TARZAN AND THE LION MAN - 1934
Written
Feb to May 1933
ERB's working title
Tarzan and the Lion Man
First published
Liberty magazine, Nov 1933 to Jan 1934
Magazine title
Tarzan and the Lion Man
First hardcover edition
ERB Inc, Sep 1934
Book illustrator
J Allen St John
Filmed
No, but the concepts of this novel were used in two TV series:
1. Tarzan's Hollywood Adventure episode of Wolf Larson's Tarzan
2. Tarzan and the Silver Screen episode of Disney's The Legend of Tarzan
BACKGROUND
In August of 1932 Ernest V Heyn, the editor of Modern Screen magazine, wrote to ERB requesting a story on some aspect of Hollywood or motion pictures and suggested the title "If Tarzan Came To Hollywood."  Burroughs never wrote anything for Modern Screen, but he took the idea, and drawing on his vast experience in dealing with producers and film companies, produced an unusual work containing a lot of satire.  He threw in his usual formula of lost cities, Tarzan exchanging identities (first visited in Tarzan and the Golden Lion - 1922) and revisited one of his his favourite themes - degeneracy caused by bad breeding.  In March 1933 Burroughs hired Michael Mill as his literary agent.  Mill would receive no commission on pulp sales, which were easy to make, but he would concentrate on trying to sell ERB's works to higher-paying "prestige" magazines.  The story was rejected by Colliers, Saturday Evening Post, and American, but Mill's persistence paid off and he earned a $1,500 commission when the story was sold to Liberty, where it appeared as a nine-part serial between November 1933 and January 1934.  Mills also sold the story to a British magazine, Tid-Bits, who paid 200 pounds.  ERB's own publishing company continued to release the hard cover novel. (Porges)
PLOT
A great safari had come to Africa to make a movie.  It had struggled across the veldt and through the jungle in great ten-ton trucks, equipped with all the advantages of civilization.  But now it was halted, almost destroyed by the poisoned arrows of the savage Bansuto tribe.  There was no way to return.  And ahead lay the strange valley of diamonds, where hairy gorillas lived in their town of London on the Thames, ruled by King Henry the Eighth.  Behind them came Tarzan of the Apes with the Golden Lion, seeking the man who might have been his twin brother in looks - though hardly in courage! (1975 Ballantine paperback edition)
SOURCES
• Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Man Who Created Tarzan by Irwin Porges, 1975, Brigham Young University Press
COVERS
• Neal Adams cover from the 1975 Ballantine Books paperback edition is from my personal collection
• J Allen St John cover from the dustjacket of the 1934 ERB Inc hardcover edition was pilfered from an eBay auction item
• Frank Frazetta cover from the 1963 Ace paperback edition is from my personal collection
• J Allen St John cover from the dustjacket of the 1936 Grosset & Dunlap hardcover edition was pilfered from an eBay auction item
LYNX
• The full text of this novel is available on-line from Project Guttenburg's Tarzan and the Lion Man page
• Read a summary of this novel at Tangor's Tarzan and Lion Man Summarized page
• Colourful paperback covers are at Nick Knowles' Tarzan and the Lion Man page
CAPTURE
• Bag yourself a copy of this novel at Amazon.com's Tarzan and the Lion Man 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