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Post by deuce on Nov 4, 2018 0:45:37 GMT -5
The great Poul Anderson giving props to the Master...
Apes and Martians
Poul Anderson Boys Life ~ September 1972
Tarzan of the Apes "lived as the lion lives -- a true jungle creature dependent solely on his own prowess and his wits, playing a lone hand against creation." Seldom armed with more than a knife and lasso, seldom protected by more than a loincloth, he met head-on every imaginable menace. From Numa the lion, through cannibal tribesmen and the scheming pagan priests of lost cities, to the might of a European empire -- the ape-man triumphed over all his enemies.
Yet the author who dreamed him into being was hardly anything like his jungle hero.
Edgar Rice Burroughs was a man with a sense of humor and proportion. He never pretended he was great. He stumbled into his lifework, after spending his young manhood in failure and frustration. The literary classics left him cold, so he learned nothing from them. The "factual" background of his stories was sometimes wildly wrong. He acknowledged all this. Yet his name flew around the world. And now, after a period of eclipse, it is again being widely seen.
Tarzan is as familiar a figure, as much a part of modern folklore, as Sherlock Holmes. Another Burroughs character, John Carter of Mars, also enjoys reborn popularity even though Mariner probes have shown that Mars cannot possibly be the kind of place the stories describe. Likewise, we know today that the Earth cannot be hollow, with a tiny sun at the core lighting up an inhabited inner world; but the "Pellucidar" tales are eagerly read. These three series are only part of the Burroughs revival.
Meanwhile, many contemporaries of his, honored authors of serious and significant books, are forgotten.
But let's not put down Edgar Rice Burroughs. He had two great virtues that outweigh many faults. First he owned an extraordinarily rich imagination. Second, he was a born teller of fast-paced, action-crammed stories. Either of these gifts is hard to come by. The combination is unbeatable.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Nov 8, 2018 10:51:07 GMT -5
The Greatest Adventure is on sale on Amazon. I picked this up recently, and am enjoying the story and artwork. The story arc is sprawling, and with such a host of characters, I will say it can get difficult to keep up with who is who. Just pay close attention to their attire, clues-you-in on who's who. The plot involves many of ERB's lesser-known characters to those who haven't read more than Tarzan and Mars. Maybe it'll spark your interest to broaden your ERB experience?
From Enclyopedia Barsoom Wiki: Bill Willingham On Edgar Rice Burroughs and The Greatest Adventure
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Post by deuce on Nov 17, 2018 12:48:06 GMT -5
Frank McCarthy died on this date in 2002. Frank was a legend in the realm of genre illustration--James Bond, men's adventure, Westerns--he kicked ass on all of 'em. He also did this cover for The War Chief. www.frankmccarthy.com/
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Nov 29, 2018 11:36:46 GMT -5
On Wiki, that first column is the date written and includes the ones I mentioned (Land of Terror was done in 1939, but probably should have been published in 1940). So he was busy writing in 1940 (very!) and a lot got of them published, it's just odd he wasn't able to get a Tarzan or Pellucidar story sold that could've been serialized. Maybe it's because those weren't specifically broken up into shorter stories like most of what he did sell around that time. Now after 1941-42 his published works practically disappear, almost certainly due to the war coverage. I did a little more checking and Savage Pellucidar was not written until 1944, even after Tarzan and the Foreign Legion! So we can take that out of the mix. Wonder why he didn't finish it in late 1940 with the others? John, Huck on the Facebook group For the Love of All Things Edgar Rice Burroughs suggested an interesting graph might be Words Written per Year by ERB. Based on his comments, I put this together. As you mentioned, ERB initially wrote many of his novels as 'installments' or short stories. For instance, four short stories were later published as Llana of Gathol, as you probably know. If any inaccuracies are spotted, let me know, I can easily fix and reproduce these images and am glad to do so. Some notes on the data
This graph utilizes data from multiple sources, these being: > Wikipedia> ERBList Words and Wages> Gutenberg > ERBzineFor You Lucky Girl (1927) I couldn't find the word count, so I used this method: Danton Burroughs states that Marcia of the Doorstep has 125,000 words. Amazon has it that the Donald M. Grant hardback is 351 pp, and the Grant You Lucky Girl at 169 pp. Simple math estimates You Lucky Girl at roughly 60000. ERBList displays 3 sources for word length which differ. I went with the greater value, assuming the others reflected editorial edits to reduce word count. Even if the higher word count version was never published, in point of fact, he wrote it, published or unpublished notwithstanding. For Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder, I was able to find textual examples for 6 or 8 stories, and obtain an exact word count (by copying and pasting into Word). For the others, I calculated an average of 355 words per page, and did the math to arrive at a calculated word count. Note, image pages were skipped, and fractional numbers were used to make this calculation as precise as possible (IE 0.7 was used for each start page, as it had the title, and the text actually began a quarter of the way down the page. If a page ended with half a page of text, 0.5 was used for that page. I hope that's accurate enough. For Tarzan: The Lost Adventure, I counted the words (344) on the example typed page on Bill Hillman's site. There were 83 pages discovered, simple math deduces the word count.
The graph:
Since I can't upload the data, and some may find this of interest, I made this screen shot. In it, you can see the serials listed individually, etc.
