MEET
THE AUTHORS: EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS
Amazing
Stories - June 1941
We present here an autobiographical
sketch of Edgar Rice Burroughs, popular author of the John Carter stories
now running in our pages.
In the first place, I
don't like this assignment. If I tell the truth about myself, it will make
dull reading. If I tell all the truth, it will be very embarrassing for
me. But who ever takes his air down and tells all the truth about himself?
According to the orthodox
and approved introduction to an autobiography. I should tell all about
my birth; but unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I can recall absolutely
nothing about it: I don't even know that I was there.
Another cruel thing about
an autobiography is that one is supposed to tell the exact date of one's
birth. Oh, well, what's the difference? I was born on Wednesday. I think
I got around that very neatly, for how many of you know that September
1st, 1875, fell on a Wednesday?
But I can go back much
farther than that: my first ancestor of record (barring Adam) was Coel
Codevog, King of the Britons, who ruled in the third century. There! You
see it was just as I expected: as soon as you start writing your autobiography,
you start bragging. You don't say a word about Stephen Burroughs who was
such a notorious forger and jailbreaker in early New England days that
a book was written about him. I probably inherited my bent for writing
from him.
Early childhood: Probably
the less said about that the better. Fortunately for me, nearly everyone
who knew me then has carried his damning evidence tot he grave. Let it
lie and moulder: that will save me from lying.
Education: I had a lot
of it, none of which stuck. After an advanced course in a private kindergarten,
where I majored in weaving mats from strips of colored paper, I went as
far as the sixth grade in the old Brown School in Chicago. That school
has a roster that sounds like a Who's Who: Lillian Russell, Flo Ziegfeld,
and dozens of others whose names I cannot recall. Then along came a diphtheria
epidemic, and our parents yanked half a dozen of us boys out of public
school and put us in Miss Coolies Maplehurst School for Girls! Were our
faces red!
From Chicago Tribune ~ 1887.09.08
Miss Coolie endured us for
one semester, after which most of us were sent ot the Harvard School on
the South Side. Somewhere along the cow path of my education I had a private
tutor; then I was sent to Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts. They
stood for me for one semester before they asked my father to take me out
of there.
He did. He took me to
The Michigan Military Academy at Orchard Lake, Michigan, which had a sub
rosa reputation as a polite reform school. I remained there four years
as a cadet, ending up as second ranking cadet officer; then I went back
as assistant commandant and cavalry instructor.
Somewhere along the line
I went to Idaho and punched cows. I greatly enjoyed that experience as
there were no bathtubs in Idaho at that time. I recall having gone as long
as three weeks on a round-up without taking off more than my boots and
Stetson. I wore Mexican spurs inlaid with silver; they had enormous rowels
and were equipped with dumb bells. When I walked across a floor, the rowels
dragged behind me and the dumb bells clattered; you could have heard me
coming for a city block. Boy! was I proud!
After leaving Orchard
Lake, I enlisted in the 7th U. S. Cavalry and was sent to Fort Grant, Arizona,
where I chased Apaches, but never caught up with them. After that, some
more cow punching; a storekeeper in Pocatello, Idaho; a policeman in Salt
Lake City; gold mining in Idaho and Oregon; various clerical jobs in Chicago;
department manager for Sears, Roebuck & Co., and, finally, Tarzan of
the Apes.
For thirty years I have
been writing deathless classics, and I suppose that I shall keep on writing
them until I am gathered to the bosom of Abraham. In all those years I
have not learned one single rule for writing fiction, or anything else.
I still write as I did thirty years ago: stories which I feel would entertain
me and give me mental relaxation, knowing that there are millions of people
just like me who will like the same things that I like.
The readers of this magazine
have been very generous to me, and in return I try to give them the best
that I can. No man can ring the bell every time; but he can always try;
and your generous support, as evidenced by the letters you write to the
editor, are, I can assure you, an incentive to a writer to do his best
for you.
