Ed’s “Uncle Jack’ writes to him with an explanation about why the recent Martian landers show such a different Mars than that which Jack himself has visited and written about.
To the Reader of this Work:

In submitting Captain Carter’s strange manuscript to you in book form, I believe that a few words relative to this remarkable personality will be of interest.

My first recollection of Captain Carter is of the few months he spent at my father’s home in Virginia, just prior to the opening of the civil war. I was then a child of but five years, yet I well remember the tall, dark, smooth-faced, athletic man whom I called Uncle Jack. . . .

very sincerely yours,

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Variants

(1)
  1. “On the Martian Problem” by Randall Garrett, in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Winter 1977.
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Randall Garrett