Official Edgar Rice Burroughs Tribute and Weekly Webzine Site Since 1996 ~ Over 10,000 Web Pages in Archive Presents Volume 5130 |
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TARZAN AT THE EARTH’S CORE by Woodrow Edgar Nichols, Jr. 
Introduction and Contents |
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Official Edgar Rice Burroughs Tribute and Weekly Webzine Site Since 1996 ~ Over 10,000 Web Pages in Archive Presents Volume 5130 |
|
TARZAN AT THE EARTH’S CORE by Woodrow Edgar Nichols, Jr.
Introduction and Contents |
“Morbius was too close to the problem...the Krell had completed the project...big machine...no instrumentalities...true creation...but the Krell forgot one thing...Monsters, John...Monsters from the Id.”
INTRODUCTION: MONSTERS FROM THE IDLt. “Doc” Ostrow (Warren Stevens), Forbidden Planet.I am assuming that everyone has seen Forbidden Planet, the MGM science fiction classic starring Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Nielsen, Anne Francis, and Robby the Robot. You will recall how the advanced civilization of the Krell invented brain boosting machines that allowed their dreams and focused imaginations to take on the flesh and blood of materialization, so that they were indeed true creators. But, as the Doc warns us, they didn’t take into account their baser instincts of the Id, of the primitive reptile brain, and that lack of insight doomed them to universal destruction when those urges of jealousy, envy, lust and revenge were unleashed all at once in an orgy of hate. They became extinct in one night.ERB too suffered Monsters from the Id. After he had received a severe head injury in Toronto in the summer of 1899, he began having severe migraine headaches and even had a few bouts with temporary amnesia. He would wake up almost every night screaming and raving from nightmares from his unconscious. His wife, Emma, joked half-seriously, that this was also the source of his great creativity. By the time ERB had witnessed the full carnage of the materializations of the Monsters from the Id in the South Pacific theater during WWII, he began to worry about a Krell-like future for mankind.
And thus, the Inner World of ERB, and, therefore, the double meaning to our title. The first meaning is the obvious one, since we are dealing with Tarzan’s guided tour of the wonderful imaginative world of Pellucidar – a wholly improbable world brought to life through the magic of words well told – but, as we have seen, the second meaning is more subtle, dealing with the inner world of ERB’s own imagination, the world that made all of this creativity possible.
There appears to be an overall agreement among ERB’s biographers that the source of ERB’s boundless imagination may have been the result of a head injury, a severe concussion that occurred before the turn of the Twentieth Century, either in Idaho or in Toronto. That the latter is more likely is revealed in two letters that came to light when they were discovered by Danton Burroughs several years ago – before his tragic early death – in the ERB archive.
Originally, John Coleman Burroughs (“Jack,” ERB’s youngest son), told the story that the concussion he had received was as the result of a cosh swung by an Idaho policeman after he was mistaken as a participant in a barroom brawl; he was actually just an innocent bystander, if there is such a thing in a melee. I have been in several melees – although I have not been in a fist fight since I was twenty – and if I remember correctly it involves taking a swing at the person next to you hoping that he is not your friend.
I believe that this version is a family coverup, likely told by his mother, Emma, since it occurred years before Jack was born. Of course, ERB could have told Emma this version, but since the scar caused by the rap didn’t appear on his head until the summer of 1899, several years after the Idaho incident, it is likely that she lied, or, to be polite, misled her son. I have experience with this from my own mother. When I was little she told me stories about her growing up in Alameda before and during the Depression, that ended up, when I privately talked with her brother years later, to be totally false and delusional. That always rubs you the wrong way and leaves a sinking feeling in your chest when you discover that your mother has lied to you for no apparent reason, especially when you believed the story she told you and even related it to others. How fragile reality can be.
The truth must have come as quite a shock to Jack because he never revealed the true story to his son, Danton, since the true story proving it wrong was actually sent to Jack from a drinking colleague of an old alleged friend of ERB’s named Frank Martin. The letter can be accessed at ERBzine 1177. On March 21, 1950, following the death of ERB, R.H. Patchin sent him a badly typed letter of condolence, in which he states that he, ERB, and Frank Martin had all been guests of Frank’s father, Colonel L.M. Martin, a very wealthy man with his own private train car. They had taken an extended trip from Chicago to New York, Quebec, and Toronto, and then back to Chicago. He also states that Colonel Martin was an old friend of ERB’s father, the Old Major. Thus we can assume that ERB and Frank Martin, as children of these close friends, must have known each other, especially since Patchin states that they were actual friends. I will now quote in full the relevant part of the letter:
“You may have heard of the brawl we had in Toronto with some Canadian hoodlums in the course of which Ed was rapped on the head and had to be taken to the hospital to have the wound sewed up. This was about two o’clock in the morning and I will never forget the Hospital when, in reply to our inquiry as to where we were staying in Toronto, your father replied, ‘in our private car down in the Grand Trunk Station’. This seemed dubious in view of the fact that Ed was spattered with blood and his five o’clock shadow had become midnight. The Doctor became very severe with us and next morning came down to the station to see whether or not we were there.”
