the direction and distance of the focus of any radioactivity with which it might be attuned.” I asked if he had spent much time thinking up such names
for his dream-worlds as Barsoom, Gathol and Pellucidar. “Oh, I thought them all out carefully,” he assured us. “Characters’ names, too. I discarded many combinations of syllables before I was satisfied with ‘Tarzan’. I think the name of a character has a lot to do with his success, don’t you? And I don’t believe in describing them too accurately; I’ve never given Tarzan’s actual height. I leave as much as I can to the reader’s imagination.” But he wasn’t too happy, himself, with Tarzan’s transformation
into a screen hero. He had thought of him, he said, as a pretty grim character, and the movies made him too humorous for his liking. He has his own projector, with prints of “The New Adventures of Tarzan” and other pictures, but he hasn’t seen all the Hollywood versions of his stories. Of the nine different actors who have played the part since the silent days of Elmo Lincoln, he liked Herman Brix the best. “He was absolutely fearless!” I suggested “The Monster Men” as a likely movie. He said it
had been considered on and off for ten years. Getting back to books, I suggested a book of his short stories, including “The Scientists Revolt” (Fantastic Adventures, Jul. ’39) and “Beyond the Farthest Star” (Blue Book, Jan. ’42). He said paper was the problem; he would like to bring out two books a year under his own imprint, but had to limit his new editions to 10,000 copies. The only fantasy volume, apart from a few of his own, which
we saw in his den was Otis Adelbert Kline’s “The Planet of Peril” (the story goes that Kline’s “Buccaneers of Venus,” which appeared in Weird Tales, was declined by Argosy because they preferred to use Burroughs’ first Venus novel instead). A tremendous tiger skin covered the floor of this room, where we saw a collection of oddments including a stone turtle that Burroughs had dug up himself. In the hallway hung a real human head which its hunters had shrunken—and from which we shrank; he could never bring himself to touch it, he confessed. But there was a beautiful bronze statuette of a sabre-tooth tiger done by his son, John Coleman Burroughs, who has illustrated his recent books. With his brother, Bulbert, John is also a science fiction author: their stories have appeared in Thrilling Wonder and Startling Stories. Burroughs himself is producing very little these days, but at one time he turned out a good 2,000 words every half-day. He
FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND • MAR/APR 2012 37
never re-wrote, and never wrote a character into a situation from which he couldn’t extricate him, though often he had no idea how the story would end. He once tried the Dictaphone, but couldn’t find a stenographer who could spell and punctuate correctly, so he continued to type his own MSS. Although he never had a formal education in grammar, a piece from one of his books was once used as an example of good English in a British textbook. I got a glimpse of his personal bookmark. It showed an early conception of Tarzan standing gazing at a full moon riding a starlit sky, a big black ape crouched at his feet. Just before we left, our host produced an autograph book and asked for our signatures. Collecting visitors’ autographs has become a hobby in recent years; we signed in his fourth book. As we departed he shook hands with all of us, said he had been honoured by our visit and what we had had to say about his work. “Not everybody is quite sincere,” he added, “but I believe you have been. Thank you for calling, and if I don’t recognize you next time I see you I hope you won’t think too badly of me—I have such a terrible memory.”
*Order of the Mars series: “A Princess of Mars” (1917), “The Gods of Mars” (’18), “The Warlord of Mars” (’20), “The Chessman of Mars” (’22), “The Master Mind of Mars” (’28), “A Fighting Man of Mars” (’40), “Swords of Mars” (’36), “Synthetic Men of Mars” (’40), “Llana of Gathol” (’48). Dates are those of book publication in U.S.A.
✔”Pirates of Venus” (’34), “Lost on Venus” (’35), “Carson of Venus” (’39), “Escape on Venus” (’46)
This article appears in its original form as it did in FANTASY
REVIEW, January 1949. These images are ©ERB, Inc. and used by permission.
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