Beyond The Narrator

Once an investigation is launched, it does not take long for one to realize that Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author, is not the same person as Edgar Rice Burroughs, the narrator. Both lives, however, are very similar and often intertwine.

Elmo Lincoln & Edgar Rice Burroughs

The narrator was born in the year 1855, and the author was born in 1875. The narrator was more than likely born at his parent's plantation about two hours, by train, from Richmond, Virginia. The author was born in Chicago, Illinois. The narrator visited Africa on more than one occasion, but the author never went to Africa.

Edgar Rice Burroughs

From the above differences, it is quite obvious the narrator is not Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author. If not, just who is he?

Edgar Rice Burroughs

In the Forward of A Princess of Mars, it is plainly revealed that the narrator is actually the great-nephew of John Carter of Mars. In The Chessmen Of Mars, John Carter makes the statement about the narrator. "the same blood runs in our veins." Once more in Llana Of Gathol, the narrator said this to John Carter. "There are my children. They are your blood kin."

A Princess Of Mars

It is interesting to note that in The Virginia Dynasties - The Emergence of  "King" Carter And The Golden Age, by Clifford Dowdey, (1969, Little, Brown & Co., Boston), the name John Carter is a very famous name in the history of Virginia. The first of four John Carter's came to Virginia from London, England around 1649. He came to America to represent the Carter family, who were wine merchants.

The Virginia Dynasties 

A second John Carter, who was also a wine merchant, came from Christchurch Parish, London. This John Carter was probably the largest landholder of the time. He had a total of five wives, and he named his first son John Carter II (third Virginia John Carter).  Another son of the second John Carter of Virginia was named, Robert, who became known as, King Carter, the richest man in the colonies and the most powerful politically. Robert Carter's first son became the fourth John Carter of Virginia.

The Virginia Dynasties

The first time the narrator's life and that of the authors intertwine is found in A Princess Of Mars. In the Forward, the narrator states, "The Burroughs family was of Puritan stock and were known to possess a fine stable of horses." This is very close to the real-life statement the author once made, "the red blood of the Puritan and the Pioneer" flowed in their veins.

A Princess Of Mars

In The Eternal Lover, the narrator comes in contact with Barney and Victoria Custer of Beatrice, Nebraska. This is also the hometown of the author's lifelong friend, Herbert (Bert) T. Weston, whom he met at Phillips Academy.

The Eternal Lover

In The Chessmen Of Mars an eleven-year-old boy, Shea, is introduced as a whiz at the game of chess. In the author's life, John A. Shea was his secretary between 1919 and 1923. The two often played chess, but the author was usually the winner.

Roy G. Krenkel

In Pirates Of Venus, it is stated that the narrator's secretary is named Ralph Rothmund. The author's secretary, who started in 1927, was also named Ralph Rothmund.

Pirates Of Venus

In Pirates Of Venus, the narrator experiences a visit by a ghostly female image. While working for his brothers in Idaho, the author was a bystander in a saloon brawl. One way or another the author managed to get in the way of a policeman's billy club and received a severe blow on the head which hospitalized him. For a long time afterward the author complained of dizziness and reported having strange hallucinations.

Pirates Of Venus

In later years the author even wrote to the Boston Society for Psychic Research about the incident which the following is part of. "In 1899 I received a heavy blow on the head which, while it opened up the scalp, did not fracture the skull, nor did it render me unconscious, but for six weeks or two months thereafter I was the victim of hallucinations, always after I had retired at night when I would see figures standing beside my bed, usually shrouded. I invariably set up and reached for them, but my hands went through them. I knew they were hallucinations caused by my injury and did not connect them in any way with the supernatural, in which I do not believe."

Pirates Of Venus

It is revealed in Swords Of Mars that the narrator sleeps with a .45 Colt automatic under his pillow. In Jim Pierce's (ERB's son-in-law) autobiography it is revealed that the author also slept with a .45 automatic under his pillow. The author's international fame had made him fearful of kidnapping and assassination.

 J. Allen St. James

The Moon Maid reveals a host of beyond-coincidental dates. Julian 9th was born on January 1, which is the author's first wife's, Emma's, birthday. Julian 12th was born on September 1, which is the other's birthday. Julian 20th was born on August 12, which is the birthday of the author's second child, Hulbert Burroughs.

Roy G. Krenkel

There is a possible chance that the secondary figure, L. Bridge, who appeared in The Mucker and The Oakdale Affair is a Carter. In chapter four of The Mucker, it is revealed the hobo friend of Billy Byrne was born into a well-to-do family. He was well educated and could read and write Spanish, and spoke it passably. Barbara Harding considered him a well-bred gentleman. In the March 1918 Blue Book Magazine version of The Oakdale Affair, two extra pages did not appear in the book version. Here we learn that Bridge comes from one of the finest families in Virginia and one of the wealthiest.

Frank Frazetta

All fiction aside. I personally feel the best way to provide dates for unprovided ones in a Tarzan chronology is by using the Burroughs' own family genealogy. It has long been common knowledge about the special interest the Burroughs family had in their lineage. Edgar Rice Burroughs' mother, Mary Evaline, went so far as to write a family ancestry entitled Memoirs Of A War Bride, June 23, 1914, which she gave to each of her sons. This special interest in family genealogy has caused Burroughs to insert true family dates, names, as well as friends, into his fiction stories.

Memoirs Of A War Bride

When Burroughs gave the narrator the pseudonym of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author was well aware that a researcher would discover that he and the narrator were not the same people. What Burroughs was doing in real life was having fun purposefully providing family and friends' names, and dates from his true life family genealogy into his fiction stories.

Memoirs Of A War Bride

The fictional narrator and the fictional John Carter, in true life, most probably had roots in Burroughs' mother's side of the family, the Colemans. Mary Evaline kept a military record of the Coleman family, and during the American Revolution, six Colemans were serving in the Virginia military. Jacob Coleman, Richard Coleman, Samuel Coleman, Whitehead Coleman, Wyatt Coleman, and John McCulloch Coleman (Burroughs' great-grandfather). Thomas McCulloch on Burroughs' mother's father's side was also in a Virginia Regiment.

Marry Evaline Burroughs

Burroughs was definitely aware of his proud Southern heritage. On his copy of The Military Record Of The Coleman Family During The War Of The Revolution, dated September 13, 1900, he signed, "This Record Belongs To E.R. Burroughs." So proud in fact, that he eventually named one of his sons John Coleman Burroughs, and with this carried on the JC tradition. 

Edgar Rice Burroughs

About The Author

James Michael Moody is a lifelong fan and collector of Edger Rice Burroughs. Moody has contributed over two hundred articles to various ERB-related fanzines, over forty-five years. He also manages an unauthorized Tarzan blog titled, Greystoke Chronologist: James Michael Moody. There the researcher chronologies the Tarzan books starting in May 1872 (known as the pushback theory) instead of the more excepted date May 1888.

James Michael Moody is also the author of the action-packed Sci-Fi fantasy adventure Unium series. Pioneers On Unium, published December 31, 2019, and Exiled On Unium, published August 25, 2022. Swordsman On Unium is going through the publishing process.