About 76 years ago, the Second World War was drawing to a close. On May 8, 1945, World War II came to an end in Europe. About four months later, Japan signed formal surrender documents aboard the USS Missouri.
Nearly three decades before the outbreak of the Second World War, author Edgar Rice Burroughs made his debut in the pulps. His classics, “Under the Moons of Mars” and “Tarzan of the Apes,” were published in Munsey’s THE ALL-STORY in 1912. Burroughs would introduce the worlds of Pellucidar in “At the Earth’s Core” and Caspak in “The Land that Time Forgot,” and produce classics such as “The Mucker,” “Beyond Thirty,” and “Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar” during the First World War. The author’s first hardcover books — TARZAN OF THE APES and THE RETURN OF TARZAN — were published by A. C. McClurg in 1914 and 1915 — with THE BEASTS OF TARZAN, THE SON OF TARZAN, and A PRINCESS OF MARS following shortly thereafter. Many of his books were bestsellers.
By September 1939 and the beginning of World War II, Burroughs’ power and popularity as a writer were waning. One of his last serialized novels — “The Synthetic Men of Mars” — had already appeared, starting in the January 7, 1939 issue of Munsey’s ARGOSY. Except for “The Terrible Tenderfoot” (serialized by THRILLING ADVENTURES in 1940) and “The Quest of Tarzan” (serialized by ARGOSY in 1941), Burroughs’ output during the war years would be in the form of novellas and novelettes. Most were published by Ziff-Davis in AMAZING STORIES and FANTASTIC ADVENTURES.
Despite his lessened status as a writer, Burroughs still had a good deal of drawing power. Likewise his Barsoom, Pellucidar, and Venus series. Ziff-Davis editor Ray Palmer surely realized this and gladly purchased the rights to publish “John Carter and the Giant of Mars” (AMAZING STORIES, January 1941), “The Return to Pellucidar,” (AMAZING STORIES, February 1942), “War on Venus,” (FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, March 1942), and other stories.
Palmer was certainly not the only editor to notice that the name of Edgar Rice Burroughs on the cover of a pulp magazine still led to higher sales. Standard Magazines’ Leo Margulies bought a pair of stories from the author in 1940 — the aforementioned “The Terrible Tenderfoot” and “Tarzan and the Jungle Murders” (THRILLING ADVENTURES, June 1940) — while Donald Kennicott hoped to strike Burroughs gold with “Tarzan and the Champion” (THE BLUE BOOK MAGAZINE, April 1940) and “Beyond the Farthest Star” (THE BLUE BOOK MAGAZINE, April 1940).
On Thursday, August 19, join PulpFest 2021, ERBFest, and Henry G. Franke III for “The Amazing, Thrilling, and Fantastic Edgar Rice Burroughs,” a look at the author’s personal and professional life during the Second World War. Our presentation will take place at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry, beginning at 7:15 PM.
Henry G. Franke III is the editor of THE BURROUGHS BULLETIN, the journal of The Burroughs Bibliophiles, the nonprofit literary society devoted to the life and works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. He was also a contributing editor and penned the introductions for IDW Publishing’s Library of American Comics archival series reprinting Russ Manning’s Tarzan newspaper comic strips. The first volume of the series won the 2014 Eisner Award for Best Archival Collection – Strips.
Henry also wrote introductions for IDW’s Library of American Comics reprint of the 1929 daily Tarzan strips by Hal Foster and Rex Maxon, and for TARZAN AND THE ADVENTURERS, the fifth volume in Titan Books’ “Complete Burne Hogarth Comic Strip Library.” Additionally, he contributed the foreword to TARZAN THE UNTAMED, the seventh volume in the “Edgar Rice Burroughs Authorized Library,” published by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., and is currently writing the afterwords for the Authorized Library books.
Specializing in art inspired by Burroughs’ stories, Franke is currently working on an illustrated biography of Russ Manning. He served in the US Army from 1977 to 2009 and is now employed by the Army as a civilian.
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The work of Edgar Rice Burroughs has inspired artists such as Joseph Chenoweth, Virgil Finlay, Laurence Herndon, Frank Hoban, P. J. Monahan, Stockton Mulford, Frank R. Paul, Clinton Pettee, Paul Stahr, Modest Stein, Herbert Morton Stoops, and N. C. Wyeth.
Our post features work by two of the best Burroughs artists — Rudolph Belarski, who painted the cover art for the January 7, 1939 number of ARGOSY, and J. Allen St. John, who painted the cover art for the March 1941 issue of AMAZING STORIES. He is probably the most renowned of the Burroughs artists, having painted many dust jacket covers for the Tarzan novels, beginning with THE BEASTS OF TARZAN, published by McClurg in 1916.
Many thanks to David W. Smith of Fantasy Illustrated for sharing with us a number of premier cover images featured on the Ziff-Davis Burroughs pulps.
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