He ends with “You have my deepest sympathy and I am very sorry indeed” – after which he stopped typing and wrote in his own hand – “to lose a friend.” (Id.) Perhaps Emma was never made aware of this brawl, likely because it occurred in a red light district, so she may have gotten another story from ERB to cover it up, since he ended up with a bad scar on his forehead that showed for years. Anyway, whatever ERB told her, she found it safe to avoid the Toronto event when she told Jack how his daddy had gotten the scar. Thus, although there may be some truth in it – after all, ERB could have been involved in many barroom fights – you can see that that story is more likely a family coverup, which were fairly typical in the ERB family because of the fear of scandal and lost revenues that might ensue if ERB’s true Monsters from the Id were ever publically exposed.
The Idaho story was reported in one of the biographies and can be found repeated at several ERBzine sites, but I believe it is refuted by the two letters found by Danton. This case is dealt with in R.E. Prindle’s thought provoking article, “Four Crucial Years in the Life of Edgar Rice Burroughs IV” (ERBzine 1343), although I don’t find his argument convincing that the injury was as the result of a Frank Martin conspiracy to get rid of ERB as a nuisance suitor over the hand of Emma Hulburt, ERB’s eventual first wife. Such a fatal rivalry is not evidenced in the Patchin letter in my opinion.
Jack wrote back to Patchin on April 4, 1950, stating that he had become aware of the story less than a year before when ERB had told him about it, mentioning Patchin’s name and the occasion of the brawl. ERB likely figured his son was old enough to hear the truth. Jack then states: “Mother used to jokingly attribute his success to that blow – and I used to think that perhaps if I could get one I should be more like him.” This letter is also at ERBzine 1177. Thus, Jack had knowledge of the truth in 1949 and never told anyone about it, sticking to the Idaho story when consulted by biographers, likely to protect his mother’s reputation. That must have really disturbed poor Danton, for Jack also relates that his father told him that the trip was virtually an extended drunken binge. Listen to this:
“Dad also recalled that on the same trip, a colored porter would knock on the stateroom doors the first thing every morning. The porter bore a silver tray upon which was a choice of ‘eye-openers’. According to DAD [sic], this went on over different parts of the private car during the rest of the days and into the evenings. ‘It was one of the most interesting train trips that I have ever taken,’ Dad would remark.” (Id.)
No wonder the Toronto doctor was suspicious. And on top of the headaches, amnesia, and nightmares, there were also allegations that the concussion may have allowed ERB to experience altered states of consciousness, an idea that I find attractive since I have experienced the same kind of subjective time that exists in Pellucidar. Before I smoked pot, took uppers to stay awake during college, or dropped LSD, I had experienced internal time distortion during periods of shock and the adrenaline rush that follows thereafter – where everything slows down exceedingly – giving you the time you need to react. If this didn’t happen, I would have been dead long ago.
And I find that when I am in the midst of creative writing that I lose all sense of time. I’ve gone through writing binges where I forget what day it is, or whether it is evening or morning; on a cloudy day the sun is no beacon. Again, Prindle has a thought provoking article on this subject, “ERB Wrestles with Time,” which can be accessed at ERBzine 2037. Thankfully, ERB managed to control his Monsters from the Id, creating numerous great stories that challenge the imagination and the ability to sustain it. Enjoy Pellucidar. Tarzan did.
TABLE OF CONTENTSForeword......................................................................................................... ERBzine 5130
Chapter I: The 0-220........................................................................................ ERBzine 5131
Chapter II: Pellucidar....................................................................................... ERBzine 5132
Chapter III: The Great Cats............................................................................. ERBzine 5133
Chapter IV: The Sagoths.................................................................................. ERBzine 5134
Chapter V: Brought Down............................................................................... ERBzine 5135
Chapter VI: A Phororhacos of the Miocene..................................................... ERBzine 5136
Chapter VII: The Red Flower of Zoram........................................................... ERBzine 5137
Chapter VIII: Jana and Jason.......................................................................... ERBzine 5138
Chapter IX: To the Thipdar’s Nest.................................................................... ERBzine 5139
Chapter X: Only a Man May Go...................................................................... ERBzine 5140
Chapter XI: The Cavern of Clovi..................................................................... ERBzine 5141
Chapter XII: The Phelian Swamp.................................................................... ERBzine 5142
Chapter XIII: The Horibs................................................................................ ERBzine 5143
Chapter XIV: Through the Dark Forest........................................................... ERBzine 5144
Chapter XV: Prisoners..................................................................................... ERBzine 5145
Chapter XVI: Escape........................................................................................ ERBzine 5146
Chapter XVII: Reunion.................................................................................... ERBzine 5147
Appendixes:A. “Vacuum Airships: Is the 0-220 Possible,” by Rick Johnson.................... ERBzine 5128
B. “The Politics of the 0-220,” by Rick Johnson............................................ ERBzine 5129
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