Edgar Rice Burroughs
I live and grew up in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California, next to a township that was once the sprawling ranch of the publisher of the Los Angeles Times, General Harrison Gray Otis. In 1919, Otis sold the ranch to a successful writer who named the place Tarzana, after his most famous character creation. That writer, of course, was Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875–1950), one of the most successful authors of all time.
But he didn’t set out to be one. He was a restless soul who bounced from job to job, and wrote fanciful stories to entertain himself and relieve some of the stress of trying to support his wife and growing family. In 1911, when he was 35 years old, he had to pawn his watch and some of his wife’s jewelry to put food on the table. In desperation, he submitted “half a novel” to the early pulp publication All-Story Magazine. The editor wrote back and told him if the second half was as good as the first, he’d publish it.
Burroughs finished it, and Under the Moons of Mars was published in 1912 (later released as a novel, The Princess of Mars). He was paid $400. Encouraged, Burroughs wrote a novel taking place in medieval England. It was rejected. He almost gave up, but his editor told him to try again, and go back to his “damphool” stuff.
Inspired by the legend of Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome who were fed by a she-wolf, and the jungle stories of Rudyard Kipling, Burroughs came up with a story about an English baby named Greystoke who is suckled by an ape in darkest Africa. He got $700 for that one. In 1914 it was published as a novel and became a huge bestseller.
Elmo Lincoln as Tarzan (1918)
The movies came calling. In 1918 Tarzan of the Apes hit the silent screen. Starring Elmo Lincoln, it was among the first silents to gross over $1 million.
Since then, there have been over 40 Tarzan movies (including cartoon versions!) and nearly 60 one-hour TV episodes. And while the movies made Burroughs a lot of money, he didn’t like them. His Tarzan was not the Johnny Weissmuller “Me Tarzan, you Jane” guy, but a man who became civilized and articulate, and even sat in the House of Lords! (The movie version closest to Burroughs’ vision is 1984’s Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, starring Christopher Lambert.)
In addition to Tarzan, Burroughs also created John Carter of Mars, and is credited with being the father of modern sci-fi.
Not bad for a guy who didn’t set out to become a bestselling author. So how did he do it? I see three traits worth mentioning.
First, he had a tremendous imagination, nurtured by his love of reading. You want to be a writer? A real writer? You have to read and read and read. Indeed, Tarzan of the Apes is the first “big” book I remember reading as a kid. I can see myself now, sprawled on the couch in the living room, lost in the book and not wanting to put it down. You all know that feeling. It’s magical, and sparks a desire to write stories like that.
Second, he wrote to entertain himself. In an interview he remarked, “In all these years I have not learned one single rule for writing fiction. I still write as I did 30 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 I like. Anyway, I have great fun with my imaginings, and I can appreciate–in a small way–the swell time God had in creating the Universe.”
If you’re not having fun writing your stories (and of course, there are times when it’s tough going and you bang your head against the wall, but recover and write some more and find the fun again, and best of all the satisfaction that comes from completing the work) then readers won’t have fun (or less than they could have) reading your stories.
Third, he had a strong business sense, forged by his experience in the corporate world. He kept meticulous records of his submissions, his correspondence with editors, and fought for higher pay for his stories.
And there was merch, too, everything from Tarzan toy animals to Tarzan Ice Cream Cups sold off a truck.
He had no respect for literary critics who scoffed at his kind of writing. His wife once sighed at the sight of Ernest Hemingway. Ever after Burroughs would chide her, saying maybe she should go off to an island with her beloved Ernest.
The great Ray Bradbury once remarked, “Edgar Rice Burroughs was, and is, the most influential writer, bar none, of our century.” Wow. And so I ask—
How do you stack up on the three traits mentioned above?
I still love the Johnny Weissmuller movies on their own merits, especially the first four, though Tarzan and the Amazons is fun, especially because Maria Ouspenskaya is in it. Do you have a favorite?
NOTE: This post drew primarily from two sources:
The illustrated biography of Burroughs by Irwin Porges.
And the official ERB website.