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William Patrick Maynard (WPM): Chris, you’re Director of Publishing at Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., as well as one of the leading lights in the Wold Newton Universe. How did you first discover the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Philip José Farmer?
Christopher Paul Carey: The first time I read ERB was at age eight, after my father took me to see the film adaptation of AT THE EARTH’S CORE. I picked up the Ace Books movie edition of the same novel off a grocery store spinner rack. My uncle was a big Burroughs fan. He used to read the Barsoom novels aloud to my siblings and me during my family’s annual summer trips from Pennsylvania to Illinois. It was a magical time. When I was twelve, I read A PRINCESS OF MARS. That was it — I became obsessed. I had to read every single story that ERB wrote as quickly as I could track them down, in addition to knowing I wanted to be a writer. During that glorious three-year period when I read almost all of ERB’s fiction, I found Farmer’s TARZAN ALIVE, HADON OF ANCIENT OPAR, and FLIGHT TO OPAR on the bookstore shelves. I was drawn to them, of course, because of the Burroughs connection. I could see right away that Farmer was modernizing and innovating on the same adventure formula that Burroughs had implemented in his own novels. So I began devouring all of Farmer’s works as well.
WPM: What is your approach to bringing Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Wold Newton Universe to new readers?
Christopher Paul Carey: My first several books were set in Farmer’s Khokarsa, the motherland civilization of Burroughs’ Opar. First and foremost, I tried to write them like I thought Phil would have. So you’re going to have a grittier, darker, more realistic story. But as I continued to write about Khokarsa and Ancient Opar, I decided to dial up ERB’s style very subtly. Actually, there’s a little H. Rider Haggard mixed in there, too. I’d like to write another trilogy in the Khokarsa cycle, which I’ve been referring to as the “Foundation of Kôr” series. This would be inspired by H. Rider Haggard’s Ayesha novels. I’ve got a lot of it outlined already. I’d also like to write two more novellas about Lupoeth, the priestess-heroine who was the protagonist in my novella EXILES OF KHO.
When I turned to writing SWORDS AGAINST THE MOON MEN, an authorized sequel to ERB’s THE MOON MAID, I tried to be as faithful to Burroughs’ works and style as possible. There’s no Farmer in there at all. Right now, I’m working on a novel in the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe series titled VICTORY HARBEN: FIRES OF HALOS. This will be just as faithful to ERB’s works, though it begins in 1950 and features a young woman who was born in the hollow world of Pellucidar. Victory’s mother is from the outer crust and her father is from the Earth’s core.
Victory Harben is something of a prodigy in physics and science. She was university-educated in the outer world. So her voice and perspective are going to be different from the typical Burroughs hero, a bit more modern. She’s grown up with ERB’s famous heroes and heroines all around her: David Innes, Dian the Beautiful, Abner Perry, Jason Gridley, Tarzan, Jane, etc., so she has all that in her literary DNA. She’s the most challenging and ambitious character I’ve written to date. A hybrid of old world and new. It’s exciting because she brings an opportunity to breathe new life into the canon.
A lot of people forget that when ERB was writing, he was expanding the canon and doing new and crazy things with it. It must have blown readers’ minds in 1929 when Burroughs sent Tarzan to the Earth’s core or in 1932 when he wrote a new series about a suicidal stunt pilot who, trained by a Hindu mystic in the art of mental projection, launched himself in a rocket intended for Mars and ended up on Venus instead. If he’d had an immortality elixir like Tarzan and was still writing today, Edgar Rice Burroughs would be taking his universe off in directions that people would never anticipate to keep things fun and fresh. The present and the past don’t have to compete with one another; they can blend gracefully together into the future.
WPM: As Creative Director of The Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe titles, tell us what is available, what is next in the pipeline, and which past continuation works are considered part of the ERB Universe canon?
