In two recent articles in this publication, I discussed some of the rarest of the magazine tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs. I dealt with those stories that never reached book publication. Many of Mr. Burroughs' published books, too, are very scarce, especially in the first edition.
A first edition of "Tarzan of the Apes" (A. C. McClurg, 1914) recently brought $70 in a book auction. Copies can be sold readily at $25 each. Several years ago Mr. Burroughs, himself, advertised for a copy to fill out his own set of first editions.
Among the rarest of all Burroughs' books are a couple of juveniles: "The Tarzan Twins" (1927) and its sequel, "Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins With Jad-Bal-Ja, the Golden Lion" (1936). The former title was published by the P. F. Volland Co. It is profusely illustrated in color. The latter title was a Whitman "Big-Big" book which cost 20 ¢ when new, but which now brings $10 a copy when available.
One of his non-fantasies, "The Girl From Hollywood", a love tale, is seldom seen. It was published by the Macauley Company. It appeared originally in MUNSEY'S MAGAZINE in 1922. Among his miscellaneous fiction books, "The Mucker" and "The Land That Time Forgot" are seldom seen in the original McClurg edition. In fact, this is true of all the earlier titles in the "Tarzan", "Martian" and "Pellucidar" series. Some of the more recent books that are out of print and sought after, are "The Lad and the Lion", "Tanar of Pellucidar", "Back to the Stone Age", "Jungle Girl" and "The Oakdale Affair and the Rider".
Another little-known Burroughs title between hard covers is "The Illustrated Tarzan Book, No. 1", published by Grosset and Dunlap in 1929. This is a picturized version of "Tarzan of the Apes" drawn by Harold Foster.
We cross the Atlantic to find another rare one. Very few American collectors possess a first edition copy of "The Man Without a Soul". Methuen (London) published this title in 1922, five years after they published the first Tarzan book. ("The Man Without a Soul" is not to be confused with "A Man Without a Soul", which was the original magazine title (ALL-STORY, Nov. 1913) for "The Monster Men".) The book, "The Man Without a Soul", is the latter half of "The Mucker".
Most Burroughs collectors like to have a few foreign titles in their collection. In my own set I have Burroughs books published in Czecho-Slovakian, Danish, Dutch, Hungarian, French, Portugese, Swedish, Esperanto and Braille for the blind. Burroughs' books have also been printed in Arabic, Finnish, Icelandic, Roumanian, Russian and Urdu (Hindustani). It is interesting to observe that a firm in Buenos Aires has published nearly fifty Tarzan books in Spanish. I have translated a number of these titles and about thirty have never appeared in English! The explanation is that the name "Tarzan", has been plagiarized (as "Sherlock Holmes" has been) all *** over the world. Such strange and * unfamiliar titles have appeared as "Tarzan and the Sinister Forest", * "Tarzan and the Pirates", "Tarzan and the Kingdom of Darkness", "Tarzan and the Goddess of the Sea", "The Death of Tarzan", "Tarzan's Grandson", "Tarzan and the Red Moon" and many more. It is interesting to note that Tarzan tales have been printed in French and published in Canada for French-speaking Canadians. One of these tales in my collection is entitled "Tarzan et la Villa d'Iviore".
It is highly probable that no character of fiction in all his- has ever been exploited or commercialized to the extent that Tarzan has. The all-out Burroughs Collector can go after such objects as Tarzan belts, Tarzan hunting knives, Tarzan celluloid buttons, Tarzan bread-wrappers, Tarzan-call records, Tarzan coloring books, Tarzan jig-saw puzzles, Tarzan rubber baseballs, Tarzan balloons, Tarzan bow-and-arrow sets, Tarzan sweat-shirts, Tarzan ice cream cups, Tarzan bracelets, Tarzan writing tablets, Tarzan salt, Tarzan photo stamps, Tarzan hatchets, Tarzan jungle helmets, Tarzan crepe paper, Tarzan yo-yos ..... and we could go on and on!
There are many more trivial items, all designed to appeal to shildren. For example, the Whitman company has published seventeen Burroughs "Big-Little" books. The Dell Company has published three more titles in their "Fast Action" series. In addition, these and other companies have published more than a dozen booklets and inexpensive items of a similar nature. One of these little booklets is only two inches high and sold for a nickle. Several short stories about Tarzan have appeared in comic magazines. Several of these are concerned with a character named "Sandy MacTavish" of Glasgow, a reporter friend of Tarzan. It would take several pages to mention all of these trivial children's items. It might be interesting to mention a couple of these, however. Pleasure Books, Inc. of Chicago published a book called "New Adventures of Tarzan, Illustrated POP*UP Edition!" This book contains four three-dimensional pop-up illustrations in color. Another Tarzan tale that is thought to be only legendary is "Tarzan and the Crystal Vaults of Isis". This is a Tarzan story on 50 Candy Picture cards, published by the Schutter-Johnson Candy Corporation in 1933. Each card is numbered, has an illustration on one side, and the story printed on the reverse side.
Speaking of rare Burroughs items -- just how rare can a book be? Well, you have heard of books limited to 50 or 100 copies or even 1000 copies, but I have a Burroughs book published in a limited edition of one copy! I had Burroughs' short novel "The Resurection of Jimber-Jaw", transcribed into Braille for the blind and bound into a limited edition of one copy!
THE END
Data entry by Judy Bemis
Updated May 16, 2001. If you have a comment about these web pages please send a note to the Fanac Webmaster. Thank you.