1873 Tarzan Of The Apes

Date:  March 1873
Event:  Tarzan puts his inky fingers on a page in his father's diary.
Source:  "Six months old," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Burne Hogarth

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

Joe Kubert

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.

Burne Hogarth

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.

1872 Tarzan Of The Apes

Date: very late January or very early February 1872
Event: Lady Alice discovers she is with child and the Greystoke's buy child provisions to take along to Africa.
Source: This date is stretchable, and any date will be Burroughs-friendly between late January through early February. This working date is provided by me based on the assumption that most women, during that time period, are approximately two months pregnant before they discover it.

Date:  May 14, 1872
Event:  The Greystoke's set sail from Dover, England.
Source:  In Tarzan Of The Apes the author states it is "on a bright May morning." No other dating is provided by him. A chronologist is left to guess the exact date. Picking a date is exactly that, a guess. For calendar dating this is a very important event, however, and a Burroughs-friendly working date needs to be provided.

As mentioned in previous writings, Burroughs often inserted his family genealogy dates, family & friends' names, etc. into his stories. Following the author's lead when we search the Burroughs genealogy to see if any memorable occasions occurred in May 1872 that we could use as a working date, we discover that the author's brother, Frank, was born on May 14.  Keeping with Burroughs tradition, this working date is friendly with the provided descriptions and will work as good as any until something more concrete turns up.

Date:  June 14, 1872
Event:  The 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:  On 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.

Berne Hogarth

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.

Berne Hogarth

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

Tarzan Of The Apes

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

Russ Manning

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

Burne Hogarth

Date:  June 26, 1872
Event:  The Greystoke's 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 land." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Joe Kubert

Date:  June 27, 1872

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

Russ Manning

Date:  near the end of July 1872
Event:  Clayton completes a one-room cabin built of small logs about six inches in diameter. The exterior was completely covered on the outside with four inches of mud. He had also completed a stone fireplace and chimney but had yet made a door or furnishings.
Source:  "Took the better part of a month," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Burne Hogarth

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.

Pablo Marcos & Oscar Gonzalez

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.

Burne Hogarth

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 is another event that Burroughs choice not to share the date with us. "One afternoon while Clayton was working upon an addition to their cabin he was interrupted by a group of fleeing monkies," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. Therefore, any date provided is mere speculation, but we still need one if you want to have a chronology.  As mentioned earlier the author inserted many dates and names from the Burroughs genealogy, so when a working date is needed I follow Burroughs' tradition and also use their family genealogy.

As you can see, there will never be a way to obtain an undebatable date, but there is a way to obtain a Burroughs' friendly date. The author says the Greystoke's one-room cabin was built, furnished, and moved into by the second month. If Clayton begins work on June 27, that means the Greystoke's were well settled by August 27.

Once this project was completed it is very likely Clayton began 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 had just finished the first section of the cabin and was just at the very beginning stage of his secondary project. If any construction on a second edition to the cabin was underway, Tarzan and the Porter party would have seen the remains upon their first visit.

When Tarzan, age ten, investigated his father's cabin years later nowhere in any of the descriptions does it hint at a semi-erected second room? John Clayton I's cabin is clearly described as having only one room. When the Porter party was beached, Tarzan age twenty, there is no hint of a semi-erected second room and the cabin is again clearly described as having only one room.

By this research, it is evident that the Mangani attacked Clayton within a few days of his August 27 completion of the first edition. To provide a Burroughs-friendly working date for this event we
go to the author's family genealogy to provide a date Burroughs could have used as a source. That day is September 1st the author's own birthday.

Pablo Marcos & Oscar Gonzalez

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.

1871 Tarzan Of The Apes

Date:  April 31, 1871
Event:  John Clayton and Alice Rutherford were married offstage.
Source:  This is not an actual date presented in Tarzan Of The Apes nor is it revealed by Edgar Rice Burroughs. April  31 is derived from the statement, that Clayton and Alice were married scarcely three months before receiving his first mission. The year 1871 is based on the fact that the Greystoke's set sail in May 1872.

Tarzan Of The Apes

Date:  July 15, 1871

Event:  While in search of the Nile River's source, David Livingston witnessed the Nyangwe Massacre by Arab slavers.

Source:  David Livingston's Field Diary.

Chat:  ERB does not mention Livingston or Stanly in Tarzan Of The Apes. Chances are, however, the Nyangwe Massacre was the event that landed John Clayton a post in Walvis Bay, which is also not named in Tarzan Of The Apes.

