Tarzan's Mom And Dad

When trying to form a Greystoke chronology it does not take long to discover that it is impossible using only information provided throughout the Tarzan series. Many main events are not dated. Others are in timeline conflict with each other. Thus, to clear up many dating issues a researcher has to also collect support information elsewhere. But where would one go, so that the dates would be broadly excepted by fans?

Memoirs Of A War Bride

As I have revealed in many past articles, Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author, was very interested in his family genealogy. In fact, ERB requested that his mother, Marry Elvelan Burroughs, write a family chronology. After Marry completed Memories Of  A War Bride on June 23, 1914, her sons helped format and get the book printed. Copies were then distributed to family members

Marry Evaline Burroughs

I have pointed out in many past articles like Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master Trickster, that the author on many occasions borrowed true family dates and occurrences and interested them in his fictional writings. This was a personal habit that started early in his career and lasted until the end. This habit penetrated every one of the ERB series and many of his single works.

Memoirs Of A War Bride

While forming my 1872 Greystoke chronology, when I came to an undated event that could not be dated by research, I followed ERB's own habit and took dates from his family genealogy and inserted them for the unprovided ones. Using this process I have been successful in forming a chronology that allows Tarzan to have a normal conception, the eclipse in Jungle Tales Of Tarzan to occur as told, and Korak to be Tarzan's blood son. This is something no 1888 Greystoke chronology has ever done in detail.

1872 Greystoke Timeline

As always, and in a friendly way, I challenge anybody to prove my provided information wrong. Make no mistake. I am not saying that one can not have a different perspective, for many researchers do. What I am saying is, that I believe with my whole heart what I am telling is the truth. If not I want to know. The biggest mistake most chronologists have made in the past is that they tried to do everything by themselves. I am trying to be different. I want everyone that is interested to become a part of my chronology. The way I see it, the more minds involved the better the chronology. Without further ado, I present the chronology of John and Alice Clayton. I hope you enjoy it.

Date:  January 31, 1871
Event:  John Clayton and Alice Rutherford were married.
Source:  This is not an ERB-provided date in Tarzan Of The Apes, nor is it revealed anywhere in the storyline. 

Chat:  Following ERB's genealogy dating habits, I searched the Memories Of A War Bride for a compatible working date. January 31, 1871, is based on the wedding date of Burroughs and Emma, his first wife.

Date:  end of April 1871
Event:  John Clayton receives his first mission from the Colonial Office.
Source:  This is not a date presented by Edgar Rice Burroughs in Tarzan Of The Apes. It is, however, a working date derived from the statement that Clayton and Alice were married scarcely three months before receiving his first mission. 

Chat:  It is important to note that when Clayton receives this mission, Burroughs, in no way implies that Lady Alice is with child. Or, that the newlyweds leave England immediately after receiving Clayton's mission. In fact, ERB hints at the opposite. 

    If Clayton was married to Alice for three months when they left Dover for Africa, they would have been married four months when they left Freetown. From Freetown, twelve days pass before the Fuwalda sights land and the Greystoke's are put ashore. On the thirteenth day, Clayton starts work on a one-room cabin that takes approximately two months to build and furnish. Now we have a passage of six months and thirteen days. Burroughs tells us Clayton likes working hard because it helps him not to concentrate on their situation. By this statement, we can conclude that when the first section of the cabin was completed the Englishman immediately begin work on the second edition. 

    If the first section took only one month, minus the door and furnishings to build, it is simple logic the second edition would take no longer. In fact, less time, for Clayton did not have to build a second chimney and fireplace. Since the Mangani bull attacked while Clayton was cutting logs, and not doing construction it is quite apparent the Englishman was still involved in early building operations. Since there were no future descriptions of a second room or a partial room, it is obvious Clayton had just begun cutting logs, but no construction had begun.

    Adding these passages of time together, no more than eight months pass since the Greystokes were married, Yet Lady Alice has a child that very night. According to this narration, Tarzan would have been born prematurely. Or, Lady Alice was pregnant before marrying Clayton. The latter is very unlikely for Burroughs plainly says Clayton is a very moral and honorable man. 

    It is also very unlikely the Colonial Office would take a man out of the Army, raise him to a higher position, and then send him and his wife of three months to Africa for five to eight years without letting them spend some time with relatives before they go. That is not to mention the fact that Clayton would have to have at least a minimum amount of training to handle his new position.

Date:  very late November or very early December 1871
Event:  Lady Alice becomes pregnant offstage.
Source:  This is my own date derived from counting backward nine months from the day Tarzan was born. One must keep in mind that although Burroughs does not mention that Lady Alice is with child when Clayton receives his first Colonial Office assignment he does imply that she is before they set sail in May. "In his leisure, Clayton read, often aloud to his wife, from the store of books he had brought for their new home. Among those were many for little children - picture books, primers, readers - for they had known that their little child would be old enough for such before they might hope to return to England." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  very late January or very early February 1872
Event:  Lady Alice discovers she is with child and the Greystokes buy child provisions to take along to Africa.
Source:  This event could take place any time between very late January and very early February 1872 and be consistent with ERB's storyline. This theory is based on the premise that most women are approximately two months pregnant before they discover it.

