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Tarzan is also the name of a Russian 4-wheel drive vehicle manufactured by AutoVAZ.

Tarzan, a character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, first appeared in the 1914 novel Tarzan of the Apes, and then in twenty-three sequels. He is the son of a British Lord and Lady, marooned on the coast of Africa by mutineers. His parents died when he was an infant, and he was raised by Great Apes of a species unknown to science. Kala is his ape mother. Tarzan (White-skin) is his ape name; his English name is John Clayton, Lord Greystoke. As a young adult, he meets Jane, and when she returns to America he leaves the jungle in search of his true love. Tarzan and Jane marry, and he lives with her for a time in England. They have one son, Jack, who takes the ape name Korak. Tarzan is contemptuous of the hypocracy of civilization, and he and Jane return to Africa where, both being immortal, they still live.

Contents 1 Tarzan as literary character 2 Books 2.1 by Edgar Rice Burroughs 2.2 by other authors 3 Tarzan in other media 3.1 comic strips 3.2 comic books 3.3 ephemera 4 Actors portraying Tarzan 4.1 Movies 4.2 Radio 4.3 TV 5 Critical Reception 6 See also 7 External links

Tarzan as literary character

Tarzan has been called one of the best-known literary characters in the world. He has appeared in films, comic strips, comic books, radio, and television programs. The Internet Movie Database lists 88 movies with Tarzan in the title between 1918 and 1999. Many of the Hollywood Tarzan films from the 1930s on featured Tarzan's chimpanzee companion Cheeta.

Science fiction author Philip José Farmer wrote Tarzan Alive!, a biography of Tarzan utilizing the frame device that he was a real person. See also Wold Newton family.

Tarzan appears briefly as a character in the book Lust, by Geoff Ryman.

Even though the copyright on Tarzan of the Apes has expired in the United States of America, all of Burroughs's works will remain under copyright in the European Union until 2021, and the name TARZAN is a trademark.

Tarzana, California, where Burroughs made his home, was renamed in honor of Tarzan in 1927.

Books

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

1. Tarzan of the Apes (1912)
2. The Return of Tarzan (1913)
3. The Beasts of Tarzan (1914)
4. The Son of Tarzan (1915)
5. Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar (1916)
6. Jungle Tales of Tarzan (1916,1917)
7. Tarzan the Untamed (1919,1921)
8. Tarzan the Terrible (1921)
9. Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1922,1923)
10. Tarzan and the Ant Men (1924)
11. Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1927,1928)
12. Tarzan and the Lost Empire (1929)
13. Tarzan at the Earth's Core (1930)
14. Tarzan the Invincible (1930,1931)
15. Tarzan Triumphant (1932)
16. Tarzan and the City of Gold (1932)
17. Tarzan and the Lion Man (1933,1934)
18. Tarzan and the Leopard Men (1935)
19. Tarzan's Quest (1935,1936)
20. Tarzan and the Forbidden City (1938)
21. Tarzan the Magnificent (1936,1937)
22. Tarzan and the Foreign Legion (1947)
23. Tarzan and the Madman (1964)
24. Tarzan and the Castaways (1941,1940,1940)

• for younger readers
  • Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins (1936,1963)

by other authors

• Barton Werper
  1. Tarzan and the Silver Globe (1964)
  2. Tarzan and the Cave City (1964)
  3. Tarzan and the Snake People (1964)
  4. Tarzan and the Abominable Snowmen (1965)
  5. Tarzan and the Winged Invaders (1965)
  • note: the Werper novels were never authorized by ERB, Inc.; they were taken off the market and remaining copies destroyed.
• Fritz Leiber
  • Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966)
• Philip José Farmer
  • A Feast Unknown (circa 1966)
  • Lord of the Trees (circa 1966)
  • Tarzan Alive (1972)
  • The Adventure of the Peerless Peer (1974)
  • Time's Last Gift (1985)
  • The Dark Heart of Time: a Tarzan Novel (1999)

• • Note: Feast, Trees, Peerless Peer, and Time's Last Gift do not call the character "Tarzan," but it's pretty obvious that that is who he is. This "not-Tarzan, wink-nudge" character also puts in appearances in:
  • Hadon of Ancient Opar
  • Flight to Opar
• ERB and Joe R. Lansdale
  • Tarzan: the Lost Adventure (1995)
• R. A. Salvatore
  • Tarzan: the Epic Adventures (1996)

Tarzan in other media

comic strips

Tarzan of the Apes was the first novel to be adapted in newspaper strip form, in early 1929, with illustrations by Hal Foster. A full page Sunday strip began March 15, 1931 by Rex Maxon. Over the years, many artists have drawn the Tarzan comic strip, notably Burne Hogarth and Russ Manning. The daily strip began to reprint old dailies after the last Russ Manning daily #10,308 29 July 1972. The Sunday strip also turned to reprints circa 2000. Both strips continue as reprints today, in a few newspapers and in Comics Revue magazine.

comic books

Tarzan has appeared in many comic books, first in reprints of the comic strip, and later in a long running Tarzan comic book from Dell. Other publishers of Tarzan comic books include Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse.

ephemera

There have been several Tarzan View-Master reels and packets, and numerous Tarzan coloring books, childrens books, activity books, follow the dots, and so on.

