Burroughs, Edgar Rice

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biography of Burroughs, Edgar Ric

1 September 1875, Chicago, Illinois, USA
19 March 1950, Encino, California, USA (heart attack)
His father had been a major in the Union army during the Civil War. Edgar Rice Burroughs attended the Brown School then, due to a diphtheria epidemic, Miss Coolie's Maplehurst School for Girls, then the Harvard School, Phillips Andover and the Michigan Military Academy. He was a mediocre student and flunked his examination for West Point. He worked a variety of jobs all over the country: a cowboy in Idaho, a gold miner in Oregon, a railroad policeman in Utah, a department manager for Sears Roebuck in Chicago. He published "A Princess of Mars" under the title "Under the Moons of Mars" in six parts between February and July of 1912. The same "All-Story Magazine" put out his immediately successful "Tarzan of the Apes" in October of that year. Two years later the hardback book appeared, and on January 27, 1918, the movie opened on Broadway starring 'Elmo Lincoln' (qv) as Tarzan. It was one of the first movies to gross over $1,000,000. Burroughs was able to move his family to the San Fernando Valley in 1919, converting a huge estate into Tarzana Ranch. He was in Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 and remained in Hawaii as a war correspondent. Afterward he returned home with a heart condition. On March 19, 1950, alone in his home after reading the Sunday comics in bed, he died. By then he had written 91 novels, 26 of which were about Tarzan. The man whose books have sold hundreds of millions of copies in over thirty languages once said "I write to escape ... to escape poverty".
Ed Stephan

- 'Florence Gilbert' (qv) (4 April 1935 - April 1941) (divorced)

- 'Emma Hulbert' (1 January 1900 - December 1934) (divorced)

- Burroughs' second wife, Florence Gilbert, was earlier married to producer / actor 'Ashton Dearholt' (qv).

- The city of Tarzana, California, where Burroughs spent the last years of his life, was named in honor of his most famous creation, Tarzan.

- Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, Vol. 131, pages 47-51. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.

- An excellent guide to Burroughs' Mars books is "A Guide to Barsoom" by John Flint Roy.

- City of Tarzan, Texas, was named in honor of his most famous creation, Tarzan.

- Didn't start writing until the age of 35.

- His first Mars book was written under the pseudonym Norman Bean.

- Most of his stories are written in the first person.

- Russian dictator Joseph Stalin once said that Edgar Rice Burroughs was his favorite author.

- A publisher who had intended to reject Burroughs' book, "The Outlaw of Torn", wrote him to say, "My reviewer was up half the night reading it!"

- (1912) Novel: "A Princess Of Mars" (a "Barsoom" novel)

- (1922) Novel: "At the Earth's Core" (a "Pellucidar" novel) (filmed as _At the Earth's Core (1976)_ (qv), _The Underground World (1943)_ (qv)_

- (1934) Novel: "Lost on Venus"

- Novel: "Out of Time's Abyss"

- (1913) Novel: "The Return of Tarzan".

- Novel: "Pirates of Venus"

- (1963) Novel: "Savage Pellucidar" (a "Pellucidar" novel)

- (1944) Novel: "Land of Terror" (a "Pellucidar" novel)

- (1937) Novel: "Back to the Stone Age" (a "Pellucidar" novel)

- (1930) Novel: "Tanar of Pellucidar" (a "Pellucidar" novel)

- (1923) Novel: "Pellucidar" (a "Pellucidar" novel)

- (1964) Novel: "John Carter of Mars" (a "Barsoom" novel)

- (1948) Novel: "Llana of Gathol" (a "Barsoom" novel)

- (1940) Novel: "Synthetic Men of Mars" (a "Barsoom" novel)

- (1936) Novel: "Swords Of Mars" (a "Barsoom" novel)

- (1931) Novel: "A Fighting Man of Mars" (a "Barsoom" novel)

- (1928) Novel: "The Master Mind of Mars" (a "Barsoom" novel)

- (1922) Novel: "The Chessmen of Mars" (a "Barsoom" novel)

- (1920) Novel: "Thuvia, Maid of Mars" (a "Barsoom" novel)

- (1919) Novel: "The Warlords of Mars" (a "Barsoom" novel)

- Novel: "Jungle Girl" (filmed as _Jungle Girl (1941)_ (qv)).

