Joe Ferrier Comments ERB-APA #40: A Reply

I wish I could accept the 1888 birth date of Tarzan, but my research just does not allow me to do that. I will closely watch your future research to see if you offer any new twists that may change my view. Good luck and I am extremely glad you are showing interest.

ERB-APA #40

Before closing, I would like to ask a quick question. You wrote, "And their baby, who was to become Tarzan of the Apes was born five months later in October of 1888 - given facts." Unfortunately for me, I don't have a McClurg first edition to research from, I use a 50-cent Ballantine edition. Nowhere in it could I find a statement where ERB implies Tarzan was born five months after John and Alice sailed from Dover? Could you please supply me with the complete McClurg passage so that I may add it to my research?

Joe Kubert

I would like to point one thing out to you before moving on. You state in ERB-APA #40 that, "ERB never wrote a damn thing about adopted cousins, time warps, a fictional account, push back sailing dates and/or a parallel Africa where the Greystoke stories took place in a never-never Dark Continent." There is one thing you left out.

East Africa

ERB never wrote a dam thing about Tarzan and Jane being a whole lot younger than twenty-two and twenty when Jane first became pregnant with their baby Jack. In fact, ERB plainly and strongly hints at just the opposite of what you are trying to imply. Secondly, ERB never implied that Tarzan and Jane had a second child, after being married by Jane's father - an infant that died by age three.

Pablo Marcos

When you accept this theory you are drastically changing the story as presented by ERB. Therefore, I just do not think this direction leads to the truth. Please test my pushback theory one more time. Although I can not use the 1888 sailing date as a starting point everything else in my chronology runs exactly as presented in the Tarzan series except for the modernization.

1893 Peugeot Type 8

I do agree with you on one point, Joe. "But, this beats the hell out of adopted cousins, time warps, or trashing an ERB book because it does not fit some chronological sequence." You also agree with my findings when you say Korak was sixteen when he and Meriem married.

The Son Of Tarzan

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.