Christopher Paul Carey: CARSON OF VENUS: THE EDGE OF ALL WORLDS by Matt Betts kicked off the new ERB Universe novels with what we’re calling the “Swords of Eternity” super-arc. TARZAN: BATTLE FOR PELLUCIDAR by Win Scott Eckert is up for preorder at ERBurroughs.com and will be published on October 27. That will be followed by JOHN CARTER OF MARS: GODS OF THE FORGOTTEN by Geary Gravel next spring, and my own novel, VICTORY HARBEN: FIRES OF HALOS later in the year. Moreover, we have two “Classic ERB Universe” titles available, TARZAN AND THE VALLEY OF GOLD by Fritz Leiber and TARZAN AND THE DARK HEART OF TIME by Philip José Farmer (the latter published through Meteor House, but also under the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe banner). These are all considered canon alongside ERB’s original works.
WPM: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., has taken on the ambitious task of reprinting all of ERB’s works in uniform hardcover editions. The first eight Tarzan books are presently available. What can fans expect to see over the next few years?
Christopher Paul Carey: We’re hard at work right now on volumes 9–12 of the Tarzan series. We’ll continue to put out batches of four volumes until we’ve published all of the Tarzan books. Then we’ll move on to the Barsoom series, and then each series in turn until we move on to the standalone books. In total, the Edgar Rice Burroughs Authorized Library will comprise eighty-plus volumes. It will be a multiyear project to release them all. Joe Jusko is adorning all of the books with stunning cover art and frontispieces. We’re also getting luminaries from different fields to write forewords and afterwords. As we continue to produce more volumes, we’ll dig deeper into the archives. So the bonus material included in each of the books will get even more interesting and in many cases longer.
WPM: How do you see Edgar Rice Burroughs’ place in the twenty-first century, particularly as the past is held up to an increasingly critical light?
Christopher Paul Carey: I think Edgar Rice Burroughs stands the test of time because his stories hit the same sweet spot as mythology. He was also a more complex writer than he is sometimes portrayed. There’s a lot of commentary, humor, and satire in ERB’s writing that is often missed or misinterpreted, but lofty critical and scholarly studies don’t really matter in the end. More than a hundred years after he began writing, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ stories remain popular. I can say that with certainty because it’s all we can do to keep up with all the orders that are pouring in for the new books we’re publishing!
WPM: You’ve done quite a bit to educate our readers as to the goals of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. What personal creative aspirations have you set for yourself as an author that you still hope to achieve?
Christopher Paul Carey: One of the things I plan to write next is an original novel and a short story collection set in the continuity of my novelette “With Dust Their Glittering Towers,” about the mysterious legacy of Sir Francis Bacon. I also have a cross-genre historical/science fiction/fantasy novel set in Mongolia that I’d like to tackle someday. If I can get all the books I’ve talked about writing in this interview done in the time remaining to me, that would be more than good enough for me.
WPM: Chris, thank you for your time. This has truly been a pleasure.
(William Patrick Maynard is the licensed continuation author for the Sax Rohmer Literary Estate. His short fiction has been published in anthologies by Titan Books, Black Coat Press, Edge Publishing, Bold Venture Press, Riviere Blanche, Airship 27, and MX Books. He has authored over 250 articles for numerous magazines and websites. He has contributed Blu-ray commentary tracks and produced bonus features for releases by MGM, Shout Factory, Kino Lorber, and The Serial Squadron. Bill is on the editorial board of The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box and is a member of the PulpFest Organizing Committee where he serves as Assistant Director of Marketing and Afternoon Programming Director. He resides in Northeast Ohio.
The banner that heads our post is based on Chris Peuler‘s dust jacket art for SWORDS AGAINST THE MOON MEN by Christopher Paul Carey.)
Trademarks Edgar Rice Burroughs®, Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe™, Edgar Rice Burroughs Authorized Library™, Tarzan®, Opar™, John Carter of Mars®, Carson of Venus®, Pellucidar®, At the Earth’s Core™, David Innes™, Dian the Beautiful™, Abner Perry™, The Moon Maid™, Jason Gridley™, Victory Harben™, and Swords of Eternity™ owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., and used by permission.
