Billings and Ajor soon encounter a Kro-lu warrior named Chal-az, held prisoner by some Band-lu. Billings saves him (and amazingly saves Ajor's life by shooting down a spear in mid-air), and afterwards is introduced to the Kro-lu people. Although incurring the wrath of their chief, Al-tan, Billings and Ajor are welcomed into the Kro-lu's hut-village. There they learn that Du-seen has been seeking Kro-lu allies with which to overthrow the leader of the Galus, Ajor's father Jor.
   
6. In the village, Billings and Ajor finally declare their love for one another. Later, when called to a meeting with Al-tan, Billings is reunited with Nobs, Tyler's dog. Du-seen is also at the meeting (and claiming ownership of Nobs), and after an argument orders the Kro-lu to slay Billings. With Nobs' help he escapes and finds refuge with Chal-az. After Billings learns that Ajor has escaped into the forest, Billings resolves to go after her, disguised as a Galu.
7. After climbing his way to the southern edge of the Galus' territory, Billings captures a horse and names it Ace. Several days pass in which he trains the horse and searches for Ajor with no results. Finally, he spots Ajor fleeing from Du-seen and his Galus and attempts to rescue her. Unfortunately, after sweeping her onto Ace with him, Billings and Ajor become trapped in a bog. Just as they are about to be killed by Du-seen's archers, riflemen from Billings' offshore expedition appear and slay the renegade Galus. Jor then appears, as well as Tyler, now an ally of the Galus (along with Lys). After remaining some time with the Galus, Tyler and Lys leave with Billings' rescue party to hike over the cliff barrier and to their anchored freighter. However, Billings ultimately decides to stay behind with his beloved Ajor (who had not been given permission to leave by her father, due to her status as a possible child-bearer). 

Amazing Stories Apr 1927, Frank R. Paul

III. Out of Time’s Abyss (The Tale of Bradley)

1. While exploring lower Caspak, Bradley's party encounters a giant bear, but Tippett, usually a cautious man, manages to kill it with a few shots of his rifle. Later they are attacked by some Sto-lu hatchet men, but they frighten them off after killing a couple of them with their guns. When they are briefly terrorized by a winged, cadaverous-looking humanoid swooping from the sky (a Wieroo), some of the men become spooked by this "angel of death". That night, Tippett spots the ghostly creature again and fires at it in vain. The next day, he is eaten by a tyrannosaurus. A few days later a man named James is similarly harassed by a Wieroo and then subsequently slain by a sabre-tooth tiger. A day out from returning to Fort Dinosaur, Bradley goes missing, apparently abducted by a Wieroo during the night. In the end, only two men make it back alive to Fort Dinosaur, where they learn from the few men remaining there that the Germans have abandoned them in the U-boat and that Tyler has gone north alone in search of Lys.  
2. While on watch, Bradley is captured by two Wieroo and taken to their home Oo-oh (an island within the inland sea of Caspak). There they treat him as a curiousity and allow him to have a meal, during which he is stared at by many Wieroo. After returning to his captor's quarters, he gets into a fight and kills the Wieroo with his bare hands. While hiding the body, he comes across a female Galu named Co-Tan, who explains that she will soon be a sacrifice victim. Several Wieroo then appear and after a brief struggle Bradley is imprisoned in the "Blue Place of Seven Skulls".

3. 

   Ace Books 1979, Vicente Segrelles

   In his dark cell, Bradley meets a starved and deranged Galu named An-Tak. He learns that the females of Caspak lay eggs which produce tadpoles. The tadpoles swim south and then begin metamorphosing into more and more advanced lifeforms (amphibians, reptiles, mammals, cave-men, etc), with each step prompting a northerly migration, ultimately reaching the Galu form. After 7 generations, a Galu is able to give birth to a baby (rather than an egg). These child-bearing "cos-ata-lo" are highly regarded amongst the denizens of Caspak, as they represent the peak of evolution. The Wieroo are only able to produce males of this type, and therefore abduct female Galu with which to impregnate. In any case, Bradley discovers a hidden door which leads to an underground river. While wading down this river, he finds that it contains floating headless corpses, thrown down to the water by the Wieroo through wells. When he comes to an open plaza, he manages to disguise himself has a corpse and floats into the interior of a temple. There he witnesses two Wieroo fight over Co-Tan, the Galu female he had met earlier. After the Wieroo are slain, Bradley is unfortunately then recaptured when more Wieroo arrive.
   
4. Bradley is brought before "He Who Speaks for Luata", the high-priest/leader of the Wieroo, who asks him the secret of becoming a cos-ata-lu (child-bearer). Bradley pretends to be about to share the secret to child-bearing, but then slays the distracted Wieroo leader and escapes with Co-Tan. By disguising themselves as Wieroo, they eventually sneak out to the surrounding forest. After journeying for several days they make a new home in a nearby cave area located near water and game. Because they have no way of reaching the "mainland" (of Caspak), they remain there for several months, during which time they fall in love.
5. Eventually several Wieroo discover their camp by chance. Bradley kills most of them with his pistol and forces the remaining two to carry himself and Co-Tan over the inland sea to the western side of Caspak (after which he allows them to go free). Downriver, Bradley is stunned to find the returned German U-boat anchored off the beach. It turns out that von Schoenvorts and his crew had gotten lost after their escape, and had returned to Caspak in order to force the British survivors they had abandoned to help them refuel the sub for a second journey. Bradley and Co-Tan ambush the German soldiers and retake command of the sub (with the aid of some sympathetic German crewmen). Later, while searching for Tyler and Lys one last time, the U-boat sails up the inner coast to Galus where they are greeted by Billings and Ajor. Bradley convinces Ajor to leave her people and both couples escape Caspak in the sub. In short order, they rendezvous with the freighter carrying Tyler and Lys back home. On board the freighter, all three couples are finally married in a ceremony overseen by the ship's captain.

A. C. McClurg & Co. 1924, J. Allen St. John

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