THE SON OF TARZAN - 1917
Written
Jan to May 1915
ERB's working title
The Son of Tarzan
First published
All Story Cavalier Weekly magazine, Dec 1915
Magazine title
The Son of Tarzan
First hardcover edition
A C McClurg & Co, Mar 1917
Book illustrator
J Allen St John
Filmed
1920, Tarzan Finds A Son! (1939) has no resemblance
BACKGROUND
The editorship of the amalgamated All-Story-Cavalier passed to Robert H Davis, who suggested to Burroughs that his new story, The Son of Tarzan, include the idea of "the boy and the ape running away together from London to Africa".  By the time ERB wrote this new story he was a disciplined craftsman who could churn out a story almost every month or two.  His stamina finally faulted, however, and the story took four months to complete.  Ed's health had declined and he had sought numerous cures for a condition he called neuritis, but what was probably what we would now call repetitive motion disorder, caused by too many hours hunched over a typewriter.  The story was completed in May 1915 but it was not published until December of that year when Bob Davis published it in serial form in All-Story Cavalier, now a weekly.  The hardcover novel was again published by McClurg and was released in March 1917. (Porges & Taliafero)
PLOT
Paulvitch still lived and sought vengeance against Tarzan.  As part of his plot, he lured Tarzan's young son away from London.  But the boy escaped, with the aid of the great ape Akut.  They fled to the savage African jungles where Tarzan had been reared.  There the civilised boy had to learn to meet the great beasts and face the dangers only his father had ever conquered.  But he grew in time into Korak the Killer, almost as mighty as Tarzan.  Korak found a friend in Meriem, whom he rescued from a raiding Arab band.  Then he discovered that the dangers of the jungle were nothing compared to those devised by men. (1983 Ballantine paperback)
SOURCES
• Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Man Who Created Tarzan by Irwin Porges, 1975, Brigham Young University Press
• Tarzan Forever by John Taliaferro, 1999, Simon & Schuster
COVERS
• Neil Adams cover from 1983 Ballantine paperback is from my personal collection
• Burne Hogarth cover from 1972 Flamingo Books UK paperback edition was pilfered from an eBay auction item
• Frank Frazetta cover from 1963 Ace paperback edition was pilfered from an eBay auction item
• J Allen St John cover from the dustjacket of the 1917 A C McClurg hardcover edition was pilfered from an eBay auction item
LYNX
• The full text of this novel is available on-line from Robert Stockton's The Son of Tarzan page
• Read a summary of this novel at Tangor's The Son of Tarzan Summarized page
• Colourful paperback covers are at Nick Knowles' The Son of Tarzan page
CAPTURE
• Bag yourself a copy of this novel at Amazon.com's The Son of Tarzan 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 pag updated July 2006