David Livingston

Date:  end of July 1871
Event:  John Clayton receives his first mission from the Colonial Office.
Source:  This is not an actual date presented by Edgar Rice Burroughs in Tarzan Of The Apes. It is, however, derived from the statement that Clayton and Alice were married scarcely three months before receiving his first mission. 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, Burroughs hints at the opposite. If Clayton was married to Alice for three months when they left Dover for Africa, they would have been married for four months when they reached 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 that the second 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, it is quite apparent the Englishman was still involved in early building operations. Most likely, no more than two weeks at the most. 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. Under these circumstances, Tarzan would have been born premature or Lady Alice was pregnant before marrying Clayton. The latter is very very unlikely for Burroughs plainly says Clayton is a very moral and honorable man. 

    It is also unlikely that 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.

Tarzan Of The Apes

Date:  October 23, 1871

Event:  David Livingston arrives in Ujiji, an Arab settlement on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika after exiting Nyangwe.

Source:  Based on a historical fact.

Ujiji

Date:  November 19, 1871

Event:  Henry Morton Stanley, hired by the New York Herald newspaper to find Livingston, found him in Ujiji.

Source:  Based on a historical fact.

Stanley Meets Livingstone In Ujiji

Date:  very late November or very early December 1871
Event:  Lady Alice becomes pregnant offstage.
Source:  This is my own provided 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 a child when Clayton receives his first Colonial Office assignment, the narrator 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.

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.

1264 The Outlaw Of Torn

Date:  Wednesday, May 1264

Event:  The battle of Lewes.
Source:  "May morning in the year 1264."  ERB-The Outlaw Of Torn.  "on that bloody Wednesday". ERB-The Outlaw Of Torn.

The Outlaw Of Torn

Date:  Saturday, May 1264
Event:  It is discovered that Norman of Torn is actually Prince Richard, son of King Henry III.
Source:  "three days after the battle of Lewes." ERB-The Outlaw Of Torn.

Thomas Yeates & Mike Kaluta

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.

1263 The Outlaw Of Torn

Date:  summer of 1263
Event:  Prince Richard rescued Lady Joan de Tany from the castle of John de Fulm, Earl of Buckingham.
Source:  "summer of 1263."  ERB-The Outlaw Of Torn.

Jake Bilbao & L Jamal Walton

Date:  July 1263

Event:  Prince Richard killed John de Fulm at the castle of Baron Roger Leybourn. He rescues his mother Queen Eleanor the next day.
Source:  It is stated during the battle of Lewes that Prince Richard rescued his mother the Queen "the preceding July." ERB-The Outlaw Of Torn.

The Outlaw Of Torn

Date:  winter 1263
Event:  Prince Richard spends the entire winter at Torn.
Source:  "Until the following spring Norman of Torn continued to occupy himself with occasional pillages against the royalists of the surrounding counties." ERB-The Outlaw Of Torn.

Jake Bilbao & L Jamal Walton

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.

1262 The Outlaw Of Torn

Date:  March 1262
Event:  Prince Richard rampaged the castle of John de Stutevill of Derby.
Source:  When Prince Richard meets Lady Bertrade the statement is made, "scarce sixty days had elapsed since he had reduced the stronghold."  ERB-The Outlaw Of Torn.

The Outlaw Of Torn

Date:  May 1262
Event:  Prince Richard meets the nineteen-year-old Lady Bertrade de Montfort, daughter of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, and Princess Eleanor, sister of King Henry III.
Source:  "May 1262." ERB-The Outlaw Of Torn.

The Outlaw Of Torn

Date:  end of May or early June 1262
Event:  While Lady Bertrade is visiting Lady Mary de Stutevill of Derby Prince Richard is busy sacking the castle of Baron John de Grey for hanging two of his men.
Source:  "For three weeks after his meeting with Bertrade de Montfort and his sojourn at the castle of John de Stutevill, Norman of Torn was busy with his wild horde in reducing and sacking the castle of John de Grey." ERB-The Outlaw Of Torn.

Jake Bilbao & L Jamal Walto

Date:  end of May or early June 1262
Event:  Lady Bertrade is kidnapped by de Vac and given to Baron  Peter of Colfax. She is then rescued by Prince Richard.
Source:  "Three weeks had passed since Roger de Coude' had ridden out from the portals of Stutevill," ERB-The Outlaw Of Torn.

The Outlaw Of Torn

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.

1260 The Outlaw Of Torn

Date:  1260
Event:  King Henry III nicknamed Prince Richard, Norman the Devil, and his reputation was known throughout all of England. The first sacking of the castle of Baron Peter of Colfax occurs.
Source:  "By the time he was twenty," ERB-The Outlaw Of Torn. When Prince Richard rescued Lady Bertrade at Colfax it is stated, "As he had sacked this castle some two years since," ERB-The Outlaw Of Torn.

Frank Frazetta

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.