Monroe St. Press

This Saturday, June 6, the Old Roads Tour is coming to Toulon IL!

Author John Spencer will be at West Main Coffee and Books from noon to 3 p.m. Copies of Last Ride On the Galena Coach Road and Other Tales will be available for signing and purchase.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Coming next month from John Spencer, author of The Surge Series... Iron & Ashes: An Epic Poem In The Homeric Tongue In Three Acts

Today on Substack, John reflects on the enduring influence of Edgar Rice Burroughs—not merely the grand adventures of Tarzan and Barsoom that first captured his imagination as a boy, but the deeper questions Burroughs' stories still raise decades later about endurance, identity, hardship, and what remains when illusions begin to fall away.

This new essay, "Worlds of Wonder, Trials of Reality", traces the road from mythic jungles and dying Martian seas to the muddy streets and hard realities hidden within some of Burroughs' lesser-known works. Part literary reflection and part meditation on heroism, aging, and survival, it explores why these stories still matter long after childhood has passed.

https://open.substack.com/pub/johnspencerauthor/p/worlds-of-wonder-trials-of-reality?r=6ven2k&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer

In John's upcoming Substack "Worlds of Wonder, Trials of Reality", he finds himself looking back at a childhood favorite: Edgar Rice Burroughs. While most know him for the grand, mythic heroism of Tarzan or the cosmic scale of Barsoom, it's his lesser-known, turn-of-the-century pulp tales like The Oakdale Affair and The Mucker that have recently caught John's attention.

Reading them with a more mature eye reveals a fascinating shift—moving away from idealized heroes who command their own destinies, and stepping into the raw, compromising realities of a "riches to rags" descent.

​It is a transition from myth to mud that genuinely nags at the conscience, raising uncomfortable questions about vulnerability and what remains of a man's core identity when the world strips him of his stability. You can read the full meditation on Burroughs’ unexpected literary range, the enduring power of pulp fiction, and the weight of the down-and-out archetype on John's Substack soon.

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