Actors portraying Tarzan

A number of actors have played Tarzan over the years, with the most famous and longest-lasting being Johnny Weissmuller, a Danube Swabian born in Austro-Hungary (in a town now in Romania), who came with his parents to the United States. Due to complex licensing issues relating to Tarzan, several Tarzan movie series actually overlapped. For example, Buster Crabbe, Herman Brix and Glenn Morris all made Tarzan films concurrently with the 1932-1948 Weismuller series. Mike Henry, meanwhile, played Tarzan in several theatrical releases that came out concurrently with Ron Ely's TV series (Henry had been approached to star in the TV series too, but had declined).

Movies

• Gordon Griffith 1918 (young Tarzan)
• Elmo Lincoln 1918, 1918, 1921 (called the "first" Tarzan, but Gordon Griffith appears first in the film as his younger self)
• Gene Pollar 1920
• P. Dempsey Tabler 1920
• James Pierce 1927
• Frank Merrill 1928, 1929
• Johnny Weissmuller 1932, 1934, 1936, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1943, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948
• Buster Crabbe 1933
• Herman Brix later billed as Bruce Bennett 1935, 1938
• Glenn Morris 1938
• Lex Barker 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953
• Clint Walker 1954 (uncredited, in "Jungle Gents," a Bowery Boys movie)
• Gordon Scott 1955, 1957, 1958, 1958, 1959, 1960
• Denny Miller 1959
• Jock Mahoney 1962, 1963
• Ron Ely 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970
• Mike Henry 1966, 1967, 1968
• Miles O'Keeffe 1981
• Christophe Lambert 1984
• Casper Van Dien 1998
• Tony Goldwyn 1999 (voice of animated Tarzan)
• Alex D. Linz 1999 (voice of young animated Tarzan)

Radio

• James Pierce 1932-1934
• Carlton KaDell 1934-1936
• Lamont Johnson 1950-1951

TV

• Gordon Scott 1958
• Ron Ely 1966
• Robert Ridgely 1976 (voice, Filmation animated series)
• Joe Lara 1989
• Wolf Larson 1991
• Michael T Weiss 2001 The Legend of Tarzan
• Travis Fimmel 2003

Critical Reception

While Tarzan of the Apes met with some critical success, subsequent books in the series have received a cooler reception. They have been criticized for being derivative and formulaic. The characters are often said to be two-dimensional, the dialogue wooden, and the storytelling devices (such as excessive reliance on coincidence) strain credibility. While Burroughs is a vivid storyteller, he is not considered a polished novelist.

Despite critical panning, the Tarzan stories have been amazingly popular. Fans love his melodramatic situations and the elaborate details he works into his fictional world. His construction of a partial language for his great apes is an example of the sort of detail that fans love.

Since the beginning of the 1970s, Tarzan books and movies have often been critized as being blatantly racist. This comes from an overwhelmingly negative and stereotypical portrayal of Blacks and Africans. While there are positive characters, such as the Waziri tribe, they are always shown as subservient to the white characters. The fact that the character of Tarzan (whose name translates as "white-skin") is better adapted to life in Africa than the Black African characters is also seen as a sign of racism.

Burroughs' opinions, made known mainly through the narrative voice in the stories, do reflect racist and sexist themes widely held in his time. The author is not especially mean-spirited about his attitudes. His heroes do not engage in violence against non-submissive women or in racially motivated violence. Still, the attitudes of a superior-inferior relationship are plain and occasionally even made explicit.

When Burroughs moved to Hollywood, his attitudes became much more liberal, and the later Tarzan books include heavy-handed satires of sexism and racism.

Nwachukwu Frank Ukadike, Black African Cinema, University of California Press 1994, p. 40

See also

• Feral children in mythology and fiction
• Tarzan Boy

External links

• Official Tarzan and Edgar Rice Burroughs Web Site
• Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs
• Edgar Rice Burroughs Tribute and Weekly Webzine Site
• Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
• Tarzan comic strip
• Tarzan at Brian's Drive-In Theater
• Free Tarzan eBooks by Project Gutenberg
• The Official Johnny Weissmuller Web Site

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