Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burroughs
Born September 1, 1875(1875-09-01)
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died March 19, 1950(1950-03-19) (aged 74)
Encino, California, United States
Occupation Novelist
Nationality American
Period 20th century
Genres Adventure novel, Lost World, Sword and Planet, Planetary romance, Soft science fiction, Westerns
Notable work(s) Tarzan series, Barsoom series

Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.

Contents

Biography

Burroughs was born on September 1, 1875, in Chicago (he later lived for many years in the neighboring suburb of Oak Park), the fourth son of a businessman and Civil war veteran, Major George Tyler Burroughs (1833–1913) and his wife Mary Evaline (Zieger) Burroughs (1840–1920). He was educated at a number of local schools, and during the Chicago influenza epidemic in 1891, he spent a half year at his brother's ranch on the Raft River in Idaho. He then attended the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and then the Michigan Military Academy. Graduating in 1895, and failing the entrance exam for the United States Military Academy (West Point), he ended up as an enlisted soldier with the 7th U.S. Cavalry in Fort Grant, Arizona Territory. After being diagnosed with a heart problem and thus found ineligible for a commission, he was discharged in 1897.[1]

Bookplate of Edgar Rice Burroughs showing Tarzan holding the planet Mars, surrounded by other characters from Burroughs' stories and symbols relating to his personal interests and career
Typsescript letter, with Tarzana Ranch letterhead, from Edgar Rice Burroughs to Ruthven Deane, explaining the design and significance of his bookplate

What followed was a string of seemingly unrelated and short stint jobs. Following a period of drifting and ranch work in Idaho, Burroughs found work at his father's firm in 1899. He married Emma Centennia Hulbert on January 1, 1900. They had three children: Joan Burroughs (Mrs. James Pierce) (1908–1972), Hulbert Burroughs (1909–1991) and John Coleman Burroughs (1913–1979). In 1904 he left his job and found less regular work, initially in Idaho but soon back in Chicago.[2]

By 1911, after seven years of low wages, he was working as a pencil sharpener wholesaler and began to write fiction. By this time Burroughs and Emma had two children, Joan and Hulbert.[3] During this period, he had copious spare time and he began reading many pulp fiction magazines and has since claimed:

"...if people were paid for writing rot such as I read in some of those magazines, that I could write stories just as rotten. As a matter of fact, although I had never written a story, I knew absolutely that I could write stories just as entertaining and probably a whole lot more so than any I chanced to read in those magazines."

Aiming his work at these pulp fiction magazines, his first story "Under the Moons of Mars" was serialized in All-Story Magazine in 1912[4][5] and earned Burroughs US$400 (roughly the equivalent of US$7600 in 2004).

Burroughs soon took up writing full-time and by the time the run of Under the Moons of Mars had finished he had completed two novels, including Tarzan of the Apes, which was published from October 1912 and went on to begin his most successful series. In 1913, Burroughs and Emma had their third and last child, John Coleman.

Burroughs also wrote popular science fiction and fantasy stories involving Earthly adventurers transported to various planets (notably Barsoom, Burroughs' fictional name for Mars, and Amtor, his fictional name for Venus), lost islands, and into the interior of the hollow earth in his Pellucidar stories, as well as westerns and historical romances. Along with All-Story, many of his stories were published in the Argosy Magazine.

Tarzan was a cultural sensation when introduced. Burroughs was determined to capitalize on Tarzan's popularity in every way possible. He planned to exploit Tarzan through several different media including a syndicated Tarzan comic strip, movies and merchandise. Experts in the field advised against this course of action, stating that the different media would just end up competing against each other. Burroughs went ahead, however, and proved the experts wrong—the public wanted Tarzan in whatever fashion he was offered. Tarzan remains one of the most successful fictional characters to this day and is a cultural icon.

In either 1915 or 1919, Burroughs purchased a large ranch north of Los Angeles, California, which he named "Tarzana." The citizens of the community that sprang up around the ranch voted to adopt that name when their town, Tarzana, Calif. was formed in either 1927 or 1928.

