Tarzan Forever: The Life of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Creator of Tarzan

by John Taliaferro

Book Overview

In Tarzan Forever: The Life of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Creator of Tarzan, John Taliaferro vividly recounts the remarkable life and career of the originator of Tarzan. Drawn extensively from Burroughs's... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 068483359X
• ISBN13: 9780684833590
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

This is a great read

I really enjoyed Mr. Taliaferro's incisive treatment of the author's life and unusual ideas.

exceptional look at a life

Whatever you may think of the writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs--and I personally never thought that much of it--this is still a fascinating look at the life of the man who created one of the most famous characters in all of literary history. We see not just the life that Burroughs led, and the way his interests led him to write what he did. We also get an excellent sense of the times in which he lived and wrote. When ERB is ready to break into the pulps, we get a history of the pulps and what sort of business he was enterring. When ERB works into his tales things like racial purity and eugenics, the biographer goes into detail about the world's views on such things. When Tarzan is created, there is a wonderful discussion of the ape man concept, the feral child being raised in the wild--in reality and in literature. And the care given in describing the various Tarzan films is terrific. Taliaferro's research is excellent. The fact that Burroughs himself cared more about the cents per word payment he was getting than the actual quality of his stories does make him something of a problem child, but as far as a business man, some of his approaches to his work are interesting to say the least. For people who want to learn about the man, the character of Tarzan, the other characters ERB created (since they are not slighted despite the the fact that Tarzan is in the forefront), or the early days of pulp fiction and moviemaking, this is a great book.

Well-written, not apologetic

I must admit that the only Edgar Rice Burrough's novel I truly enjoyed reading was "Tarzan of the Apes". One reviewer of this book called ERB a hack writer, and that is probably true, but the first Tarzan novel was definitely not a "hack novel", or else we wouldn't be reading it as a classic some 90 years later. On the contrary, "Tarzan of the Apes" is an important social commentary. The writing of Taliaferro's "Tarzan Forever" may be a little choppy for the first chapter or so, but once the author gets into it, it gets much smoother and is very readable. I didn't find Taliaferro at all apologetic for ERB's views on eugenics, or his racism either. I thought the author was very honest and upfront about this aspect of ERB's personality. I found "Tarzan Forever" a very engrossing biography and suggest it whole-heartedly.

excellent

Anyone who believes Burroughs is a racist fails to understand the era in which he wrote. One must remember that by today's standards even fictional heros such as Buck Rogers and the more contempory James Bond could be considered racist and sexist. This book gives credit to Burroughts imagination and the fact that he estabished the basis for today's "super heros." His writing is crisp and his plots were very imaginative. This bio does him justice and is better than the one previous effort I am aware of. This is a keeper