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Master of Imaginative Fantasy Adventure 
Creator of Tarzan and "Grandfather of American Science Fiction" 
Presents
Issue 0214

WWII COMPENDIUM EDITION
TARZAN AND "THE FOREIGN LEGION
and
ERB - WAR CORRESPONDENT

LETTERS TO HOME
CONTENTS
August 5, 1942
February 5, 1945
March 12, 1945

1298 Kapiolani Boulevard
Honolulu  T H

August 5, 1942

Joan darling:

As I wrote Jack last, I'll inflict this one on you.  Am enclosing a
couple of snap-shots I thought might interest you and Jack, though why
in hell they should, I don't know.

I had lunch and spent all afternoon yesterday with officers of an Anti
Aircraft artillery regiment.  Gave a talk to twenty-five or thirty
officers at an officers' school after lunch relative to possible co-
ordination of BMTC and AA units in event of an emergency.  The idea was
theirs, not mine.  I felt that the BMTC had been highly honored.  I met
the commanding AA general and innumerable other officers, and was taken
to some very interesting and one very secret place.  Met two negro AA
majors.  I saw no distinction shown between white and black.  White
officers told me that these men were tops.  Two of the interesting
places I was taken were officers quarters where highballs were served.
Very interesting!

Sunday, I was guest speaker at a dinner given by the Schofield Barracks
Quarterbacks Club at the Chun Hoon residence.  General Green and I
drove over together in his car.  The cllub is composed of officers and
enlisted men interested in athletics.  It is run much along the lines
of civilian service clubs, with a lot of hooey and joshing.  Although
there were gnerals, colonels, and what not present, there was no def-
erence to rank.  A sergeant was mc, and he kidded brass hats and non-
coms quite impartially.  Fortified by numerous highballs, I got
through my speech without being thrown out on my ear.

Oscar Oldknow sent me a clipping of a Winchell column and it was in
the Honolulu Advertiser this morning, also. Do you know who the lucky
man is?  I hope it is true.

Saturday, I am to spend the day with a Lieutenant Colonel and his Tank
Group.  I shall probably be a hospital case before night.  From what I
hear, the sensations are much like those experienced by a die in a dice
box.  However, I am looking forward to the experience.

Also, the colonel of an AA artillery regiment has invited me to come
out to AA target practice.  They fire at a target towed by a plane.
I am looking forward to that, too.  Can you blame me for rather enjoy-
ing it here?

Hulbert was in the other day.  He wouldn't stay all night, but before
he left he took $6 away from me at poker.  We also played a little
tennis and went to see The Man Who Came to Dinner.  Hulbert is looking
and feeling fine.  He has been recommended for a first lieutenancy, but
that doesn't mean that he will get it.

Am enclosing a check, with which please buy Mike a birthday present.
I can't think of anything to get him here, and you know better what he
would like to have.

                                    Lots of love to you all,

                                                        Papa


ERB wrote this letter on 8"x10" paper to daughter Joan on February 5, 1945
while serving as a war correspondent in Hawaii.

.
Excerpts from page 1:

“...A lieutenant met me at the train in S.F.
    with a staff car and drove me to the airport...
Friday morning I was processed, getting
    another medical examination and vaccination...
took two nembutols and slept two hours...
A couple of good looking flight nurses came up
    and sat on the edge of my bunk...
Mildred Rathbone came along and asked me
    to her apartment for highballs...
After dinner at the hotel, Henry Mahn asked me to
    come to his quarters and play Whisky Poker...
served cherry brandy...
went out to call on Floye...
They had Bourbon...
back to the hotel for the Willey’s cocktail party.
    They had Scotch..."

*************************************************************
bed right after dinner and read Esquire until I fell asleep.

This evening, I am going with Mary Pflueger to Kit Carmon's for
cocktails and dinner. Tomorrow noon, I am going with Floye to
Lum Young's farewell luncheon to his son, who has been inducted.
Lum serves the most wonderful Chinese food you ever tasted. Have
been invited to another party for tomorrow evening, but I declined.
Enough is enough.

While I was at the Visiting Officers' Quarters I have mentioned,
I was sitting on the edge of my cot looking at the floor, when a
guy stopped at my door and asked what was the matter with me. I
said, "Nothing." He said, "You look blue." I replied that I was
not blue, I was only waiting. He said, "Come down to my room and
wait. I have a bottle Spanish brandy."  I had never seen him
before, and couldn't tell his rank, as he wore only a pair of under-
shorts. But I went along with him.  He turned out to be a full
colonel in the Medical Corps, on his way home to Camden, N.J., on
leave from the jungles.

On a table in his room was a full bottle of Green River Bourbon,
pre-war, that he was taking home to his wife.  After we had dis-
patched most of the Spanish Brandy, he gave me a carton of Camels
and the bottle of Green River.  Such are old friends in war time.

I keep thinking of the wonderful times I had back there with all
of you.  They are very pleasant memories.

Am writing Dorothy to thank her and George for their many kindness-
es to me. I shall tell her that I have written you all the horrible
details of my life since I left and that rather than write it all
over agin I am asking you to let her read this letter, if she cares
to.  Same for Jack and Jane.

All my love to all of you.

[signed in blue pencil]
Papa

Is your Phone State 456667



Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzana, California
1298 Kapiolani Boulevard
Honolulu 42 Hawaii
12 March, 1945
Joan Darling

Thought that you and Jack and Jane might enjoy the enclosed
clippings that have everyone in Hawaii laughing except the
Marines.

As I wrote you some time ago, I am sort of toying with the
idea of returning to the mainland and staying there.  As I
wrote Ralph, I am just wasting time here.  I have a couple
of other very excellent reasons, which I shall lay before
the board of directors if and when I return.

But don't rent an apartment for me, as there is no telling
when I can get away.  Too, I don't want to come back until
the weather there is warmer than it was while I was home
recently.

I hate to leave while Hulbert is here.  However, he leads
his own life, to which I can add nothing. Furthermore, he
is talking of asking for a transfer.

Hope that you are all well and happy.  I certainly should
like to be able to drop in on you once in a while.  That
would be fun.

My love to you, Joanne and Mike.

Always,

Papa

 


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