John F. Roy Comments ERB-APA #9: A Reply

My research tend to show that the Jungle Tales Of Tarzan last approximately two years.

ERB-APA #9

We know Jungle Tales Of Tarzan begins shortly after Kala's death (Tarzan age eighteen), because of the passage in chapter two.

• "Puzzle as he would, however, he could not solve the mystery of the concealed pit for the ways of the blacks were still strange ways to Tarzan. They had entered his jungle but a short time before - the first entered his jungle but a short time before - the first of their kind to encrouch upon the age-old supremacy of the beasts which laired there." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.

Jungle Tales Of Tarzan

We also know Tarzan was twenty when Jungle Tales Of Tarzan ends because of two statements in chapter ten.

• "On the floor lay the skeleton of a man - all that remained of the former Lord Greystoke - lay as it had fallen some twenty years before when Kerchak, the great ape, had thrown it, lifeless, there." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.

• "He (a monkey) did not know that the dead father of Tarzan of the Apes, reaching back out of the past across a span of twenty years had saved his son's life." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.

For more details see Tarzine #22.

The Return Of Tarzan

Being a twelve or thirteen-year student of yours I was caught by surprise when I read your statement. "In my opinion moving Tarzan's birth back to the 1870s only makes matters worse." Since you favor the 1888 birth of Tarzan, how do you explain the lunar eclipse in Jungle Tales Of Tarzan which does not occur in 1908 or 1909 when Tarzan is twenty?

The Beasts Of Tarzan

According to the 1888 birth date of the jungle lord, The Son Of Tarzan, would have to run somewhere into the early 1930s. If this is so, how could Burroughs have completed The Son Of Tarzan on May 11, 1915? Moving Tarzan's birth back to 1872 eliminates both of these stumbling blocks. The lunar eclipse occurred on November 4, 1892, and agreeing with Burroughs provided information that Tarzan is age twenty. This date also allows time for The Son Of Tarzan events to occur & finish before Burroughs started pinning them on May 11, 1915.

The Son Of Tarzan

The following is a light chronology based on notes from my workbook.

• Tarzan Of The Apes - begins in 1872
• Jungle Tales Of Tarzan - occurs between 1890 and 1892
• Tarzan Of The Apes - ends in 1893
• The Return Of Tarzan - occurs between 1894 and 1895
• Korak was born offstage - in 1895
• The Beasts Of Tarzan - occurs in 1896
• The Son Of Tarzan - occurs between 1906 and 1912
• Tarzan And The Jewels Of Opar - occurs in 1912
• Mad King (Part One) - occurs from October through early November 1912
• The Eternal Lover - occurs in the early spring of 1913
• The Man Eater - occurs July 10, 1914
• Tarzan The Untamed - begins in August 1914
• The Mad King (Part 2) - occurs in late August through early September 1914

Tarzan And The Jewels Of Opar

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.