While forming my 1872 chronology I found it relativity simple up to Tarzan's eighteenth birthday. From that point through February 3 (?), which is the date in the letter that Jane wrote to Hazel Strong, many events occur and little is offered for dating them. To make matters even worse Edgar Rice Burroughs later wrote Jungle Tales Of Tarzan which covers the ape man's life during this period also. Therefore, we must insert those dates into Tarzan Of The Apes at their appropriate times.
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| Clinton Pettee |
This very subject has rattled the Tarzan community for years, and there have been countless articles written on the subject. Even as I prepared this article the news was announced of my friend and ERB colleague, Allan Hanson's, new 182-page booklet, A Chrono-log Of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan Series.
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| A Chrono-log Of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan Series |
I personally have not had the chance to purchase a copy and read it yet. I am excited to do so. Alan and I talked much about the subject in Tarzana at ECOF 1989. I really enjoyed our discussion, but I was not swayed by his chronology at that time. I doubt if I will be this time either. Alan's research follows Philip Jose Farmer's Tarzan's 1888 birth, and my research favors Tarzan's push-back theory of the jungle lord's 1872 birth. By the way, John Harwood is the father of both chronology theories.
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| Burroughs Bulletin #10 |
ERB does provide us with several key clues, which help get our starting and stopping points in Tarzan Of The Apes and Jungle Tales Of Tarzan. The starting point is the jungle lord's eighteenth birthday, which I have previously shown as September 1, 1890. At this point, ERB tells us the ape-man can read and write English, and he has never seen a human being other than himself.
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| Cynthia Shepherd |
The stopping point is February 3 (?), 1893. As mentioned above February 3 (?) is the date provided on Jane's letter. It is apparent by the (?) that Jane was not absolutely positive of the exact date, but by the best of her recollection, it was the 3rd. I chose to follow her instincts in my 1872 chronology. There are three different passages that reveal at this point of span twenty years have passed since the Greystoke's were marooned. If they were marooned in 1872, as I have previously shown, plus twenty we now have a date occurring after September 1, 1892. So we can conclude Jane's letter was wrote February 3, 1893.
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| Joe Kubert |
Another solid clue ERB gave to help us pinpoint the time, is the lunar eclipse reported in Jungle Tales Of Tarzan. I have shown in past writings that this is the actual lunar eclipse of November 4, 1892. This date also coincides with the fact that Tarzan is twenty when the eclipse occurs, as reported in Jungle Tales Of Tarzan. When Toog kidnaps Teeka, an event that occurs just prior to the lunar eclipse, two statements are made that a span of twenty years has passed.
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| Carlos Arguello |
Last but not least, we can use Teeka's balu, Gazan, as a sort of timetable. Throughout Jungle Tales Of Tarzan descriptions of Gazan's growth are often made. Although the Mangani is not gorillas they are close enough related, so theoretically their growth and maturity rate are going to be approximately the same.
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| Teeka & Gazan |
As you can see there has not been a whole lot supplied for a chronologist to go on. Admittedly, it is impossible to provide an exact day-to-day chronology, but a fairly accurate timetable can be presented.
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| John Buscema |
Even as we open up this segment we have a major dating problem. Although we know that Tarzan is eighteen when Kulonga kills Kala, there is no clue as to when that exact day occurred. The problem is that we need to have a date for that event to provide the groundwork for all the others. We do know that Kala's death and the events of Jungle Tales Of Tarzan cover a span of two years. To allow time for all these events to occur, they have to happen at the earliest possible date after Tarzan's eighteenth birthday, September 1, 1890.
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| Tom Floyd |
As my past writings have shown it was a constant habit of ERB, the author from Chicago, Il, to insert true-life family dates into his stories. As a practice when no date is provided by ERB, the author, and a date is absolutely needed I go to the Burroughs family genealogy just as ERB, the author, himself did. It has long been my belief that Kala's death occurred on the death date of one of ERB, the author's, brothers that died in infancy. After many hours of research, however, these dates turned up as unrecorded.
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| Memories Of A War Bride |
Since the desired dates could not be obtained, I had to come up with a substitute. That date was the death date of Mary the wife of Judge John Inskeep. Keep in mind that this is a working date. It is not ERB provided, and it can't be proven by outside facts, but a chronologist must go with circumstantial and previously provided information, Above all else this self-provided date does not disagree with all the other provided information. It is merely a calendar date that has to be provided one way or the other. If someone should ever come up with a more researched date I would gladly change mine for theirs.
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| Memories Of A War Bride |
Event: Kala's death.
Source: The actual date of Kala's death is not provided by ERB in Tarzan Of The Apes. It is my original belief that Kala's death date is derived from the death date of either Arthur McCulloch or Charles Stuart, ERB, the author's, brothers that died in infancy. I have put in many hours researching these unrecorded deaths, but I have been unable to discover the actual dates.
