Edgar Rice Burroughs

American novelist known around the world for his extensive series of Tarzan stories.

The son of a wealthy businessman, Burroughs was educated at private schools. He spent the years 1897 to 1911 near poverty in a series of unsuccessful jobs and business ventures. Eventually settling in Chicago with a wife and three children, he began writing advertising copy and then turned to fiction. His first published piece, "Under the Moons of Mars," appeared in 1911 and was so successful that Burroughs became a full-time writer.

The first Tarzan story appeared in 1912, followed in 1914 by "Tarzan of the Apes." Eventually there were 25 Tarzan books about the son of an English nobleman abandoned in the African jungle during infancy and brought up by apes. The Tarzan stories sold by the millions and were translated into more than 56 languages as well as being popular in comic strip, motion picture, television, and radio versions.

In 1919, Burroughs bought an estate near Hollywood (at a site later named Tarzana) in order to be near the filming of his Tarzan movies. He continued to write other novels, ultimately publishing some 68 titles in all. During World War II he became a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and, at age 66, was the oldest war correspondent covering the South Pacific theatre.

In 1900 Burroughs married Emma Centennia Hulbert; they had two sons and one daughter and divorced in 1934. In 1933 he was elected mayor of California Beach. He married Florence Dearholt in 1935 and they divorced in 1942. Burroughs died of a heart ailment on 19 March 1950 in Encino, California.

In the 1960s, after his death, the Edgar Rice Burroughs Corporation began to successfully coordinate the commercial publication of previously issued and newly released works. "Tarzan" became a Disney animated film in 1999.