Also the unincorporated community of Tarzan, Texas, was formally named in 1927 when the postal service accepted the name[6], reputedly coming from the popularity of the first (silent) Tarzan of the Apes film, starring Elmo Lincoln, and an early "Tarzan" comic strip.

In 1923 Burroughs set up his own company, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., and began printing his own books through the 1930s.

Burroughs divorced Emma in 1934 and married the former actress Florence Gilbert Dearholt in 1935, the former wife of his friend, Ashton Dearholt, and Burroughs adopted the Dearholts' two children. This couple divorced in 1942.[7]

At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Burroughs was a resident of Hawaii and, despite being in his late sixties, he applied for permission to become a war correspondent. This permission was granted, and so he became one of the oldest war correspondents for the U.S. during World War II. After the war ended, Burroughs moved back to Encino, California, where, after many health problems, he died of a heart attack on March 19, 1950, having written almost seventy novels.[8]

The Burroughs crater on Mars is named in his honor.

Genealogy

Edgar Rice Burroughs was a descendant of Edmund Rice, an English immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony, as follows:[9][10]

  • Capt. George Tyler Burroughs (Oct 13, 1833 – Feb 15, 1913), son of
  • Mary Rice (Jul 12, 1802 – ?), daughter of
  • Thomas Rice (May 30, 1767 – Jul 18, 1847)[11], son of
  • Capt. Tilly Rice (Nov 8, 1724 – Nov 6, 1803), son of
  • Obadiah Rice (Nov 13, 1698 –  ?), son of
  • Jacob Rice (Feb 2, 1660 – Oct 30, 1746), son of
  • Edward Rice (1622 – Aug 15, 1712), son of
  • Edmund Rice (1594 – May 3, 1663)

Selected bibliography

Barsoom series

Tarzan series

Main article: Tarzan

Pellucidar series

Book Cover: Pirates of Venus

Venus series

Caspak series

Moon series

These three texts have been published by various houses in one or two volumes. Adding to the confusion, some editions have the original (significantly longer) introduction to Part I from the first publication as a magazine serial, and others have the shorter version from the first book publication, which included all three parts under the title The Moon Maid.[12]

Mucker series

Other science fiction

Jungle adventure novels

Western novels

Historical novels

Other works

Popular culture

Books on Edgar Rice Burroughs

See also

References

  1. ↑ Slotkin, Richard (1998). Gunfighter Nation. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 196. ISBN 0806130318. 
  2. ↑ Holtsmark, Erling B. (1986). Edgar Rice Burroughs. Boston: Twain Publishers. pp. 3–4. ISBN 0-8057-7459-9. 
  3. ↑ Holtsmark, Erling B. (1986). Edgar Rice Burroughs. Boston: Twain Publishers. p. 5. ISBN 0-8057-7459-9. 
  4. ↑ ERBzine, Volume 0419 -"A Virtual Visit to The Nell Dismukes McWhorter Memorial Edgar Rice Burroughs Collection", with photographs.
  5. ↑ Zoetrope: All-Story: Back Issue
  6. ↑ Holtsmark, Erling B. (1986). Edgar Rice Burroughs. Boston: Twain Publishers. pp. 9–10. ISBN 0-8057-7459-9. 
  7. ↑ Holtsmark, Erling B. (1986). Edgar Rice Burroughs. Boston: Twain Publishers. pp. 12–13. ISBN 0-8057-7459-9. 
  8. ↑ Holtsmark, Erling B. (1986). Edgar Rice Burroughs. Boston: Twain Publishers. pp. 13–15. ISBN 0-8057-7459-9. 
  9. ↑ Edmund Rice (1638) Association, 2007. Descendants of Edmund Rice: The First Nine Generations.
  10. ↑ "Edmund Rice Six-Generation Database Online". Edmund Rice (1638) Association, Inc.. http://www.edmund-rice.org/era5gens/index.html. Retrieved 26-July-2009. 
  11. ↑ "Thomas Rice". Edmund Rice (1638) Association. http://www.edmund-rice.org/era5gens/p72.htm#i57129. Retrieved 16 May 2010. 
  12. ↑ ERBzine

