biography
| name: |
Burroughs, Edgar Rice
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pronunciation:
[buhrohz]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1875–1950)
|
| biography:
| Writer, born in Chicago, Illinois. Son of a wealthy businessman, he trained at the Michigan Military Academy, then served briefly in the US cavalry until he was dropped for being underage. For the next 15 years (1896–1911) he worked at a variety of jobs including cowboy and miner, finally deciding to try his hand at writing. He published his first story, ‘Under the Moons of Mars’ (using the pen name ‘Normal Bean’), in the pulp magazine All-Story (1912), which became the start of a serialized novel (published in 1914 as Princess of Mars). In the following years he wrote several more science-fiction series, but he would remain best known for a series of novels he began in 1914 with Tarzan of the Apes, a story about an English boy raised by apes in Africa. It proved so successful that he went on to write another 27 titles in the Tarzan series, and moved to Hollywood (1919) to supervise the filming of the first of many highly popular Tarzan films. The Tarzan story also inspired a comic strip, radio and television programmes, and countless other spin-offs, all of which made Burroughs very rich. Although he lost money in early investments, he eventually made enough to buy a large ranch near Tarzana, a suburb of Los Angeles named after his creation. During World War 2 he served as a war correspondent. Producing two or three novels a year, he wrote in a rather crude style, but the sheer narrative thrust of the Tarzan story engaged millions throughout the world. |
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