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Since 1996 ~ Over 15,000 Web Pages in Archive
Presents
Volume 1802

The Ape-Man his Kith and Kin   A collection of texts  which prepared the advent of Tarzan of the Apes* by Edgar Rice Burroughs

This collection of texts developed from an initial project, entitled The Incunabular Ape-Man Writings, to reprint in book form a number of evident thematic precursors of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes (The All-Story Magazine, Oct. 1912; Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1914). However, after close to four years of digging, it has become increasingly clear that the probability of any such hard-copy publication occurring within a reasonable time frame is becoming increasingly small -- this doesn't mean a hard copy will never be published, just that it has become a secondary priority to me. This is in part because of some interpersonal frictions, in part because I don't know when to stop gathering material, and lastly because I am much more interested in making the material widely available to scholars and ape-lore enthusiasts, than deriving any profit by it -- and, yes, I'll admit, I'm a wee bit lazy.

Consequently, I would state the current purpose of this site to be: 'Somewhere where anyone can find the text, in English, of pre-1914 works of fiction or non-fiction which prefigured, informed or prepared the advent of the character of Tarzan, as described by Edgar Rice Burroughs in his novel Tarzan of the Apes.'

In presenting the works included here, I have used the most basic no-frills HTML-code possible (no conversions from MSWord), without decorations other than original illustrations when available. I have used HTML rather than Adobe PDF or other image -- vs. text-based systems to render the text easily searchable, cut-and-pastable, and most of all quickly updatable. This ease in updating is an advantage given that many texts have only seen one proofreading, while many works I have translated to English remain in first draught form.

On the Table of Text Links page, I have separated the works presented into 3 main topics, and a total of 11 subtopics:

• Feral or Isolated Humans
• Infant (originating in Ibn Tufail's 12th century Hayy Ibn Yaqzan)
• Children
• Shipwrecked
• Others (otherwise isolated)
• Adults
• Human-Ape Interactions
• Apes amongst humans
• Humans amongst apes
• Hunting or searching for apes (includes missing links and cryptoanthropoids)
• Man Visits a Simian Society
• Ape Language (The pioneering scientific work of Richard Garner, and related fiction)
• Darwinism Mocked (Fiction: Humorous, or Mocking of Charles Darwin's Evolutionary Theories)
• Tarzan's African Settings
• Fiction
• Non-fiction

I have tried, as much as possible, to be overly accepting rather than exclusionary in my choice of texts, leaving those who peruse the texts to draw their own conclusions as to their closeness of fit to the purpose stated above.

Edgar Rice Burroughs mentioned to Rudolph Altrocchi ("The Ancestors of Tarzan" p. 95, in Sleuthing in the Stacks, 1944 ( full reference at bottom) a dimly remembered tale of

"a sailor who, as the only survivor of a shipwreck, landed on the coast or Africa. . . . During this forced sojourn in the jungle, a she-ape, which he had tamed, became so enamoured with him that when he was finally rescued, she followed him into the surf and hurled the baby after him."

• Dodds, Georges T. 2006. "Monkey-spouse Sees Children Murdered, Escapes to Freedom! A Worldwide Gathering and Comparative Analysis of Camarena-Chevalier Type 714, II-IV Tales." Estudos de Literatura Oral No. 11-12: 73-96. (European tales)
• Part II. (Tales from Russia, Asia, and the Americas) Estudos de Literatura Oral No. 13: (in press).

• By reporting textual errors: If in reading any of the texts you find typos, or what appears to be a duplication or omission of text, please let me know: give the name of the document, the error (with some text before and after so it is easier to search for and correct). Note that some works use rather odd grammar or spelling.
• By reporting errors of fact: If you find errors (or important omissions) of fact in the biographical or other materials attached to the works, please let me know (email at bottom). Please give a full bibliographical source for the information.
• By suggesting new titles: If you know of titles (in any language) which fit the criteria stated above, and have not been listed in the TOC. Supplying me a copy of the work would be even better.
• By volunteering to translate works from German, Italian and Russian to English.
• By submitting your commentaries (everything from a passing comment to a full fledged essay) on a specific work or group of works. Understand that such a submission would assume that your comments would be posted, unless you otherwise specified, and that while your authorship would be acknowledged, you would not receive any remuneration whatsoever.
• By obtaining copies of pertinent works (and/or illustrations) I have been unable to obtain: So far such works include:
• Charpentier, Armand. 1895. Le roman d'un singe. Paris: Paul Ollendorff
• Sand, Maurice. 1886. La fille du singe. (roman humoristique), Paris: Paul Ollendorff
• Laurian, Marcel. 1912. L'étrange aventure de Mr Narcisse Barbidon In: Le Cri-cri (Offenstadt), n° 47 (18.01.1912) to n° 73 (18.07.1912). --; a 2 Vol. paperback reprint exists, but omits all illustrations of this comic-book edition.
• Le Faure, Gabriel. c. 1910. "Dans la peau d'un singe" In: Mon Bonheur No. 36

