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Volume 1501
A CHRONOLOGY OF LORD GREYSTOKE
Adapted from
Tarzan Alive
A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke
by Philip Jose Farmer

Jean-Paul Goude Art
Bison Press Edition 2006
Other Editions

1972 Doubleday 1st Printing	1973 & 1976 Popular Library
1974 Panther 1st British Printing	1981 Playboy Press Reprint

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A COLLECTION OF INTRO, PROMO AND REVIEW BLURBS

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Mention the name of Tarzan and most people think of the brawny hero of a series of B-movies made in the '30s and '40s. Elmo Lincoln was the first actor to portray the so-called "Ape Man" way back in 1918, a mere five years after the publication of the first of Edgar Rice Burroughs' books! Lincoln was followed by a succession of actors, including Johnny Weissmuller, Buster Crabbe and Lex Barker. Each of these films showed a well-built man in a loincloth, honorable and heroic, more comfortable in the jungle than in society. His image was updated, and more finely drawn in later films and television programmes. Ron Ely's TV Tarzan from 1966-67 certainly modernized him, but kept the beefcake image. 1984's Greystoke was an attempt to be faithful to Burroughs' books, but ultimately failed because the historical image created by the earlier films was stronger than the impression made by the source material.

If you have read any of the twenty-four books in the Tarzan series, you know that Lord Greystoke was fluent in several languages: French, English and the language of his simian family. He spent almost equal time (after being "rescued" from the jungle) in a tuxedo as he did in the jungle. And he never swung through the trees on vines!

Well, you do not have to read the two dozen Burroughs classics, although I recommend that you do (they are pure entertainment); instead you can read Philip Jose Farmer's biography of Tarzan, called Tarzan Alive. Farmer describes Lord Greystoke in his original foreword as "a living person." This is a biography, not of the author of the books, but of the main character. Farmer condenses and organizes the major events of Tarzan's life into chronological order, and makes the same kind of judgments as any biographer might. This new edition also includes an interview with Lord Greystoke, from a meeting "in a motel near Chicago" as well as "Extracts from the Memoirs of 'Lord Greystoke'," which Farmer published in 1974.

Nothing can really replace a leisurely reading of the original books. You must read at least the first three (Tarzan of the Apes, The Return of Tarzan, The Beasts of Tarzan) to get the basic story and appreciate the levels of cultural and philosophical questions which Burroughs dealt with. It's a lesson in cultural bias from the Victorian Age to today! Farmer touches on these points, but it's more enlightening to read them in the original.

Farmer does a fine job of consolidating all the material. He leaves the reader with a three dimensional portrait of the main characters, their foibles, and motivations. Of course most of his time is spent on the "Ape Man" himself, but Tarzan is the most interesting character anyway. Farmer traces his ancestors and makes great characters of fiction into flesh and blood relatives of the Greystoke line. Included are literary icons like Sherlock Holmes, Doc Savage, the Scarlet Pimpernel and Nero Wolfe. What a bloodline it was indeed!

For an introduction to one of the most resilient heroes in literature, Tarzan Alive is a remarkable offering. Disney is readying an all-singing, all-swinging Tarzan for Broadway right now. The time is right for an all out revival, and Farmer's book is a fine place to start. But please don't finish here. Go on to read the originals, put your modern political correctness on hold, and spend some time with the untamed, terrible ape man himself -- Tarzan!

http://www.greenmanreview.com/

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Review Blurbs:

The old vine swinger is one of a handful of fictional characters to rank a biography. Such books give the authors the opportunity to expound on the characters, providing background, side stories, and updates not offered by their creator. Farmer’s 1972 volume borrows from Edgar Rice Burroughs but also adds to the legend by tracing Tarzan’s lineage . . . and extends his exploits beyond the African jungle as an RAF pilot in World War II. Great fun.”

—Library Journal, Classic Returns

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“Farmer goes one step further than mere literary fun. He takes engaging advantage of the reader’s inherent susceptibility to myth.”

—Publishers Weekly

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“Tarzan is seen as a 20th-century heroic figure having much in common with the mythical demigods of an earlier day, and this book will not fail to please and enthrall his many followers.”

—Library Journal

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“The most innovative part of the book [is] Tarzan’s family tree linking him to every great hero in pulp literature. . . . Farmer is less well known today than he was forty years ago. Nevertheless, Alive ages well and gives the reader the sourcebook for so many writers today.”

—American Book Review

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"Farmer does a fine job of consolidating all the material. He leaves the reader with a three dimensional portrait of the main characters, their foibles, and motivations. . . . For an introduction to one of the most resilient heroes in literature, Tarzan Alive is a remarkable offering."

—Green Man Review

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“This easily readable scholarly tome filled me with nostalgia for the first time I visited Africa with Tarzan many years ago and reminded me that, in the books, at least, Tarzan still lives.”

—Mark Graham, Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)

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Cover Blurg from the Popular Library, NY, edition:
Through the brilliant, exhaustive research pf Philip José Farmer, the true, astonishing saga of Lord Greystoke — better known as Tarzan of the Apes — can at last be told. It's all here, the fact meticulously separated from the fiction:

Tarzan's imperiled birth on the shores of Africa . . . an intimate account of his upbringing by Kala (proven more hominoid than gorilloid) . . . his lifelong love for Jane (38-19-36) . . . the adventures in the golden city of Opar . . . travels to England, Paris, and Hollywood . . . the previously unknown years as an R.A.F. pilot . . . ancestry to Sherlock Holmes, Nero Wolfe, "Doc Savage," and Bulldog Drummond . . . .

A feast of knowledge for Tarzan freaks, adventure lovers, and truth seekers everywhere.

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Through the tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs, generations of readers have thrilled to the adventures of Lord Greystoke (aka John Clayton, but better known as Tarzan of the Apes). In this biography Philip Jose Farmer pieces together the life of this fantastic man, correcting Burroughs's errors and deliberate deceptions and tracing Tarzan's family tree back to other extraordinary figures, including Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Doc Savage, Nero Wolfe, and Bulldog Drummond.

Tarzan Alive offers the first chronological account of Tarzan's life, narrated in careful detail garnered from Burroughs's stories and other sources. From the ill-fated voyage that led to Greystoke's birth on the isolated African coast to his final adventures as a group captain in the RAF during World War II, Farmer constructs a comprehensive and authoritative account. Farmer's assertion that Tarzan was a real person has led him to craft a biography as well researched and compelling as that of any character from conventional history.

Philip Jose Farmer has had a long and illustrious career in scinece fiction, winning three Hugo awards, the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement award, and the Nebula Grand Master award.

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