External links

Works by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzan novels
Tarzan of the Apes (1912) • The Return of Tarzan (1913) • The Beasts of Tarzan (1914) • The Son of Tarzan (1915) • Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar (1916) • Tarzan the Terrible (1921) • Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1922/23) • Tarzan and the Ant Men (1924) • Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1927/28) • Tarzan and the Lost Empire (1928/29) • Tarzan at the Earth's Core (1929/30) • Tarzan the Invincible (1930/31) • Tarzan Triumphant (1931/32) • Tarzan and the City of Gold (1932) • Tarzan and the Lion Man (1933/34) • Tarzan and the Leopard Men (1932/33) • Tarzan's Quest (1935/36) • Tarzan and the Forbidden City (1938) • Tarzan and the Foreign Legion (1947) • Tarzan and the Madman (1964) • Tarzan: the Lost Adventure (1995)
Tarzan collections
Jungle Tales of Tarzan (1919) • Tarzan the Untamed (1920) • Tarzan the Magnificent (1939) • Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins (1963) • Tarzan and the Castaways (1965)
Tarzan short stories
Tarzan's First Love (1916) • The Capture of Tarzan (1916) • The Fight for the Balu (1916) • The God of Tarzan (1916) • Tarzan and the Black Boy (1917) • The Witch-Doctor Seeks Vengeance (1917) • The End of Bukawai (1917) • The Lion (1917) • The Nightmare (1917) • The Battle for Teeka (1917) • A Jungle Joke (1917) • Tarzan Rescues the Moon (1917) • Tarzan the Untamed (1919) • Tarzan and the Valley of Luna (1920) • The Tarzan Twins (1927) • Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins with Jad-Bal-Ja the Golden Lion (1936) • Tarzan and the Magic Men (1936) • Tarzan and the Elephant Men (1937/38) • Tarzan and the Champion (1940) • Tarzan and the Jungle Murders (1940) • Tarzan and the Castaways (1941)
Other jungle adventure
The Man-Eater (1915) • The Cave Girl (1925) • The Eternal Lover (1925) • Jungle Girl (1932) • The Lad and the Lion (1938)
Martian series
A Princess of Mars (1917) • The Gods of Mars (1918) • The Warlord of Mars (1919) • Thuvia, Maid of Mars (1920) • The Chessmen of Mars (1922) • The Master Mind of Mars (1928) • A Fighting Man of Mars (1931) • Swords of Mars (1936) • Synthetic Men of Mars (1940) • Llana of Gathol (1948) • John Carter of Mars (1964)
Pellucidar series
At the Earth's Core (1914) • Pellucidar (1915) • Tanar of Pellucidar (1929) • Tarzan at the Earth's Core (1929) • Back to the Stone Age (1937) • Land of Terror (1944) • Savage Pellucidar (1963)
Venus series
Pirates of Venus (1934) • Lost on Venus (1935) • Carson of Venus (1939) • Escape on Venus (1946) • Wizard of Venus (1964)
Caspak series
The Land That Time Forgot (1918) • The People That Time Forgot (1918) • Out of Time’s Abyss (1918)
Other science fiction
Beyond Thirty (1915) • The Moon Maid (1926) • The Monster Men (1929) • "The Resurrection of Jimber-Jaw" (1937) • Beyond the Farthest Star (1941) • Tales of Three Planets (1964)
Westerns
The Bandit of Hell's Bend (1926) • The War Chief (1927) • Apache Devil (1933) • The Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County (1940)
Historical novels
The Outlaw of Torn (1914/1927) • I Am a Barbarian (1967)
Contemporary novels
The Mucker (1914/16) • The Girl from Farris's (1916) • The Oakdale Affair (1917) • The Efficiency Expert (1921) • The Girl from Hollywood (1923) • Pirate Blood (1970) • Marcia of the Doorstep (1999)
Other works
The Mad King (1926) • The Rider (1937) • Beyond Thirty and The Man-Eater (1957) • Minidoka: 937th Earl of One Mile Series M (1998) • You Lucky Girl! (1999) • Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder (2001)