(Editor's Addenda: During
the past few months, with the publishing of "John Carter and the Giant
of Mars" in our January issue, we began a new series of Burroughs novels,
to continue until early in 1942. During this time we will publish in all,
five stories of the immortal John Carter [which, says Mr. Burroughs, will
later appear in book form as the finest of the series of Mars stories};
and four stories in the Pellucidar series, featuring David Innes in that
strange world inside the earth. Simultaneously, in our companion magazine,
Fantastic Adventures, we will feature a series of four novels of the adventures
of the popular Venusian character, Carson of Venus. Thus, with 1941, we
will be presenting, with the exception of the famous Tarzan, all of the
pseudo-science, fantastic characters of the world's greatest imaginative
writer.
No other author has ever
achieved the widespread circulation, over the entire glove, in so many
different languages, that Edgar Rice Burroughs has reached. Literally millions
of his books are on millions of bookshelves and in millions of memories.
Here is a pulp writer who will live as long in the mind of old and young
alike as pulp fiction will live.
AMAZING STORIES has published
the work of this writer before. Notable examples are "Land That Time Forgot,"
published in February, March, and April, 1927, in serial form; and "The
Master Mind of Mars," published in AMAZING STORIES ANNUAL, in July , 1927,
in complete form.
Thus, for fourteen years,
we have been associated, and to judge from the praise that is being
heaped upon his recent work, we will be associated for many more years.
It is interesting to note
that most of these present stories were written, not at Tarzana,
the famed ranch and post office that Tarzan built, but in the south seas,
in Hawaii. Here where soft breezes sweep in from the sea, and warm sun
beats down on green palms and yellow sand, have been born the most thrilling
adventure stories of other worlds Mr. Burroughs has yet written. Long may
you live, John Carter, Carson Napier, David Innes -- and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
"FOOLS
RUSH IN"
By Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzan Triumphant dust
jacket - September 1, 1932
This is the third of my books to be published by my own
corporation, and notwithstanding the head shakings of many a good friend,
including several experienced publishers, we have found the venture profitable.
We could not have selected a less propitious time to enter the publishing
or any other business, yet we took the chance in the face of many reminders
of the sad fate that attended the late Mark Twain's historic publishing
venture and in spite of the fact that several publishers have were keen
to publish my novels.
So far we have not regretted our decision; our sales are
increasing even during this period of financial uncertainty, and
we have made a lot of splendid new friends and are having a bully time
all around. Every one has been so helpful and decent to us that we have
decided that even were we to lose money it would be worth it just be in
the publishing business.
We are trying to give you the best book for the money
that can be turned out, and we feel that we are succeeding. We hope that
these books satisfy you, if they do, tell us; if they don't, tell the marines
-- we like to hear nice things.
Tarzan's
Author, Edgar Rice Burroughs,
Dies At Age Of 74
1875-1950
By Associated Press
ENCINO, CALIF., March 20 -- Edgar Rice Burroughs, who
dug a literary gold mine in the African jungle with Tarzan, is dead.
Burroughs died yesterday, but the ape-man he created will
live on to delight other generations of youngsters the world over.
Fifteen novels were awaiting publication when Burroughs
died of a heart attack. A movie producer said he had contracted to make
15 more Tarzan films. A tradition born in 1912, when Burroughs sold his
first Tarzan book, apparently will continue for years to come.
The 74-year-old writer became ill three months ago, but
up to that time had kept busy turning out new stories about his jungle
hero.
"Tarzan of the Apes" brought Burroughs only $700. After
its phenomenal success, he retained control over his literary works and
the royalties reached fabulous proportions. From movie rights alone he
is reported to have realized $5,000,000.
Almost 40,000,000 Tarzan books have been sold. Some have
been translated into as many as 56 languages. The ape-man, portrayed by
such actors as Johnny Weissmuller, Buster Crabbe and currently Lex Barker,
has appeared in 27 movies.
Burroughs never set foot in Africa, the locale of his
jungle stories. He liked to recall, however, that world travelers frequently
complimented him on the authenticity of his settings.
Burroughs and his first wife, the former Emma Hulbert,
whom he had married in 1900, were divorced in 1934. A year later he married
Florence Dearholt. That marriage ended in divorce in 1941. He had three
children, Joan, John and Hulbert, by his first marriage.
Burroughs was living in Honolulu when Pearl Harbor was
attacked. Accredited as a war correspondent for the Los Angeles Times despite
his age, he traveled from island to island with the armed forces for four
years.
Before he began writing he had been a salesman, clerk,
cowboy, gold miner and railroad guard.
. WEBJED: BILL HILLMAN .