Date: January 1, 1882, through August 31, 1882
Event: At nine years old Tarzan learns to fashion a rope, and learns the art of lassoing.
Source: "By the time Tarzan was ten," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.
Chat: ERB does not offer exact data, so any dates provided would be theory. Regardless, we need a working model to go by. To keep this working date simple, I theorized that the ape boy learned to fashion a rope on the front side of nine, and the art of lassoing on the back side of nine.
Date: September 1, 1882, through December 31, 1882
Event: At age ten, Tarzan realized he was different from the Mangani. The ape boy becomes the greatest trickster in the tribe. Tarzan managed to enter his father's cabin for the first time. Tarzan finds his mother's locket, his father's diary, and his father's hunting knife. He killed Bolgani, the gorilla, after being attacked, while leaving the cabin.
Source: "Age ten," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.
Chat: Although ERB describes numerous events while the ape boy is ten, he does not provide precise dates. Therefore, any dating provided is theory only, and not provided by ERB. With that said, one can logically assume, as a working framework, that in the first part of ten the ape boy was active until the fight with the gorilla. The back side of ten would be surviving and recovering from that fight.
As a working date only, I theorized all of Tarzan's active events occurred in 1882, with the gorilla fight occurring on December 31, 1892. Keeping things simple, that would give the ape boy, still age ten, from January 1, 1893, to August 31, 1883, to survive and recover from the near-death experience.
When having no provided data we keep in the tradition of ERB himself, and resort to the Burroughs family genealogy for a working date until other research provides a better one. Checking for December or January working dates, we discover Studley Oldham was born on December 26, 1892, which is a perfect fit. That will be the working date for the battle with the gorilla.
Date: December 26, 1882
Event: Tarzan kills his first gorilla at ten years old, but is nearly killed himself.
Source: "Age ten," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.
Chat: Although ERB describes numerous events while the ape boy is ten, he does not provide precise dates. Therefore, any dating provided is theory only, and not provided by ERB. With that said, one can logically assume, as a working framework, that in the first part of ten the ape boy was active until the fight with the gorilla. The back side of ten would be surviving and recovering from that fight.
As a working date only, I theorized all of Tarzan's active events occurred in 1882, with the gorilla fight occurring on December 31, 1882. Keeping things simple, that would give the ape boy, still age ten, from January 1, 1883, to August 31, 1883, to survive and recover from the near-death experience.
When having no provided data we keep in the tradition of ERB himself, and resort to the Burroughs family genealogy for a working date until other research provides a better one. Checking for December or January working dates, we discover Studley Oldham was born on December 26, 1892, which is a perfect fit. That will be the working date for the battle with the gorilla
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.
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