Tarzan Creator’s Grandson Dies
Posted by: Loren Coleman on May 3rd, 2008
Tarzan of the Apes, the first book cover, 1914.
In Mark Evanier’s blog, News From Me, he writes that Danton Burroughs, the grandson of Edgar Rice Burroughs and “a major force in keeping that man’s work alive,” died Wednesday evening, April 30, 2008, at his home in Tarzana, California. The suburb, of course, was named for his grandfather’s legendary creation.
Danton Burroughs was 64. He was the son of John Coleman Burroughs, who was himself distinguished in the arts as a photographer and illustrator.
Burroughs had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease, but the immediate cause of death was said to have been a heart attack.
Burroughs was head of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., and represented his grandfather’s literary estate in dealings with movie and TV producers adapting ERB’s works.
For those unaware, Tarzan of the Apes, is, in essence, an early work of cryptofiction. The story of an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by rather unusual apes mirrors elements found in a few alleged hominology incidents.
Click on the above image of George Haas, Loren Coleman, and Archie Buckley, San Francisco, 1975, for a larger sized version. The person behind the camera and the fourth member of this gathering was Rene’ Dahinden.
The editor and creator of the historically significant Bigfoot Bulletin, one of the first serious newsletters exchanging Sasquatch and Bigfoot information among researchers around the world, was George Haas. Haas first had been a serious collector and writer of Tarzan memorabilia and ephemera before he discovered an overlapping intrigue between Bigfoot and Tarzan that would become his passion until his death.
What makes us human? Is culture merely superficial or does it run deep in our inner “machinery”? I can see how these questions fascinate us still in western society, especially when our current conflicts have come up with ways intended to de-humanize the individual.
Edgar Rice knew practically nothing about nature or natural history. His earliest Tarzan story had The Ape Man encountering a tiger in Africa. He changed the story when his mistake was revealed to him. His stories were simple flights of imagination.
Also interesting, Burroughs’ “apes” (as in Tarzan of the Apes) were unspecified arthropods. Was this due to Edgar’s ignorance, or just an imaginative flair?
And sadly, Burroughs was a racist and the Tarzan series was a reflection of his unfortunate sentiments.
Sorry, the Burroughs’ apes were anthropoids, and not “arthropods”. (The spell check did me wrong!)
We all make mistakes.
I note that jerrywayne writes:
“Also interesting, Burroughs’ ‘apes’ (as in Tarzan of the Apes) were unspecified arthropods. Was this due to Edgar’s ignorance, or just an imaginative flair?”
Certainly, to error is human, as jerrywayne shows by using the word “arthropods” instead of “anthropoids.”
Also, jerrywayne writes: “And sadly, Burroughs was a racist and the Tarzan series was a reflection of his unfortunate sentiments.”
And it was, of course, furthermore, a reflection of the unfortunate racist times too.
i actually lived in tarzana, california, for several years when i was a screenwriter. it’s a big industry suburb becuase it’s relatively small, is the home of a few actor and other industry-sponsored retirement centers, etc.
i was less than two blocks from the burroughs business affairs HQ, which was always a fun walk for me as a passerby. the reason? in the strip-mall type thoroughfare that was ventura blvd., the estate was a modest albeit gorgeous ‘california gingerbread’ style home that was tree-shaded to the point that most folks just ‘blacked it out’ as they drove/walked past because it was a visual anomaly!
seriously, i would often point it out to folks who’d lived in the area for years when we discussed the area and many would query, ‘what house? on ventura???’
likewise, visitors i showed the home would always look twice before ’seeing it,’ as if it were an optical illusion stuck as it were amongst the quickie lube joints, the eateries, the chain stores, etc.
it was, simply put, impressively ‘hidden’ as a home-inoid of the first order! i always got a chuckle out of how the city planners tauted the ERB-Tarzan connection with animal topiary statues along the boulevard, naming every other business after some Tarzan aspect, etc., but seemed oblivious the true cultural artifact — ERB’s old home itself! — was right there in front of everyone, unmarked, discreetly going about its business of conducting one of the most lucrative intellectual property rights businesses in American history!
thanks as always for the posting, Loren! while i never met nor knew any of the family members, many of my neighbors knew them from various social functions and always described them as polite, well-rounded and very proud of their lineage (for obvious reasons).
For anyone who is actually familiar with Burroughs’ work, from having read the books and not simply watched a few of the awful movies, it’s very clear that if Burroughs was a racist, he was a very mild one. Keep in mind that Tarzan was first published nearly a hundred years ago. Things were different then, stereotypes were much broader, the reading public was almost exclusively white and enforcible anti- miscegenation laws were still in effect. Burroughs was writing to feed his family and therefore had to deliver what the readers wanted. In Tarzan of the Apes, Burroughs did lampoon Esmeralda, Jane’s old nanny. But he also lampooned her father and her father’s secretary, Mr. Philander. These were comic touches designed to please the reading public, not necessarily statements of his own beliefs. If Tarzan’s enemies were often black, they were just as often white. And while the black adversaries were ugly, treacherous, backstabbing lechers, so were the whites. Burroughs had a very “us or them” style of writing that washed the adversaries as all the bad things in humans and the protagonists as impossibly heroic. It seems a touch childish now, but it worked then.
Also, to further defend my favorite childhood author, Burroughs’ black protagonists were sterling examples of humanity. He describes the Waziri as handsome, intelligent, loyal, brave, loving fathers and dutiful daughters. How many virtues do you want?
And there is the passage, first penned in The Gods of Mars, and repeated in other Mars books, that the black skin of the Black Pirates actually enhances their “physical beauty”. That’s something that no racist would say in any century.
graybear,
You are 100% spot on. One can find anything to latch onto in Burroughs’ Tarzan works. Burroughs did indeed portray many black characters as noble and to be admired, as you have already noted. As for the stereotypical lampooning of the black Esmerelda, there is just as much stereotypical lampooing of white English Cockneys elsewhere in his series.
jerrywayne wrote:
“Also interesting, Burroughs’ “apes” (as in Tarzan of the Apes) were unspecified arthropods. Was this due to Edgar’s ignorance, or just an imaginative flair?”
Well seeing as right from the first book Burroughs mentions bolgani the ‘gorilla’ which was an altogether different species to the mangani, it’s clear to deduce that Burroughs was indeed using imaginative flair.
THE DANTON BURROUGHS MEMORIAL TRIBUTE SITE
www.ERBzine.com/dantonburroughs
BTW: jerrywayne you are way off base on all counts.
Read the books . . . and read more about the life and works of
Edgar Rice Burroughs at:
www.ERBzine.com
Bill Hillman
Editor and Webmaster for the
Official Edgar Rice Burroughs Tribute Sites
www.Tarzan.com
www.Tarzan.org
www.JohnColemanBurroughs.com
www.tarzana.ca
www.JohnCarterOfMars.ca
www.BurroughsBibliophiles.com
www.DantonBurroughs.com
www.ERBzine.com