Tarzan of the Apes series - Edgar Rice Burroughs

[Admin Pete]

Starting in 1912 ERB wrote of Tarzan of the Apes and the ones in italics were published after he passed away.
Tarzan of the Apes
The Return of Tarzan
The Beasts of Tarzan
The Son of Tarzan
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
Jungle Tales of Tarzan
Tarzan the Untamed
Tarzan the Terrible
Tarzan and the Golden Lion
Tarzan and the Ant Men
Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle
Tarzan and the Lost Empire
Tarzan at the Earth's Core
Tarzan the Invincible
Tarzan Triumphant
Tarzan and the City of Gold
Tarzan and the Lion Man
Tarzan and the Leopard Men
Tarzan's Quest
Tarzan the Magnificent
Tarzan and the Forbidden City
Tarzan and the Foreign Legion
Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins (this is two stories one published in 1927 and one in 1936 and combined into one book in 1963.)
Tarzan and the Madman (written in 1940 and published in 1964)
Tarzan and the Castaways (Three stories published in 1939 and 1940 - then published as one book in 1965)
Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (Fritz Leiber 1966)
Tarzan: the Lost Adventure (A partial manuscrpt completed by Joe R. Lansdale and published in 1995)
Tarzan: The Epic Adventures ( R. A. Salvatore 1997)
The Dark Heart of Time (Philip José Farmer 1999)

The last four of these I have never seen or read. These are the only Tarzan books by authors other than ERB that are authorized by the estate. I understand that there are several others that are pretty much not available anywhere as they were buried by the estate with very few copies extant.

In a Paris Review interview, Ray Bradbury said of Burroughs that "Edgar Rice Burroughs never would have looked upon himself as a social mover and shaker with social obligations. But as it turns out – and I love to say it because it upsets everyone terribly – Burroughs is probably the most influential writer in the entire history of the world." Bradbury continued that "By giving romance and adventure to a whole generation of boys, Burroughs caused them to go out and decide to become special."

I love this quote because this is to some extent the way that I feel about ERB. The first Tarzan book I ever read was an old hardback copy of Tarzan and the City of Gold published in 1932. My grandfather gave it to me to read when I was 8 years old and it was originally read by my dad and his brothers, but I suspect that my grandfather read it to.

The Tarzan movies are so different from the books in so many very important ways, but somehow they still capture the essence of Tarzan in some strange and exceeding odd way. I loved the look of Johnny Weissmüller for Tarzan and it would have been even better if they had protrayed him as the books did as articulate and intelligent.

[rob008]

I have the last four books but have not read them yet. Valley of Gold and Epic Adventures are both novelizations. There are also five books by someone named Barton Werper. They are rare but you can find them at Sci Fi or Pulp cons. His books are:
Tarzan and the Winged Invaders
Tarzan and the Cave City
Tarzan and the Silver Globe
Tarzan and the Abominable Snowmen
Tarzan and the Snake People

[hengest]

I read the first two Tarzan books a long time ago. I still think the whole rigamarole with Tarzan learning French from his father's diaries (although his father was English, he kept his journals in French), then communicating through written French with D'Arnot, then learning spoken French from him and only later learning English, and not as well as French. The whole thing was so bizarrely convoluted it seemed unnecessary, but then it gave this wonderful mirror-echo of the Norman kings of England with their Anglo-French...that one thing means ERB has my respect forever. What a brilliant hook in a remarkable story.

Edit: This was pretty inaccurate, and was corrected below.

I still like the linguistic stuff with Tarzan, though.

[Stormcrow]

I just read Tarzan of the Apes for the first time a few months ago. Tarzan learned to read English first, from children's books, but he doesn't know how it's pronounced. When he meets D'Arnot, the Frenchman teaches him to speak, but not read, French, by translating Tarzan's written English into French. D'Arnot later regrets not teaching Tarzan to speak English first.

The silly part isn't the crossover between English and French; the silly part is that Tarzan could learn to read and write sophisticated English on his own from children's books without any reference language. I could believe that he might learn that B-O-Y means boy and H-O-U-S-E means house, even if he doesn't know what a house is except by its picture, but there's no way he could decipher English grammar on his own.

[hengest]

Thanks, I should have known I was confusing matters.

Agreed on the silliness of his learning English (pretty well) in these circumstances, but I still found it exciting (even though I remembered a garbled version).

[mormonyoyoman]

Apr 28, 2016 12:04:46 GMT -5 hengest said:

Thanks, I should have known I was confusing matters.

Agreed on the silliness of his learning English (pretty well) in these circumstances, but I still found it exciting (even though I remembered a garbled version).

Evidently you haven't taken his mutant powers into - - wait, that's Ka-Zar.