Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burroughs was born in Chicago in 1875. After working for several years in various jobs, including as a gold miner, cowboy, and manager at Sears Roebuck, he found his true calling at the age of thirty-seven: he became a writer of adventure stories. His first book, the science fiction novel "Under the Moons of Mars," was written under the pseudonym "Normal Bean" to indicate that its author was not crazy, and was published in a pulp science fiction magazine in 1912. This was followed by the astonishingly popular "Tarzan of the Apes," a story that paved the way for him to become a publishing phenomenon. Over the next thirty-eight years, Burroughs wrote more than one hundred stories and novels—sometimes as many as seven in a single year—covering a wide range of topics, from rural life on the western frontier of the United States to historical adventures. Although many of his works deserved more attention, none surpassed the fame of his Mars novels, which became an eleven-book series, or Tarzan, of which twenty-four were published during his lifetime. In 1931, Burroughs established his own publishing company in Tarzana, California, a town named after his most famous creation. During World War II, he worked as a war correspondent in the Pacific theater for the "Los Angeles Times." By the time of his death in 1950, his books had sold millions of copies. Today, he is recognized as the man who significantly boosted the popularity of science fiction and adventure novels. Numerous fan clubs dedicated solely to his works still exist today. Adaptations of his books for film, television, and comics, as well as translations into foreign languages, have made him famous worldwide.