My failure brought in the help of George T. McWhorter, the curator of the Edgar Rice Burroughs collection at Ekstrom Library at the University of Louisville. After being unable to find the dates in a copy of The Memoirs Of A War Bride, George contacted Mrs. Anselmo, the D.A.R., and Danton Burroughs. Even his efforts were unable to discover the unrecorded death dates.
Regardless, we do know that Jungle Tales Of Tarzan covers a span of two years. Therefore, to allow time for these events to occur before the jungle lord sees his first white men at age twenty, Jungle Tales Of Tarzan has to occur at the earliest possible date after Kala's death.
Since the desired dates are unobtainable I have searched the Burroughs genealogy for a substitute. Naturally, this substitute would be the death date of a family member which occurred before the writing of Tarzan Of The Apes, December 11, 1911. The date which best suits ERB, the author's, provided information is September 10, which is the death date of Mary the wife of Judge John Inskeep.
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| Franc Chio |
Event: Kulonga's death and the discovery of Mbonga's village.
Source: The day following Kala's death. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.
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| Russ Manning |
Event: Tarzan's second recorded trip to Mbonga's village to steal arrows.
Source: "ere a month had passed" since his first visit. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.
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| Russ Manning |
Event: Tarzan Of The Apes fades out and Jungle Tales Of Tarzan fades in.
Source: "That night he slept in the forest not far from the village, and early the next morning set out slowly on his homeward march," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.
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| Joe Kubert |
Event: Tarzan fights Taug for Teeka.
Source: The exact date is untold, but after Tarzan realizes Teeka is not for him chapter one states, "In Teeka he had seen within the past few hours a substitute for Kala - someone to fight and hunt for - someone to caress; but now his dream was shattered." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
This passage strongly suggests Tarzan's fight with Taug occurs very shortly after Kala's death. Not immediately, however, for when the ape-man goes to the village two days later ERB states, "It had been some time since Tarzan had visited the blacks and looked down from the shelter of the great trees which overhung their palisade upon the activities of his enemies, from among whom had come the slayer of Kala." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
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| Sergio Cariello |
Event: Tarzan watched Mbonga's warriors set a trap and followed them home in hopes of seeing them dance.
Source: Two days after his fight with Taug. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan. This is the ape man's third recorded visit as well. One hint is that after the ape-man watched the blacks build the trap it is stated, "Tarzan wondered what the thing might be, and why, when they built it, they turned away and started back along the trail in the direction of their village." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
From this we can gather the jungle lord is looking at his first trap which proves he has little experience with the blacks. Up to this point, we are told Tarzan goes once a month, man time, or once a moon, Mangani time, to replenish his arrows. It is specifically stated this visit is for watching the blacks dance, but the passage quoted above, "it had been some time since Tarzan had visited the blacks," suggests that stealing arrows is most likely on the agenda also. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
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| Pablo Marcos |
Event: Tarzan discovers Taug in the native's trap and rescues him.
Source: "Early the following morning." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
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| Diana Leto |
Event: Tarzan rescues Tantor, but is captured by the blacks. The ape-man is taken to Mbonga's village which is his fourth recorded visit.
Source: Again ERB offers no date, but again the jungle lord's ignorance of the trap shows the small passage of time. "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 of their kind to encroach upon the age-old supremacy of the beasts which laired there." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
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| Burne Hogarth |
Event: Tarzan rescues Gazan from Sheeta, the panther.
Source: "shortly after the birth of Teeka's firstborn." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan. The amount of time that occurs between The Capture Of Tarzan and The Fight For The Balu is not told exactly, but the gestation period of the gorilla is 265 days which is most likely the same as the Mangani, and if not at least close. This would run us into August 1891. Checking the Burroughs genealogy ERB, the author's son, Hulbert, was born on August 12. I used Hulbert's birth date as a work date until a better one is provided.
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| Lowell Isaac |
Event: Tarzan searches for God at Mbonga's village.
Source: Again ERB offers no exact date, but he does provide hints that God Of Tarzan occurs very shortly after A Fight For The Bula. These hints were in the description of Gazan. "It was the wail of a tiny balu." "Teeka's baby." "it's soft baby hair." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
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| Alberto Giolitti |
Event: Tarzan rescues Gazan from Hista, the snake.
Source: The following day. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
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| John Buscema |
Event: Tarzan kidnaps ten-year-old Tibo.
Source: No dates are provided, but by ERB's descriptions of Gazan we know not a great amount of time has passed. "little balu." "Just now the apeling was developing those arboreal tendencies which were to stand him in such good stead during the years of his youth, when rapid flight into the upper terraces was far more importance and value than his undeveloped muscles and untrained fighting fangs." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
Assuming the Manganni and gorillas are basically on the same evolutionary scale we can closely measure the time passage by Gazan's growth. According to Dian Fossey, the author of Gorilla's In The Mist, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston 1983, "By the fourth month the baby was able to totter away from the mother for distances up to ten feet, though most gorilla infants remain within arms reach - some six feet - of their mothers until about six months old."
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| Nik Poliwko |
Event: Tarzan notices a change in Tibo.
