Comparing Narrator Notes

The first Burroughs researcher, to my knowledge, to point out that ERB, the author (1875-1950), and ERB, the narrator (1855- still alive in 1968) were different people was John F. Roy. His article The Legendary Edgar Rice Burroughs Master Of Time appeared in ERB-dom #11, August 1964.

ERB-dom #11

John F. Roy traces the narrator's life through the forwards, introductions, and prologues of the books themselves. This long-ago discovery was a major breakthrough in chronicling Burroughs' stories. The article is very interesting and very thorough, as is Mr. Roy's custom.

John F. Roy &  James Michael Moody

In Erbania #39, summer of 1976, William R. Rennagel uses a far different approach. He theorizes...

1. Our own world is only one of a number of worlds that are sideways in time from one to another.
2. Tarzan's world is exactly the same as ours, except in comparatively few respects which ERB has clearly described as being different.
3. Tarzan's world is presumably identical to the world of all heroes and heroines whose adventures do not take them and their associates too far from what is known to be possible in our own world.
4. There are also other worlds, different from both our own and Tarzan's, to accommodate all settings that cannot be satisfactorily fitted into the world of most heroes and heroines.

ERBANIA #39

When I wrote the article, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Narrator, Tarzine #34, May 1985, I followed John F. Roy's lead and presented ERB, the author, and ERB, the narrator, as being different persons. The author is the true-life ERB, and the narrator is the fictional great-nephew of John Carter who actually participates in the events that occur in the novels. I personally favored this approach so I could keep Tarzan as an earthling, and existing on the Earth as we know it. 

TARZINE #34

Going a little deeper than John F. Roy, I theorized the author and narrator were actually secret business partners. If you will notice when Lord Greystoke contacts the author in 1913 about the Tarzan All-Story magazine, who goes to Africa? The narrator, not the author. When the author moves to California in 1919, the narrator abandons his Virginia plantation and goes away. When the author goes to Hawaii in 1940 as a war correspondent, the narrator ends up there as a vacationer. I feel these instances are far too numerous to be a coincidence.

Edgar Rice Burroughs

I would like to go on record as stating that although I personally chose the approach of Tarzan being a real-life man on the planet Earth as we know it, the alternate dimension theory presented by William R. Rennagel is just as acceptable. I personally felt that the majority of fans preferred Tarzan as being a real-life man on the planet Earth as we know it, instead of a dimension hopper, or time traveler. From the Burroughs Universe's perspective, however, William R. Rennagel's science fiction theories will prove closer to ERB's end game.

ERB Universe

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Michael Moody is a lifelong fan and collector of Edger Rice Burroughs. Over the past forty-five years, Moody has contributed over two hundred articles to various ERB-related fanzines. 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 accepted date, May 1888.

James Michael Moody also authorizes the action-packed Sci-Fi fantasy adventure Unium series. Pioneers On Unium, published December 31, 2019, Exiled On Unium, published August 25, 2022, and Swordsman On Unium, published on July 15, 2024.