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Post by deuce on Aug 31, 2016 8:10:17 GMT -5
Hey MRP! A very cool find. I have a few issues of Amra (and I'm a member of REHupa), but I've never stumbled on any BBs. This should help you out: www.erbzine.com/mag6/0650.htmlAs I've said several times since I started this thread, the first place a Burroughs fan should check is ERBzine. It is an absolutely incredible resource. There is nothing like it in REH fandom. Bill Hillman has a special place reserved in ERB heaven.  |
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Post by deuce on Aug 31, 2016 9:03:24 GMT -5
Here is an excerpt from a reply Burroughs sent to superfan, Forrest Ackerman. Forry had gotten into an argument with his teacher regarding the merits of ERB:
Thanks for your letter. Tell your teacher that, though she may be right about my stories, there are some fifty million people in the world who would not agree with her, which is fortunate for me, since even writers of garbage-can literature must eat.
My stories will do you no harm. If they have helped inculcate in you a love of books, they have done you much good. No fiction is worth reading except for entertainment. If it entertains and is clean, it is good literature, of its kind. If it forms the habit of reading, in people who might not read otherwise, it is the best literature.
Last year I followed the English course prescribed for my two sons, who are in college. The required reading seemed to have been selected for the sole purpose of turning the hearts of young people against books. That, however, seems to be a universal pedagogical complex: to make the acquiring of knowledge a punishment, not a pleasure.Ed knew what was and what would be. It is especially true today in relation to the wide genre of "exotic adventure" of which ERB was a pioneer. Stories whose authors and primary intended audience have only one X chromosone, which can be labeled "violent" or "problematic", are still shunned and excoriated in academia. Meanwhile, "role models" for boys such as Harry Potter (who won't even get in a fistfight with his worst rival at Hogwarts) are held up for emulation and girls who engage in violence (Katniss from the Hunger Games, etc) are not violent, but "empowered". It isn't coincidental that both authors are women. Nor is it coincidental that Forry's teacher was a woman. We had a pretty obvious concerted effort to ostracize this type of fiction beginning in the '70s (my mom bought into it) and we now have several generations of boys who can't stand to read, whose test scores are falling and, conversely, rising test scores for girls. One might call it all coincidence, but the utter lack of concern, especially amongst third-wave/intersectional feminists, puts the lie to that. One very cool thing about the letter is the simple fact that ERB obviously read Forry's missive and replied. This was 1931. ERB was literally the biggest author on the planet. He had sold about 100 million books at that point and about 20 movies had been adapted from them. He didn't have to reply to some nerdy 14yr old. Nobody ever accused Burroughs of arrogance or snobbishness, even though he was from a fairly comfortable background. He, himself, had experienced poverty as an adult and he had been a "nerd" as a child. BTW, Norris Chambers, who knew REH well in the '30s, swore that REH had written a letter to ERB regarding the pronunciation of "Tarzan" and Ed had sent a reply. Neither letter is known to exist today.  |
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Post by mrp on Aug 31, 2016 13:51:11 GMT -5
Hey MRP! A very cool find. I have a few issues of Amra (and I'm a member of REHupa), but I've never stumbled on any BBs. This should help you out: www.erbzine.com/mag6/0650.htmlAs I've said several times since I started this thread, the first place a Burroughs fan should check is ERBzine. It is an absolutely incredible resource. There is nothing like it in REH fandom. Bill Hillman has a special place reserved in ERB heaven. Thanks deuce. -M |
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Post by deuce on Aug 31, 2016 18:58:52 GMT -5
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Post by deuce on Sept 1, 2016 0:35:23 GMT -5
Kaor! Edgar Rice Burroughs was born 141 years ago today. He influenced everyone from REH and Lovecraft, to Leiber and Moorcock, to Joe R. Lansdale, George RR Martin and Michael Chabon. The newest Tarzan movie is heading north of $350M and ERB comics are being sold by several publishers (including ERB, Inc.). That doesn't count the Ancient Opar novels being written by Christopher Paul Carey. Indeed, it's a pretty good time to be an ERB fan! Here's a link to a great article and slideshow on Ed: thejohncarterfiles.com/2012/09/remembering-edgar-rice-burroughs-on-his-birthday-video-gallery-and-his-hilarious-autobiographical-sketch/BTW, a pro documentary on Burroughs is in the works. 
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Post by deuce on Sept 1, 2016 9:18:04 GMT -5
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Post by deuce on Sept 1, 2016 12:50:45 GMT -5
A birthday tribute from novelist/comics creator, Mark Ellis:
Born on this day in 1875...the only creator whose boundless imagination might rival that of Jack Kirby's....
The immortal EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS, creator of a host of concepts and characters that became literary/pop culture templates...TARZAN OF THE APES, JOHN CARTER OF MARS, PELLUCIDAR, THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT...too many to list in detail.
