Edgar Rice Burroughs

I am in the midst of an uncharacteristic urge to read everything that Edgar Rice Burroughs has written: at least eighty novels and other pieces of fiction. The way I see it, I could dedicate the time to reading all six volumes of My Struggle or have a bit more fun knocking off the more well known series like Tarzan and John Carter and maybe a smattering of the less known series like Pellucidar and Caspak. Could I do both?

Burroughs is one of the most well known American authors, translated and read around the world. I read my first Tarzan in Spanish over fifty years ago and even though I probably didn’t finish the book, I was intrigued. Then there were all those Tarzan movies and television shows to keep the image alive, despite so many being horribly racist and often down-right silly. The recent Disney movie John Carter, despite being awful, introduced me to the Barsoom series and like Tarzan, I think I will read all of the novels (even if only in the bathroom).

I recently completed Tarzan of the Apes which, narratively, is the first novel of the series. At first I thought I had read this novel before but then remembered having read Philip José Farmer’s fictional biography, Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke. If you think you know everything about Tarzan from all the movies, read Burroughs’ original novel. I won’t say it’s great literature but except for a few glaringly twisted sentences, it isn’t badly written and is vivid, simple, exciting, and fast-loving.

Here are the selected works of Edgar Rice Burroughs from Wkipedia (for a more detailed and complete list, see the bibliography entry):

Tarzan series

• Tarzan of the Apes (1912)
• The Return of Tarzan (1913)
• The Beasts of Tarzan (1914)
• The Son of Tarzan (1914)
• Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar (1916)
• Jungle Tales of Tarzan, 1917 [1916].
• Tarzan the Untamed, 1921 [1919].
• Tarzan the Terrible (1921)
• Tarzan and the Golden Lion, 1923 [1922].
• Tarzan and the Ant Men (1924)
• Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, 1928 [1927].
• Tarzan and the Lost Empire (1928)
• Tarzan at the Earth’s Core (1929)
• Tarzan the Invincible (1930–31).
• Tarzan Triumphant (1931)
• Tarzan and the City of Gold (1932)
• Tarzan and the Lion Man, 1934 [1933].
• Tarzan and the Leopard Men (1935)
• Tarzan’s Quest, 1936 [1935].
• Tarzan the Magnificent, 1937 [1936].
• Tarzan and the Forbidden City (1938)
• Tarzan and the Foreign Legion (1947)
• Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins (1963, for younger readers)
• Tarzan and the Madman (1964)
• Tarzan and the Castaways (1965)
• Burroughs, Edgar Rice; Lansdale, Joe R (1995), Tarzan: the Lost Adventure.

Barsoom series

• A Princess of Mars (1912)
• The Gods of Mars (1914)
• The Warlord of Mars (1918)
• Thuvia, Maid of Mars (1920)
• The Chessmen of Mars (1922)
• The Master Mind of Mars (1928)
• A Fighting Man of Mars (1931)
• Swords of Mars (1936)
• Synthetic Men of Mars (1940)
• Llana of Gathol (1948)
• John Carter of Mars (1964)
  • Burroughs, John Coleman (1940), John Carter and the Giant of Mars.
  • “Skeleton Men of Jupiter” (1942)

Pellucidar series

• At the Earth’s Core (1914)
• Pellucidar (1923)
• Tanar of Pellucidar (1928)
• Tarzan at the Earth’s Core (1929)
• Back to the Stone Age (1937)
• Land of Terror (1944)
• Savage Pellucidar (1963)

Venus series

• Pirates of Venus (1934)
• Lost on Venus (1935)
• Carson of Venus (1939)
• Escape on Venus (1946)
• The Wizard of Venus (1970)

Caspak series

• The Land That Time Forgot (1918)
• The People That Time Forgot (1918)
• Out of Time’s Abyss (1918)

Moon series

• The Moon Maid (1926; The Moon Men)
  • Part I: The Moon Maid
  • Part II: The Moon Men
  • Part III: The Red Hawk

Mucker series

• The Mucker (1914)
• The Return of the Mucker (1916)
• The Oakdale Affair (1917)

Other science fiction

• Beyond the Farthest Star (1941)
• The Lost Continent (1916; aka Beyond Thirty)
• The Monster Men (1929)
• The Resurrection of Jimber-Jaw (1937)
• Jungle adventure novels[edit]
• The Man-Eater (1915)
• The Cave Girl (1925)
• The Eternal Lover (1925; aka The Eternal Savage)
• Jungle Girl (1932; aka Land of the Hidden Men)
• The Lad and the Lion (1938)

Western novels

• The Bandit of Hell’s Bend (1926)
• The War Chief (1927)
• Apache Devil (1933)
• The Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County (1940)

Historical novels

• I am a Barbarian (1967)
• The Outlaw of Torn (1927)

Other works

• The Efficiency Expert (1921)
• Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder (2001)
• The Girl from Farris’s (1916)
• The Girl from Hollywood (1923)
• The Mad King (1926)
• Marcia of the Doorstep (1924)
• Minidoka: 937th Earl of One Mile Series M (1998)
• Pirate Blood (1970)
• The Rider (1937)
• You Lucky Girl! (1927)