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Volume 1750
Presents
From the Ron De Laat Collection
A Fort Wayne Daily News 1913 Newspaper Serialization of

Art by G. Busche
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PROLOGUE
Not like any other story you ever read before is Tarzan of the Apes. "While you are reading it you would like to pause to ask yourself  "Is it possible?" but you can't, because the story is so fascinating that pausing is impossible. It's a yarn of the you-can't-stop-until-you-finish-it kind. It may have happened in the wilds of Africa just as the author relates it, or it may not -- we do not know whether or not he had a basis of fact for his story -- but you are not a scientist while you are reading it

 You are just an ordinary human being, with a love for a story that is absorbing in its interest and swiftness.

CHAPTER I: In the Wilds

"I had this story from one who had no business to tell it to me or to any other. I may credit the seductive influence of an old vintage upon the narrator for the beginniug of it and my own skeptical incredulity during the days that followed for the balance of the strange tale. . . . "
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Click on the images for full-page 1913 newspaper serialization text in PDF format.
(Use your Adobe Reader)
The sight that met his eyes must have frozen him with horror. .And then, with an awful scream he sprang.
December 9, 1913
In the middle of the floor lay a skeleton.
December 10, 1913
With a roar he leaped upon the little Lord Greystoke. .With a bound the black leaped entirely over the rushing beast.
December 11, 1913
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It was a thoroughly awed and frightened group of savages.
December 12, 1913
Loud through the forest rang the fierce wild cry. .    .Turning and twisting in the air came the dead body.
December 13, 1913
Her first view of the interior brought a shriek of terror.
December 15, 1913
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December 16, 1913
Good evening, sir, said the professor.
December 17, 1913
She was writing on Tarzan's own table beneath the window.
December 18, 1913
One piercing scream escaped her lips.
December 19, 1913
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There stood Tarzan, his arms filled with luscious fruit.
December 20, 1913
In an instant they were in a hand to hand fight.
December 22, 1913
He is only a beast of the jungle, Miss Porter.
December 23, 1913
No, I shall not go, nor should you.
December 24, 1913
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For days they travelled.
December 26, 1913
Do finger prints show racial characteristics?Suddenly she felt a great arm about her.
December 27, 1913 (p. 8)
She sprang forward to plead with the ape man.
December 27, 1913
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. . . "If it's any of my business how did you ever get into that jungle?"

"I don't know," said Tarzan quietly "I was born there. 
My mother was an ape, and, of course, she couldn't tell me anything about it.
I never knew who my father was.

The End

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ERB Researcher Dave Sorochty notes:
The newspaper novel version was published nationally before the 1st edition harcover of the book which has a 1912 copyright by Frank A. Munsey (publisher of All Story).  The text of the newspaper version is an condensation of the All-Story magazine text and is not the version as published in the books.  A good example of this can be seen in the portion of the story regarding the sea voyage. 

Another particularly interesting example of this revised version is shown at:
www.tarzan.org/pdf/19131216.pdf
There is a tiger breaking into the cabin through the window (in the text and in the illustration), not a lion as it was later corrected in the book version.
 

NEXT

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Other Versions of ERB's First Tarzan Novel Appear at:
(Our featured Newspaper Serial appeared between the Pulp and Hardcover publications)

TEXT
Fred J. Arting McClurg: Tarzan of the Apes - title page silhouette
Tarzan of the Apes ~ A.C. McClurg Edition
First Appearance in Hard Cover
BIBLIO & COVERS
All-Story October 1912 - Tarzan of the Apes
All-Story Pulp Magazine
First Appearance
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Holland meets ERB! created by Ron de Laat.
A website where you can find all material concerning Edgar Rice Burroughs
which was produced for the Dutch market :
http://www.hollandmeetserb.nl


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