Monday, September 01, 2008

Happy Birthday, ERB!

"It's the birthday of one of the most popular pulp fiction writers in American history, Edgar Rice Burroughs, (books by this author) born in Chicago (1875). He had read Darwin's book Descent of Man back in 1899, and he was fascinated by the idea that human beings were related to apes. He began to wonder what might happen if a child from an excessively noble, well-bred family were somehow left in the jungle to be raised by apes. The result was his story 'Tarzan of the Apes,' which filled an entire issue of All-Story magazine in October of 1912."

6 comments:

Randy Johnson said...

I suppose in today's world some young readers might consider Burroughs old fashioned.
But Tarzan is one of those iconic characters that 95% of the people in the world will know, whether they can read or not.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Burroughs!

James Reasoner said...

Burroughs is one of my all-time favorites.

Fred Blosser said...

Two of his lesser known stories, THE MUCKER and THE MONSTER MEN, would still make crackling movies. THE MUCKER would have been a natural for Stallone in his younger days.

Anonymous said...

I would love it if the John Carter of Mars movie that we're getting from Pixar in a few years lead to an ERB movie renaissance. In particular, I'd like to see someone take another shot at The Land that Time Forgot and At the Earth's Core.

Unknown said...

I'll love it if they actually make the John Carter movie while I'm still around to see it.

Cap'n Bob said...

I'm partial to Carson Napier, myself.