Date:  May 14, 1872
Event:  Greystokes set sail from Dover, England.
Source:  In Tarzan Of The Apes, Burroughs states it is on a "bright May morning." The author does not reveal the exact day in May.

Chat: This is a very important event and to form a solid chronology, we must produce some sort of acceptable calendar date. Since we have no ERB-provided clues to work with, I will resort to the Memoirs Of A War Bride to see if any noteworthy occasions occurred in May 1872 that could possibly be used as a source. I discovered the author's brother, Frank, was born on May 14. Until a more researched date is provided I will use May 14, 1882, as a working date.

Date:  June 14, 1872
Event:  Greystoke's arrive at Freetown where they chartered the barkentine Fuwalda.
Source:  "A month later," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  June 16, 1872
Event:  In the morning of the second day aboard the Fuwalda, Captain Billings shot Black Michael in the leg.
Source:  "The morning of the second day," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  June 18, 1872
Event:  On the fourth day aboard the Fuwalda, Clayton came on deck that morning just in time to see the limp body of one of the crew, being carried below by four sailors while the first mate stood glowering with a heavy belaying pin in his hand.
Source:  "The second day after the wounding of Black Michael," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  June 19, 1872
Event:   At noon the Fuwalda passed a British man-of-war.
Source:  "The following day" ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  June 20, 1872
Event:  The Fuwalda mutiny.
Source:  "The next morning," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  June 25, 1872
Event:  The Fuwalda sights land and that night ERB mentions for the first time that Lady Alice is pregnant.  
Source:  "On the fifth day following the murder of the ship's officers land was sighted." ERB-

Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  June 26, 1872
Event:  The Greystokes are put ashore with all their belongings and Clayton builds a tree shelter. That night the two saw their first Mangani.
Source:  "Early next morning" ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. "At night upon their first day upon the land," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  June 27, 1872
Event:  Clayton begins work on a one-room cabin.
Source:  The morning after seeing the Mangani, ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  July 27, 1872

Event:  Clayton finishes a one-room cabin built of small logs about six inches in diameter and completely covered on the outside with four inches of mud. He had also completed a stone fireplace and chimney but had not yet made a door or furnishings.
Source:  "Took the better part of a month," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Chat:  Any calendar day in late July 1872 fits the presented storyline. To keep life simple I used 30 days as a working date until someone provides a better-researched one.

Date:  August 14, 1872 
Event:  British warships search for the Fuwalda and find her wreckage on the shores of  St. Helena.
Source:  "Two months after the Greystoke's leave Freetown," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  August 27, 1872
Event:  Clayton hung the cabin door, completed the furnishings, and moved all their belongings inside.
Source:  "By the end of the second month they were all settled," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  September 1, 1872
Event:  A Mangani bull attacks Clayton while he is working on an addition to the cabin. That night Lady Alice gives birth to a healthy son.
Source:  This event is impossible to calendar date with an undebatable date because Burroughs skips some time without telling us how much. "One afternoon while Clayton was working upon an addition to their cabin he was interrupted by a group of fleeing monkeys," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. As you can see there is no way to present an undebatable date by using this source only. By using other passages and the Burroughs family genealogy, Memoirs Of A War Bride, we can arrive at a very logical working date.  

     ERB says the one-room cabin was built, furnished, and moved into by the second month. If Clayton begins work on June 27th, that means the Greystokes were well settled by August 27th. Once the first room was completed it is most probable Clayton began working on the second addition almost immediately. "There is but one thing to do, Alice, and that is work. Work must be our salvation. We must not give ourselves time to think, for in that direction lies madness," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. 

    Since Clayton was cutting down a tree for building purposes when the Mangani bull attacked him, it is obvious the Englishman was just beginning the expansion. In fact, the second edition was so early in its beginning stages that Clayton was just beginning to cut timber for future construction. When Tarzan investigates his father's cabin, at age ten, for the first time, nowhere in any of the descriptions does it hint at a semi-erected second room.

    When the Porter party was beached twenty years after the cabin was built, there was no hint of a semi-erected second room. The Greystoke cabin, in all provided descriptions, has only one room. From these disclosures, it is perceivable that the Mangani attacked Clayton within a few days of his August twenty-seventh completion of the first edition. 

Chat: Since no calendar date is provided by the author for Tarzan's birth date, a researcher must come up with an acceptable working date to continue the chronology. To find out the exact date I will once again depend on the Burroughs family genealogy, Memories Of A War Bride, to provide a credible date that the author could use as a source. That day is September 1st, the author's own birthday.

Date:  March 1872
Event:  Tarzan puts his inky fingers on a page in his father's diary.
Source:  "Six months old," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  September 1, 1873
Event:  Lady Alice dies.
Source:  "A year to the day after her baby's birth," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  September 2, 1873
Event:  The last entry in Clayton's diary. The Englishman is killed by Kerchak, and Kala adopts Tarzan.
Source:  "The morning following her death," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

 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 a span of 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.