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Post by deuce on Nov 30, 2018 13:23:27 GMT -5
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Post by johnnypt on Dec 1, 2018 11:08:10 GMT -5
On Wiki, that first column is the date written and includes the ones I mentioned (Land of Terror was done in 1939, but probably should have been published in 1940). So he was busy writing in 1940 (very!) and a lot got of them published, it's just odd he wasn't able to get a Tarzan or Pellucidar story sold that could've been serialized. Maybe it's because those weren't specifically broken up into shorter stories like most of what he did sell around that time. Now after 1941-42 his published works practically disappear, almost certainly due to the war coverage. I did a little more checking and Savage Pellucidar was not written until 1944, even after Tarzan and the Foreign Legion! So we can take that out of the mix. Wonder why he didn't finish it in late 1940 with the others? John, Huck on the Facebook group For the Love of All Things Edgar Rice Burroughs suggested an interesting graph might be Words Written per Year by ERB. Based on his comments, I put this together. As you mentioned, ERB initially wrote many of his novels as 'installments' or short stories. For instance, four short stories were later published as Llana of Gathol, as you probably know. If any inaccuracies are spotted, let me know, I can easily fix and reproduce these images and am glad to do so. Some notes on the data
This graph utilizes data from multiple sources, these being: > Wikipedia> ERBList Words and Wages> GutenbergFor You Lucky Girl (1927) I couldn't find the word count, so I used this method: Danton Burroughs states that Marcia of the Doorstep has 125,000 words. Amazon has it that the Donald M. Grant hardback is 351 pp, and the Grant You Lucky Girl at 169 pp. Simple math estimates You Lucky Girl at roughly 60000. ERBList displays 3 sources for word length which differ. I went with the greater value, assuming the others reflected editorial edits to reduce word count. Even if the higher word count version was never published, in point of fact, he wrote it, published or unpublished notwithstanding.
The graph: <Placeholder: In process of replacing with a graph that includes Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder, and Tarzan, The Lost Adventure>
Since I can't upload the data, and some may find this of interest, I made this screen shot. In it, you can see the serials listed individually, etc. <Placeholder: In process of replacing with a graph that includes Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder, and Tarzan, The Lost Adventure>Thank Chris, I remember when I used to have time to do things like this. Now it takes me three days answer a post! 😄
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Dec 2, 2018 12:27:39 GMT -5
Thank Chris, I remember when I used to have time to do things like this. Now it takes me three days answer a post! 😄 John- you're welcome! This was some work, digging and trying to find the information. Glad I had a copy of Forgotten Tales to dive into those short stories. Added the graph and a snap shot of the data for your enjoyment.
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Post by Von K on Dec 5, 2018 13:17:40 GMT -5
Thanks Chris, that's awesome. On a slight tangent, I read an ERB interview some years ago where he revealed a glimpse of his daily word count. It was something like 4000 per day earlier in his career and dropped off to about 2000 per day later. Wish I still had the link. I'm almost certain it was from an article posted by Deuce on the old forum's ERB thread.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Dec 5, 2018 13:29:23 GMT -5
Thanks Chris, that's awesome. On a slight tangent, I read an ERB interview some years ago where he revealed a glimpse of his daily word count. It was something like 4000 per day earlier in his career and dropped off to about 2000 per day later. Wish I still had the link. I'm almost certain it was from an article posted by Deuce on the old forum's ERB thread. Indeed, his output could borderlilne the incredible. He could finish amazing stories in freakishly short periods - a couple months, start to finish. I mentioned on the Facebook group that another interesting graph would be his articles and war correspondence, etc. The book Edgar Rice Burroughs Tells All has many examples of this type of writing. I highly recommend it for the 'completist'. You'll read news paper articles encouraging people to open their homes to soldiers, buy war bonds, etc. Fascinating stuff. Thanks, Von!
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Post by deuce on Dec 6, 2018 13:29:41 GMT -5
A cool roundtable discussion devoted to ERB. Hosted by Mike Resnick:
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Dec 7, 2018 12:51:43 GMT -5
The Podcasts of MarsTarzan and the PodcastsNah, not titles by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Instead, this is a collection of fun podcasts by author Tim DeForest, ghostwriter Scott Stewart, and long-time Burroughs fan and pasticheur Jess Terrell at The Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast blogspot. With a new podcast slated to be recorded shortly, now is a great time to catch up on the episodes to-date. Be sure to expand the Blog Archive tree on the right side of the site to find quick links to all the episodes! Podcast #5: The Chessmen of Mars
Commentary on the story, with Tim DeForest, Scott Stewart, Jess Terrell
Personal favorite quote from Chessmen: I've always loved that! J. Allen St. John art for the 1922 A.C. McClurg & Co jacket:
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Post by themirrorthief on Dec 7, 2018 14:36:29 GMT -5
Im reading Jungle Girl by erb...its really good
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Post by Von K on Dec 10, 2018 21:18:56 GMT -5
A cool roundtable discussion devoted to ERB. Hosted by Mike Resnick: Great one Deuce, thanks!
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Post by Von K on Dec 10, 2018 21:31:12 GMT -5
The Podcasts of MarsTarzan and the PodcastsNah, not titles by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Instead, this is a collection of fun podcasts by author Tim DeForest, ghostwriter Scott Stewart, and long-time Burroughs fan and pasticheur Jess Terrell at The Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast blogspot. With a new podcast slated to be recorded shortly, now is a great time to catch up on the episodes to-date. Be sure to expand the Blog Archive tree on the right side of the site to find quick links to all the episodes! Podcast #5: The Chessmen of Mars
Commentary on the story, with Tim DeForest, Scott Stewart, Jess Terrell
Personal favorite quote from Chessmen: I've always loved that! Look forward to checking this out Chris, thanks, once I've read Chessmen first that is. It's the one Mars book I've never read.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Dec 11, 2018 14:12:30 GMT -5
Im reading Jungle Girl by erb...its really good Yes it is! It's also been converted into a graphic comic strip at Edgar Rice Burroughs comic site For about $22/year, you get full access to a bunch of strips covering about all of ERB's worlds that are in constant development.
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