TARZAN AND THE JEWELS OF OPAR - 1918
Written
Sep to Oct 1915
ERB's working title
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
First published
All Story Cavalier Weekly magazine, Nov & Dec 1916
Magazine title
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
First hardcover edition
A C McClurg & Co, Apr 1918
Book illustrator
J Allen St John
Filmed
1921, 1929, Tarzan and the Priestess of Opar episode
of Tarzan: the Epic Adventures (TV 1996) and Tarzan and the Lost City of Opar
and Tarzan and the Return of La episodes of Disney's Legend of Tarzan (TV 2001)
BACKGROUND
ERB's financial success with the bidding war that he had started on The Beasts of Tarzan inspired him to try the same tactic with his fifth Tarzan story.  He sent the story to A J Sessions at New Story and also to Bob Davis at All-Story Cavalier.  Sessions believed that the impending release of The Son of Tarzan in book form would shift the focus away from the ape-man to his son and offered a low $1,000.  Ed was insulted and accused Sessions of "taking advantage of him", Sessions retaliated by returning the story and ending all dealings with ERB.  Davis at All-Story Cavalier eventually accepted the story for $2,500, despite having criticised it as containing "nothing new".  He felt that Opar and Queen La had been adequately dealt with in The Return of Tarzan.  The story appeared in All-Story Cavalier from 18 November to 16 December 1916 and McClurg published the hardcover novel in 1918. (Porges)
PLOT
In the forgotten city of Opar, the bloodied sacrificial altar of the Flaming God stood above vaults piled high with the gold destined for fabled, lost Atlantis.  There La, the beautiful high priestess, still dreamed of Tarzan, who had escaped her knife before.  Around her, the hideous priests vowed that he would never escape again.  For now Tarzan was returning, and they were waiting for him.  Tarzan planned to avoid La and the priests.  But he could not avoid the earthquake that struck him down in the vaults and left him without memory of his wife and home - only with what memory he had had as a child among the savage apes who reared him. (1981 Ballantine paperback)
SOURCES
• Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Man Who Created Tarzan by Irwin Porges, 1975, Brigham Young University Press
COVERS
• J Allen St John cover from the dustjacket of the 1918 A C McClurg hardcover edition was pilfered from an eBay auction item
• Edward Mortelmans' cover from 1962 Four Square Books edition is from my personal collection
• Burne Hogarth cover from 1971 Dutch Westfriesland paperback edition was pilfered from an eBay auction item
• Robert Abbett cover from 1969 Ballantine paperback edition is from my personal collection
LYNX
• The full text of this novel is available on-line from Robert Stockton's Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar page
• Read a summary of this novel at Tangor's Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar Summarized page
• Colourful paperback covers are at Nick Knowles' Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar page
CAPTURE
• Bag yourself a copy of this novel at Amazon.com's Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar page or try eBay
Tarzan© is the property of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., Tarzana CA.
This independent, non-profit, fan-based analysis of the Tarzan material is copyright © 2002-2007 Paul Wickham
This page updated July 2006