Percival Lowell
H. G. Wells' novel "The War of the Worlds" (1898) was influenced, as was Burroughs' novel, by the ideas of Percival Lowell starting with publication of the book "Mars" (1895). It depicted Mars as an ancient world, nearing the end of its life, home to a superior civilization capable of advanced feats of science and engineering. Burroughs, however, claimed never to have read any of H. G. Wells' books.