TARZAN THE UNTAMED - 1921
Written
Aug 1918 to Sep 1919
ERB's working title
Tarzan and the Huns
First published
Red Book (Mar 1919) & All-Story (Mar & Apr 1920)
Magazine title
Tarzan the Untamed
First hardcover edition
A C McClurg & Co, Apr 1921
Book illustrator
J Allen St John
Filmed
No
BACKGROUND
Paradoxically, at the same time that he felt that he had exhausted the Tarzan property and would never write another Tarzan story, Burroughs was embarking on a venture with Ray Long of Blue Book to produce eleven short Tarzan stories featuring Tarzan fighting the Germans. WWI was raging, ERB was a jingoistic patriot from a military background, and he was keen to "let Tarzan chew their hearts out".  Six of Ed's "anti-Hun" stories ended up in Red Book, another Long publication, between March and August 1919.  The seventh, The Valley of Luna, rejected by Red Book and Cosmopolitan, was published by All-Story over five weekly issues in March and April 1920.  These seven stories were combined to produce the book, Tarzan the Untamed, later in 1920.  In 1925 an essay by Stefan Sorel alerted the German public to the contents of this book, which he had read in English - wisely, no German version was issued.  Bookshops in Germany began to boycott books by Burroughs and Ed wrote a groveling apology in an attempt to diminish his financial losses from this lucrative market.  Many German authors condemned Burroughs vehemently, one mentioning his "noble and holy hate against the Germans and Germany". (Porges)
PLOT
With the speed of the great apes, Tarzan rushed through the jungle toward his home and family. But he was already too late. The marauders had been there before him. His farm was in shambles and no one was left alive. Of his beloved wife there was only a charred, blackened corpse, still wearing the rings he had given her. Silently, he buried the body and swore his terrible vengeance against those who had done this terrible deed. Then he set out grimly to track them - through warring armies - across a vast desert that no man had ever crossed - and to a strange valley where only madmen lived. (1982 Ballantine paperback)
SOURCES
• Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Man Who Created Tarzan by Irwin Porges, 1975, Brigham Young University Press
COVERS
• Burne Hogarth cover from 1971 Dutch Westfriesland paperback edition was pilfered from an eBay auction item
• Edward Mortelmans' cover from 1959 Four Square Books edition is from my personal collection
• J Allen St John cover from the dustjacket of the 1921 A C McClurg hardcover edition was pilfered from an eBay auction item
• Robert Abett cover from 1969 Ballantine paperback edition was pilfered from an eBay auction item
LYNX
• The full text of this novel is available on-line from the Free Online Library Tarzan the Untamed page
• Read a summary of this novel at Tangor's Tarzan the Untamed Summarized page
• Colourful paperback covers are at Nick Knowles' Tarzan the Untamed page
CAPTURE
• Bag yourself a copy of this novel at Amazon.com's Tarzan the Untamed 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