• If you are going to use, commercially or otherwise, any of the previously unavailable e-texts presented here, go ahead, I would simply hope that you would have the decency to acknowledge their source and creator.
• My translations to English of French short stories and novels posted here are freely open to all. If you decide to present them elsewhere or in another format, simply have the courtesy to mention my name (Georges T. Dodds) as the translator. Thanks!
• To the best of my knowledge all the English-original texts (and their illustrations) presented are in the public domain in both Canada and the United States, though perhaps not elsewhere. It is your responsibility to check your local statutes to assess the legality of downloading any of these texts.
• A gross simplification of these laws, as I understand them is that:
• In Canada, copyright presently extends to 50 years after the end of the year the author died in. So, as of January 1, 2007, the works of any author who had died in or before 1956 would have become public domain. This applied to all texts presented.
• In the United States, any works published before 1923 are in the public domain. Since all the works presented here were originally published in or before 1914, they are clearly in the public domain in the United States.
• In Britain and France, the copyright extends 70 years after the author's death, and in some cases can be extended further, for war years when their works could not be marketed. Consequently, some works may not be free of copyright in these countries.
• Notwithstanding my belief that the materials presented here are in the public domain, if you believe this not to be the case, and as copyright holder wish something removed, please contact me at the e-mail below. Note that the texts are current housed on a server located in Canada. Please include your reasoning as to why the posting of the text infringes upon your rights; I'll consult with my vast array of legal advisors (my step-cousin) and get back to you right away. Note that I am not selling any of these texts, nor do they make me any money whatsoever, so if you really want to seize my 15-yr old analog TV, Pentium II-75 home PC, and 1948 model Hoover vacuum cleaner, go for it!

• Novel and novella titles are given in italics.
• Magazine or periodical titles are in Bold and italics
• Short story titles are given between "    "
• Each text is prefaced by the following information (when available):
• Title
• Author
• Translator, where applicable.
• Short author biography
• Link to Tarzan, i.e., Basic subject matter.
• Where and by who the work is cited as being related to Tarzan (See bottom of page for bibliographic citations)
• First appearance of the work is cited.
• Edition or version of the work used in developing the text.
• Acknowledgment of people or organizations helpful in obtaining the text.
• Modifications made to the text, if any.

• No text was removed or added. All texts are unabridged. This means that inappropriate racial and ethnic epithets may be present. Similarly the actions and attitudes of women, persons of colour, etc. . . . are a product of their time.
• Every effort is made to present the text in as close a format to the printed original as possible in HTML, i.e., italics, changes in font size, text layout,
• All but a handful of these HTML-format texts were prepared by me, and me alone, by:
•  a) Typing in the text by hand (poor quality originals)

b) Passing the text on a scanner
• In the case of b), the text was then recognized by Optical Character Recognition software (OCR), either that built into the scanner-PC package or Abbyy Finereader ver. 7 or 8.
• The text was read through once for errors either in MSWord or WordPerfect, or within the OCR program.
• A spell/grammar check of the entire text was done, and errors compared with the original text.
• Errors in the original text, when not simply corrected, are generally indicated by [sic], or missing te[x]t.
• Some additional errors were picked up in the conversion of the text to HTML format.
• Given that the texts have only received a single proofreading, by a single proofreader (myself), I do not present them or guarantee them in any way to be authoritative or error-free.
• In general, poems, matter from other authors, letters and documents cited in the text are indented and in smaller font, though this may not be the case in the original.
• Texts which originally bore footnotes, have them presented as clickable internal links to Endnotes, with links back to their insertion in the text.
• For works having chapters or internal headings, a Table of Contents (TOC) is given, with internal links (and links back to the TOC) to each chapter.
• Chapter are all numbered in Roman numerals, though a small minority of works used Arabic numbering.
• Chapter titles/summaries are presented in the TOC only, even if originally included within the work.
• For works published before 1800, in some cases, changes were made to render the text easily readable by the modern reader:
• No text was removed or added. All texts are unabridged.
• For conversations, each speakers' words were placed in quotes and given a new paragraph, allowing one to distinguish what was otherwise a continuous text. A few punctuation marks were altered to fit the new format.
• Some spellings were modernized (e.g., 'onely' became 'only;' 'my self' became 'myself;' ã (or equivalent with other vowels) are written out as 'an' or 'am' as appropriate.
• Marginal notes in some texts are presented as Endnotes.

• Top left: To-Ho the Goldslayer by Jules Lermina (1905), illustrator Charles Clérice.
• Top right: L'Enfant des Bois by Élie Berthet (1911 rpt. of 1865 orig.), illustrator "CH. ROD."

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Go directly to the texts

e-Mail:
Georges Dodds (Ph.D.)
William Hillman