1885 Tarzan Of The Apes

Date:  September 4, 1885     

Event:  Tarzan is age thirteen when he kills Tublat, his foster ape father. 

Source:  "Age thirteen," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Chat:  Any day chosen for this event between September 1,1885, through August 31, 1886, while the ape boy is thirteen, would agree with ERB's description. Although no particular date is provided, we must produce one that has a conservative and consistent calendar framework.

    Keeping with the previous formula when providing unknown working dates, one follows in the self-tradition of ERB and uses a family birth, wedding, divorce, death date, etc. Going to the Burroughs family genealogy we need to discover a meaningful date in January or February just after the ape boy kills Tublat but is still age thirteen. 

    Browsing through the Burroughs genealogy we discover on September 4, 1909, Katherya Stewart was born in Chicago. That date fulfills our needs, so I will use September 4, 1885, as a working date for the event of Tarzan killing Tublat until a much more researched one can be provided.

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.