One of the questions I get asked most nowadays is, why do you write so much about the Tarzan chronology? The short answer is Tarzan Alive by Philip Jose Farmer, which was published in 1972. At that time I was already the owner of 99% of all Edgar Rice Burroughs published works and was an extensive fanzine collector. My three favorites were the Burrough's Bulletin, ERB-dom, and ERBania. Naturally, all the fanzines were covering Phil's book before its publication. Phil a true ERB fan, even submitted contributions to some.
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| ERB-APA #74 |
This subject stirred up a great interest on my part, and I read all I could about it in my collection of fanzines. The first article I know of concerning Tarzan's chronology was published in Burroughs Bulletin #6, December 1947. The article was written by John Harwood and its title was How Old Is Tarzan? Harwood theorizes that maybe over twenty years John Clayton's diary pages may have mildewed and yellowed and become slightly hard to read. When ERB was transcribing his notes he mistook the true date of May 1872 for 1888. Harwood also suggested that Korak was born in 1896, making him 18 at the outbreak of W.W. I.
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| Burroughs Bulletin #6 |
Most everyone who believed that Korak was really Tarzan's son came to accept 1872 as Tarzan's birth date and that was the norm of thinking for years. Then in January 1960, Pete Ogden reprinted How Old Is Tarzan? in ERBania #8. The reprint flamed a fire for a whole new generation of fans and spawned many articles and replies throughout the fanzines.
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| ERBANIA #8 |
The times have now changed and the new generation of fans were now challenging Tarzan's 1872 birth. It was somewhere in this sixties era that Harwood's 1872 chronology took on the nickname, "the pushback theory". Finally, yielding to the 1888 advocates John Harwood teamed up with H.W. Star in the Burrough's Bulletin #16, August 1966, to offer the theory that the Greystoke's did indeed set sail in 1888 as Tarzan Of The Apes describes, but that Jack, Tarzan's son, was the baby that died in The Son Of Tarzan. Korak is supposedly Tarzan's cousin.
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| J. Allen St. John |
This kind of logic starts to dominate the chronology think tank, which in turn persuades Phil to use Tarzan's 1888 birth date in Tarzan Alive. Since that publication, the majority of fans have again adopted the theory that Tarzan was born in 1888. I read Phil's book way more than once. If anything, it proved to me that John Harwood was right the first time with Tarzan being born in 1872. Phil's book was the greatest and it revealed so much research that it was staggering. The only problem was that Tarzan Alive did not tell the same story that ERB's Tarzan series did.
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| Jean-Paul Goude |
I said to myself that Phil's idea was great, but somewhere along the way he abandons ERB's Tarzan, and informs us of the true-life man that the author based his series on. What if we had a book constructed just like Phil's, but it told the same story ERB's series did? Wouldn't that be fantastic?
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| Gridley Wave |
So using Tarzan Alive as a framework I began arranging a Tarzan chronology based on ERB's series. I dupped my research, The Tarzan Papers, and started out by using 1888 as the jungle lord's birth and Tarzan being twenty when he and Jane met as reported in Tarzan Of The Apes. Using 1888 as the ape-man's birth it was impossible for me to form a chronology that could tell the exact story the author recorded in his series. I then proceeded to form a second 1888 chronology, but this time Tarzan was fifteen when his foster mother Kala was killed and the ape-man was introduced to black men as reported in The Return Of Tarzan. Again, it was impossible for me to tell ERB's exact story using those dates.
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| Jean-Paul Goude |
Having no luck with 1888 I decided to investigate some of the other fan-supplied dates. I next formed a chronology using 1868 as Tarzan's birth which was supplied by Pete Ogden in ERBANIA #15, September 1964. At first, I thought Pete had solved the puzzle. When I got to the lunar eclipse in Jungle Tales Of Tarzan the dates could not be made to fit ERB's storyline. By the end of Tarzan Of The Apes, there were too many time gaps that could not be explained. An 1868 birth date and Tarzan being fifteen when he first came in contact with natives as described in The Return Of Tarzan did not work either.