Source: "After a week." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
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| Sanjulian |
Event: Tibo is reunited with his mother.
Source: "Two sun's before." Tarzan returns to the village and finds Tibo stolen once more. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
I found the statement made in chapter five quite puzzling. "Momaya shivered as from a cold wind of the rainy season." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan. In Angola the rainy season, October through May, is hot. The dry season occurs at the end of June through September and is cool. Maybe Momaya was referring to her homeland for also in chapter five we are informed, "Momaya, being of a short temper and of another people, she had little respect for the witch-doctor of her husband's tribe." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
It is possible Momaya was originally from the plateau whose climate differs much greatly from the coast. There is less rainfall on the coast and the plateau region has a much more distinct wet season, September through April, and the dry season, May through August. Momaya's mentioning of the cool, however, definitely implies that the present weather is warm. On the coast, February through March is the hottest month of the year and is very humid and uncomfortable.
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| 1872 Africa |
Event: Tibo is stolen by Bukawai.
Source: "The second sun after Tibo's return." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
.jpg "Gold Key Comic") |
| Gold Key Comic |
Date: March 12, 1892
Event: Tarzan returns to the village and finds Tibo stolen once more.
Source: "It had been at least a moon since he had last been there and played a trick." (the stealing of Tibo). ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan. From this statement, we know approximately a month has passed.
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| Jamie Chase |
Event: Lord Greystoke was shooting Pheasants at Chamston-Hedding.
Source: These events occur on the same day Tarzan goes to Mbonga's village and discovers Tibo missing for a second time.
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| Chamston-Hedding |
Event: Tarzan rescues Tibo once more and returns him to Mbonga's village.
Source: "The following day." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
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| Alberto Giolitti |
Date: middle of June 1892
Event: Bukawi captures Tarzan and the ape man leaves him to the mercy of his own hyenas.
Source: "For months the old witch doctor nursed his hate for the jungle god before a chance to get even occurred." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan. Because of the mentioned rain storm, the events have to occur before the end of June.
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| Steven E. Gordon |
Event: A lion kills Mamka, a she ape, and Tarzan steals her body.
Source: There is nothing mentioned in which we can date this event, but we know the happenings occur around this point because of the time needed to fulfill the other events.
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| John Buscema & Rudy Messina |
Event: Sheeta, the panther, kills a baby Mangani, and sentries are formed.
Source: "A few weeks later." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
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| Artist Unknown |
Event: Tarzan returns to the village and steals a complete lion skin that belongs to Rabba Kega from Mbonga's hut.
Source: "Several days later." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan. |
| Bill Montes & Ernie Bache |
Event: Tarzan attempts to play a trick on the Mangani and is almost killed.
Source: The following day. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
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| John Buscema & Steve Gan |
Event: Tarzan goes to Mbonga's village and steals food and has nightmares.
Source: There is nothing mentioned in which we can date this event, but we know the happenings occur around this point because of the time needed to fulfill the other events. The following passage may be used as an overall dating clue. "there had been a disease ravaging through the plains for several years that made game very scarce. Due to this many of the great cats had abandoned the grasslands and moved into the jungle. This overpopulation of cats eventually also made game hard to find there as well." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
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| Joe Kubert |
Event: Tarzan kills his second recorded gorilla.
Source: "Next day." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
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| Daryl Mandryk |
Date: end of September 1892
Event: Toog kidnaps Teeka.
Event: Toog kidnaps Teeka.
Source: "many weeks had past since the tribe had been attacked by a foe." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan. During these events, a rain storm is mentioned which means the rainy season. October through May has to be setting in. Also, take note of ERB'S descriptions of Gazan; "young balu", "Little Gazan," and "younger ape." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
According to Dian Fossey, author of Gorilla's In The Mist, "Only when the newborn was nine months old had it developed into an active and socially inclined baby." In this last description of Teeka's balu, notice that no event in Jungle Tales Of Tarzan has ever hinted that Gazan has reached the weaning age. According to Diane Fossy, "Weaning periods become the most traumatic for gorilla infants around the age of two and one-half years."
We also know this event has to occur after September 1, 1892, because two clues in chapter ten state that Tarzan is twenty years old. "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 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.
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| Sam Glanzman |
Event: Tarzan puts Rabba Kega in the lion's cage.
Source: "One restless day." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
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| Jungle Tales Of Tarzan |
Date: October 3, 1892
Event: Tarzan came across six of Mbonga's hunters caught in the jungle after dark.
Source: "one night." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan. The day before rescuing Bulabantu.
Event: Tarzan came across six of Mbonga's hunters caught in the jungle after dark.
Source: "one night." ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan. The day before rescuing Bulabantu.
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| Jungle Tales Of Tarzan |
Event: Tarzan rescues Bulabantu and Taug kills Gunto.
Source: This occurs one moon before the lunar eclipse. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.
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| Sergio Cariello |
Event: Tarzan rescues the moon.
Source: The actual lunar eclipse of November 4, 1892.
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| Thomas Yeates |
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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