Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan's First Farther.
Edgar Rice Burroughs, the man whose imagination gave birth to Tarzan, was himself born, in Chicago in 1875. His erratic education included bronco busting in frontier Idaho and mastering classical languages at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He ultimately graduated from Michigan Military Academy and served in the U.S. Army in Arizona until he was discharged due to a heart murmur. For the next dozen years he worked in a variety of jobsas a railway policeman, door-to-door salesman, accountant, manager of the clerical department of Sears, Roebuck & Company, and, finally, a wholesaler of pencil sharpeners.
In I9II, inspired by the popular "pulp" magazines of the day (so-named because of the inexpensive paper on which they were printed), Burroughs began to write, with no experience except for the fairy tales he had written for his children. His first published story, a science fiction tale entitled "Under the Moons of Mars", was serialized in The All-Story magazine between February and July of 1912.
That same magazine rejected the aspiring writer's next effort despite the success of his debut tale. No one was prepared for his third work of literary magic, "Tarzan of the Apes", which was printed in full in the October 1912 issue of The All-Story, an unprecedented honour, for which Burroughs received the princely sum of $700 (almost exactly the cost of a 1912 Model-T Ford).
Burroughs went on to write another 25 books about the young English lord who was raised by Congo apes as well as dozens of other books, including numerous futurist fantasies (he is considered by many not only as the father of Tarzan but of American science fiction, too). The first Tarzan film, starring Elmo Lincoln, was made in 1918; since then, Tarzan has become the second-most filmed tale of all time (ranking only behind the vampire Dracula in his popularity with Hollywood producers). The King of the Jungle, as he came to be called, has appeared in virtually every medium, from newspaper comic strips to radio and television. Burroughs' daughter Joan, who voiced the role of Jane in several radio serials in the 1930s, even married one of the silver screen's Tarzans, Jim Pierce. The Burroughs ranch, in the San Fernando Valley, near Los Angeles, lent its name to the town that grew up around it: Tarzana.
By the time he died in 1950, Edgar Rice Burroughs was wealthy and famous. He had wanted to create popular entertainment, and his heroic orphan boy became one of the most popular and admired literary characters of all time. The Walt Disney Company's 1999 film Tarzan was the first animated feature version of the story. The Broadway production, which opened on May 10, 2006, is the saga's first stage musical incarnation.
Sound Design by John Shivers
Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan's First Farther.
Edgar Rice Burroughs, the man whose imagination gave birth to Tarzan, was himself born, in Chicago in 1875. His erratic education included bronco busting in frontier Idaho and mastering classical languages at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He ultimately graduated from Michigan Military Academy and served in the U.S. Army in Arizona until he was discharged due to a heart murmur. For the next dozen years he worked in a variety of jobsas a railway policeman, door-to-door salesman, accountant, manager of the clerical department of Sears, Roebuck & Company, and, finally, a wholesaler of pencil sharpeners.
In I9II, inspired by the popular "pulp" magazines of the day (so-named because of the inexpensive paper on which they were printed), Burroughs began to write, with no experience except for the fairy tales he had written for his children. His first published story, a science fiction tale entitled "Under the Moons of Mars", was serialized in The All-Story magazine between February and July of 1912.
That same magazine rejected the aspiring writer's next effort despite the success of his debut tale. No one was prepared for his third work of literary magic, "Tarzan of the Apes", which was printed in full in the October 1912 issue of The All-Story, an unprecedented honour, for which Burroughs received the princely sum of $700 (almost exactly the cost of a 1912 Model-T Ford).
Burroughs went on to write another 25 books about the young English lord who was raised by Congo apes as well as dozens of other books, including numerous futurist fantasies (he is considered by many not only as the father of Tarzan but of American science fiction, too). The first Tarzan film, starring Elmo Lincoln, was made in 1918; since then, Tarzan has become the second-most filmed tale of all time (ranking only behind the vampire Dracula in his popularity with Hollywood producers). The King of the Jungle, as he came to be called, has appeared in virtually every medium, from newspaper comic strips to radio and television. Burroughs' daughter Joan, who voiced the role of Jane in several radio serials in the 1930s, even married one of the silver screen's Tarzans, Jim Pierce. The Burroughs ranch, in the San Fernando Valley, near Los Angeles, lent its name to the town that grew up around it: Tarzana.
By the time he died in 1950, Edgar Rice Burroughs was wealthy and famous. He had wanted to create popular entertainment, and his heroic orphan boy became one of the most popular and admired literary characters of all time. The Walt Disney Company's 1999 film Tarzan was the first animated feature version of the story. The Broadway production, which opened on May 10, 2006, is the saga's first stage musical incarnation.
Sound Design by John Shivers
