Edgar Rice Burroughs

The What When Book List

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1912

Read in August 1970

I was recently looking at my Goodreads stats trying to determine the author with the most entries of books that I've read. I had about a dozen or so authors with 10 to 15 books of theirs that I've read but the writer with the most books in my Goodreads stats by far was Edgar Rice Burroughs at 32 novels. It was interesting to note that all of those books I read in the 1970 to 1973 time period while I was in the Navy. Cruising around the world with Edgar Rice Burroughs in my pocket.

Those 32 books from the Tarzan series, The John Carter of Mars series, the Carson of Venus series, The Land That Time Forgot series and the Pellucidar At the Earth's Core series. 

I was always a big Tarzan movie fan and as a kid I saw everything that played in the neighborhood theater and then of course I watched all the old Johnny Weismueller Tarzan movies that played on TV.

It wasn’t until I was 18 and serving in the Navy that I read any of the Tarzan books and then discovered all the science fiction novels.

Since I have almost all of my readings from 1970 on in Goodreads I was able to use their stat program to determine all the books I’ve read over the years by any particular author. There was about a dozen writers that I’d read 10 to 15 books each but it was ERB that was by far the author I’ve read the most books. 32.

When looking through that list of 32 compared with his actual output I seen that there a few Tarzan books that I missed and should put on my current reading list.

I started reading his books when I found a shelf devoted to him in the small library located on the military base where I was stationed in the summer of 1970. I was finished my training program and was waiting for orders to my next duty assignment. I had a lot of free time and started reading and exploring Burroughs’ worlds.  When I went to sea I had grabbed a bag full of his books from a store to take with me. I also learned that he was popular among young sailors and it was easy to trade and pass around his books.

I don’t think I’ve read any of his novels since that time of my life. I should really read some more and maybe also a biography of him.