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| Frank Frazetta |
Next, I formed two chronologies using 1872 as the jungle lord's birth date. One was Tarzan meeting Jane when he was twenty, the other when he was fifteen at Kala's death. Although I was able to form a rough draft with both 1872 chronologies the one with Tarzan meeting Jane when he was eighteen was the one most suitable. For two or three years I built on to that rough draft until it ran hand in hand with ERB's Tarzan series.
1872 Greystoke Chronology
The next step was to make it public. I certainly did not have the education, money, or contacts to get my research published, so I decided to print short articles in the various fanzines. Tarzine was the first to print my theories, but I was writing them so fast Bill couldn't print them all. That led to a spillover into ERB News Dateline. Once again the Tarzan chronology was a hot topic but this time in the 1980's. Naturally, I would have preferred to debate with Phil Farmer but he was no longer active in ERB fandom on our level. Bill Ross, editor of Tarzine, introduced me to the ERB-Apa which in turn put me into contact with my all-time favorite ERB researcher, John F. Roy.
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| TARZINE #25 |
Needless to say, it did not take us long to lock horns. It was then that I learned that the Tarzan chronology subject was actually a dimensional question and one has to lay down ground rules before you can even begin to talk about the subject. For example, if you are talking about the subject from a nonfictional point of view the end will be much different than if you were viewing it from within the stories themselves. If you pay close attention to what people write, most mix nonfiction with fiction and it makes the conversation twice as confusing.
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| ERB News Dateline |
Mr. Roy viewed Tarzan as living in a Science Fiction universe. He believed Tarzan was born in 1888 and the ape-man and his family were time travelers. This certainly explained away all the time inconsistencies and gave one very little to debate on. The one thing that Mr. Roy had on all the rest, including John Harwood, was the fact that ERB, the author, and ERB. the narrator, were two different people. This is a fact that everyone to this day seems to ignore, which in turn throws their chronologies way off course.
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| John F. Roy & James Michael Moody |
I don't disagree with what Mr. Roy theorizes because, in the middle of the Tarzan series, ERB does get more science fiction with his tales. In Tarzan Of The Apes, The Return Of Tarzan, The Beasts Of Tarzan, Jungle Tales Of Tarzan, and The Son Of Tarzan, the Tarzan tales are done in such a realistic fashion that one almost could accept them as based on reality. It is not until The Eternal Lover that ERB starts laying it on thick. Because the first five books are done so realistically I can't help but imagine Tarzan as being a true life person on the planet Earth as we know it.
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| Frank Frazetta |
If one can easily imagine Tarzan and family as dimensional travelers stick with John F. Roy's theory. This eliminates all arguments. On the other hand, if you are a realist can you arrange the events of the Tarzan series in calendar order and still be true to the story as the author told it? This is the game I have been playing in the ERB-Apa over the years. Many in past years have said it is impossible but I know better. Tarzan can be a real person just like us and his adventures can be dated in calendar order and still agree with ERB.
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| John F. Roy |
The only problem is that it can not be done using Tarzan's 1888 birth date. An 1888 chronology can be formed, but ERB's story has to be butchered and Korak is not Tarzan's son. Throughout the years I have seen the very best minds of ERB-dom try but they all get the same results, including myself.
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| Alan Hanson |
On the other hand, if a researcher starts with 1872 as being Tarzan's birth date the story practically falls into place all by itself. The lunar eclipse in Jungle Tales Of Tarzan, which plagues an 1888 chronology, falls into a perfect sequence in an 1872 chronology. Korak is Tarzan's son just as ERB describes, and he is old enough to fight in W.W.I. as described. I personally can't see how it could get any better, but to this day I amusingly watch as fans hack up the Tarzan stories trying to fit them into an 1888 timeline. If you remain consistent with ERB's storyline it can't be done.
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| Thomas Yeates |
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 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 accepted date, May 1888.
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