- (1946) Novel: "Escape on Venus".

- (1939) Novel: "Carson of Venus"

- (1921) Novel: "Tarzan the Terrible"

- (1919) Novel: "Tarzan the Untamed", 1919

- (1914) Novel: "The Beasts of Tarzan"

- (1914) Novel: "The Gods of Mars"

- Novel: "Bringing Up Baby" (filmed as _The Oakdale Affair (1919)_ (qv))

- Novel: "The Revenge of Tarzan" (filmed as _The Revenge of Tarzan (1920)_ (qv))

- (1914) Novel: "The Son of Tarzan" (filmed as _The Son of Tarzan (1920)_ (qv))

- (1916) Novel: "Jungle Tales of Tarzan" (filmed as _Tarzan the Mighty (1928)_ (qv))

- (1916) Novel: "Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar" (filmed as _Tarzan the Tiger (1929)_ (qv))

- Story: "The Lad and the Lion" (filmed as _The Lion Man (1936)_ (qv), _The Lad and the Lion (1917)_ (qv))

- Novel: "Tarzan in Istanbul" (filmed as _Tarzan Istanbul'da (1952)_ (qv))

- Novel: "The Land That Time Forgot" (filmed as _The Land That Time Forgot (1975)_ (qv))

- Novel: "The People That Time Forgot" (filmed as _The People That Time Forgot (1977)_ (qv))

- Novel: "Tarzan of the Apes" (filmed as _Tarzan (1999)_ (qv), _Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)_ (qv), _Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)_ (qv), _The Romance of Tarzan (1918)_ (qv), _Tarzan of the Apes (1918)_ (qv))

- (1924) Novel: "Tarzan and the Golden Lion" (filmed as _Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1927)_ (qv))

- Novel: "The Return of Tarzan"

- Robert W. Fenton. Edgar Rice Burroughs and Tarzan: A Biography of the Author and His Creation. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2002. ISBN 078641393X

- John Taliaferro. _Tarzan Forever: The Life of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Creator of Tarzan._ New York, NY: Scribner, 1999. ISBN 0-7432-3650-5

- Richard Lupoff. _Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure._ New York City, NY: Canaveral Press, 1965.

- Robert W. Fenton. _The Big Swingers: Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1875-1950; Tarzan, 1912-._ Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1967.

- _Tarzan: The Legacy of Edgar Rice Burroughs (1996) (TV)_ (qv)

- _John Carter of Mars (2012)_ (qv)

- "Scary Monsters Magazine" (USA), January 2009, Iss. 69, pg. 66-78, by: Bob Statzer, "Forgotten Mars: The Lost Adventures of John Carter"

- "Cinefantastique" (USA), August 1999, Vol. 31, Iss. 7, pg. 29-30, by: Scott Tracy Griffin, "The science fiction writer founded a merchandising empire on his popular mass market fantasy hero"

- "Cinefantastique" (USA), August 1999, Vol. 31, Iss. 7, pg. 29-30, by: Scott Tracy Griffin, "Edgar Rice Burroughs (profile)"

- "The New York Times" (USA), 4 April 1999, by: David Traxel, "Hollywood and Vine"

- "Starlog" (USA), April 1987, Vol. 10, Iss. 117, pg. 18-25, by: L. Sprague de Camp, "Thoats, Tharks and Thews: A Literary Tour of John Carter's Mars Unearths the Inspirations for Edgar Rice Burroughs' Red Planet Adventures"

- "Riverside Quarterly" (Canada), January 1970, Vol. 4, Iss. 2, pg. 110-122, by: Richard Kyle, "Out of time's abyss : The Martian stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs, a speculation"