The work of ERB has suffered ups and downs in the decades since his passing...he's either been reviled as a racist, a pulp hack or he's been pushed (deliberately, I often suspect) into the shadows as an embarrassment.
I guess there are *some* who don't want to acknowledge that ERB was and is one of the most popular, influential and successful writers of all time. I repeat so it can sink in: OF-ALL-TIME.
As this past summer's THE LEGEND OF TARZAN movie proves, his core concepts, characters and values are still viable and still relatable.
Regardless, ERB's body of work is beyond impressive, whether people are only familiar with it through movies (such as Disney's under-rated JOHN CARTER) or comic books, it remains, like its creator, immortal. |
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Post by deuce on Sept 2, 2016 7:29:54 GMT -5
I was on Facebook and REH guy Ben Friberg posted about Burroughs, saying that he was the ultimate fountainhead for space opera like Star Wars. I posted this in response:
HP Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Michael Crichton, Leigh Brackett, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, James P. Hogan, A. Bertram Chandler, Larry Niven, Andre Norton, Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber, Harper Lee, Philip Jose Farmer and Murray Leinster were all fans/influenced by Burroughs.
Amongst living writers, you have CJ Cherryh, Joe R. Lansdale, Gene Wolfe, Michael Moorcock, Chris Claremont (X-Men), Alan Moore (Watchmen), Kim Stanley Robinson, Roy Thomas, Ben Bova, Jerry Pournelle, Joss Whedon, Anne Rice, Jan Friedman, Michael Chabon, John Milius, George RR Martin, Sly Stallone, SM Stirling etc...
Jerry Siegel, creator of Superman, said that Supes was mainly inspired by John Carter and that there was a little bit of Tarzan (somehow) in there. Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, was an ERB fan. George Lucas admitted he was influenced by the John Carter novels. About half of American pop culture can be traced back, one way or another, to Burroughs.
Oh yeah, and ERB is the biggest selling author OF ALL TIME. That too.
Postscript: I just stumbled on a testimonial from Kristine Kathryn Rusch, an award-winning, best-selling author. She brings up her ERB fandom while talking about her love for Andre Norton --
Andre Norton is as essential to my youthful reading experience as Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan books and Agatha Christie’s mysteries. (...) I mention the Tarzan books and Agatha Christie because Burroughs, Christie, and Norton are the first writers I binged on, and I remember those binges clearly.
It occurs to me that considering Andre and Leigh Brackett were both Burroughs fans, ERB had a very sizeable impact on sci-fi/fantasy authored by women through the decades.
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Post by almuric on Sept 2, 2016 19:54:38 GMT -5
Happy 141st, ERB.
He still lives!
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Post by deuce on Sept 3, 2016 0:12:07 GMT -5
Bigger selling than Agatha Christie, deuce, whose sales number in the billions? That's a big claim for ERB's books, although I don't doubt his influence over future generations is greater. The advantage that Christie, for example, has over ERB is that her stories are being reinterpreted and updated in films and TV on a yearly basis, which in turn leads to more and more sales of her books. For instance, And Then There Were None alone has sold over 100 million copies throughout the world, and a recent three-part adaptation shown on the Beeb at Christmas last year has given it another massive sales boost, and I'm not sure that the recent Tarzan and John Carter films can do the same for ERB's work on that same scale. Needless to say I'll stand corrected if you have the data to show otherwise.  Well, I meant to say, "biggest selling American author of all time." There are certainly some grounds to believe that. I have an ERB scholar crunching numbers right now. Those are amazing numbers for Christie. Then again, mysteries rank right behind romances in popularity with female readers. Looking into this, I'm finding that there is a great deal of uncertainty when it comes to book unit sales before, say, 1995. |
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Post by deuce on Sept 3, 2016 0:20:08 GMT -5
It's still September 2nd in Tarzana. That means it is still the birthday of ERB's very fine great-grandaughter, Dejah Burroughs. She lives in the town founded by Ed and attends several ERB-related events every year. Very cool. I'm friends with her on Facebook. Her birthday is just one day later than ERB's. Dejah is in the white dress.  |
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Post by deuce on Sept 4, 2016 13:39:10 GMT -5
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Post by mrp on Sept 4, 2016 13:52:59 GMT -5
Just found this at my local library...  so I checked it out and have been reading my way through it slowly. -M |
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Post by thedarkman on Sept 4, 2016 15:14:55 GMT -5
Just found this at my local library... so I checked it out and have been reading my way through it slowly. -M I ordered this when it first came out. An amazing book; I never get tired of leafing through it. My kids will inherit this one for sure! |
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Post by deuce on Sept 13, 2016 8:31:12 GMT -5
"Tarzan Discovers Opar" by Mike Grell:  |
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