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Volume 1982
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From Tarzana, California A Danton Burroughs and John Coleman Burroughs Family Archive Feature

JOHN COLEMAN BURROUGHS:
The Writer
Note: Click on many of the documents featured below to see full-screen images

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Manuscript mailing envelope for THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD aka The World Below Part I by John Coleman Burroughs and Hulbert Burroughs 10452 Bellagio Rd. Los Angeles, California February 23, 1940 The cover and interior art  for this project appears in the ERBzine Web Features: www.erbzine.com/mag3/0341.html and JCB 0341

A SUMMARY OF THE  HONORS' PROJECT of JOHN COLEMAN BURROUGHS See the full feature on this project in ERBzine 1176

At the time I entered Honors in my Junior year I had evolved in my own mind a plan whereby I might successfully combine certain phases of art and science into my study program. In addition to further perfecting myself in drawing and painting I desired to correlate any ability that I possibly possessed of this nature with studies of comparative anatomical research in the realm of zoology.

As far as time and my capacity permitted during my last two years I adhered to this plan, under the guidance of Mr. Beggs and Mr. Gilchrist of the Art and Science Departments, respectively. To Mr. Beggs I am greatly indebted not only for his splendid advice and teaching but for the outside time which he kindly devoted with me in in such activities as sketching trips, visits to the Los Angeles County and Pasadena Museums, and tours of Mr. Gay's lion farm where we obtained numerous valuable anatomical photographs. From Mr. Gilchrist I was very fortunate in obtaining suggestions for reading and the use of facilities and specimens of the Zoology Department.

For the purpose of creating some tangible expression of the Honors study I had done . . . more>>>
 

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Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.
Tarzana, California, 91356
January 23, 1967
(click)
Mr. John C. Burroughs
24236 Malibu Road
Malibu, California   90265

Dear Jack:

In the course of cleaning out my desk for Bob Hodes' use, I ran across some of your story outlines and a novelette which I apparently found a long time ago and put in my desk for safekeeping. It may be that I previously showed them to you and you asked me to keep them here at the office.

In any event, I had forgotten them and am enclosing them herewith:

1. Gardenia With a Golden Center.

2. The Age that Time Returned

3. Hybrid of Horror

4. The Man Without a World

The last two story ideas above indicate that you had planned to enlarge the previously published magazine stories to full-length novels.

I just got through reading The Age That Time Returned, and I think this is a story idea with very great possibilities.

It may have to be up-dated as far as science is concerned, and I think the time element will have to be materially stretched out to account for the rapid growth of dinosaurs and vast jungles all within the period of the lives of your leading characters. This I am certain you will be able to handle quite well. Now get to work on it!

Love, H.

Hybrid of Horror ~ Man Without A World

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THE STRANGE ISLAND
by
John Coleman Burroughs
Sample first page of original manuscript

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Last night I dreamed I was on Kleister Island again.

I was standing once more on that lonely bluff with the grim, black forest behind me and the ominous, moonlit waters below.

The ocean stole quietly into the remote distance where it merged darkly with the star-studded sky.

The crisp, salty smell of the sea was borne up to me by a faint breeze which rustled my skirt and blew the long, black hair that covered my head and fell about my shoulders.

From the forest behind and on either side came that awful sound - that steady, hoarse, rhythmic breathing - like there paced in the formidable shadows some giant, restless beast, noiseless save for its reaping, hungry breath.

Now in my dream I heard another noise that was even more frightening than the sound in the forest. I could hear something stealthily approaching along the path that led from the beach below to the top of the bluff where I stood.

Frozen in fear between the horrible forest behind and that which was coming toward me along the trail in front I stood for an eternity unable to move or cry aloud.

As once before in actuality so now again in this nightmare the THING finally came into view, and when I saw what it was my mouth opened and after a great effort I finally screamed.

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Synopsis of a Novel to be Entitled
THE AGE THAT TIME RETURNED
by
John Coleman Burroughs
Sample first page of original manuscript

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Anthony Quade was never a strong lad. His parents coddled him, provided a tutor for him which caused him to lose out on all normal school athletics. He grew up into a young manhood wearing glasses. He stuttered a little. His tall, lanky frame had never known anything faintly resembling hard, physical work.

The plans and hopes of Anthony Quade have always gone hay-wire. He has ever been a little too late for the important events of his life.

When his parents finally allowed him to enroll in college, he entered a manuscript in a national freshmen  theme contest. He wrote a learned paper about one of his favorite subjects, tracing the history of astrology back to a sound scientific theory of the ancient Mayans. He cited examples of old astrological predictions that came true and offered proof that Mother Shipton and Nostradamus were in reality master scientists and star gazers. The judges of the contest wrote Anthony later that his theme would surely have won his tuition thru college had not his entry arrived a day after the contest closed.

Both his parents died when Anthony was still a freshman and he discovered they had been just about penniless at the time of their death. After working his way thru U.C.L.A. as a librarian, Anthony missed out on his own graduation ceremonies because he was locked up in the college observatory, indulging in one of his favorite hobbies -- star gazing -- and forgot the time of day.

Young Anthony attracted quite a bit of attention in college because of his astrological predictions. Several newspapers at first featured his theories and prophecies concerning everything from politics to weather -- theories based on Anthony Quade's own formula of sun spot activity, planetary positions and correlated with ancient prophecies. . . .

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GARDENIA WITH A GOLDEN CENTER
by John Coleman Burroughs
Sample first page of original manuscript

Mervin Davis stared into the cold, hollow eye of his revolver, while he tried once again to summon courage to pull the trigger.

In God's name, wondered the man, what adult mind had conceived the idea that only a coward could take his own life?
A dozen times already this night, the artist had shoved the chill muzzle-end hard against his sweating forehead. Each time his mouth grew dry, his trigger finger hopelessly paralyzed in fright.

Once more he lowered the gun to his lap; with trembling hand he sought the half-empty bottle beneath the work table beside him. He wiped the scum from the rim of a dirty glass with the paint-smeared sleeve of his smock. Unsteadily he filled the glass. The overflowing liquor settled in a little amber puddle around an island of blood-red vermillion paint which had been squeezed out with other colors along the rim of the artist's palette. . . .

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An original page from the manuscript for
The Bottom of the World ~ Startling Stories

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. . . steaming biscuits. Instead, I passed them to Fritz Megler who had just made the hypothetical prophecy himself concerning Barbara Lawrence, the girl beside me.

"Of course," said Fritz Megler in that slow, measured way with which so many old people speak, "I was using Miss Lawrence as an example - an example to illustrate my belief that time is only relative. I do not actually say that in four years she will be as old as - well, as old as I. But it would be in the realm of possibility that she would appear as an old woman inside of that period, provided her metabolism could be induced to speed up, say twenty times." Fritz Megler pivoted his hunched shoulders, upon which his stiff neck was attached, to a position where h could comfortably feast his watery eyes upon Barbara Lawrence. Painfully his thin wrinkled lip twitched up to expose his aged, decaying teeth, and Fritz Megler thought he was smiling.

Barbara Lawrence threw back her pretty head and laughed gaily with her full red lips and sparkling eyes.

"Shame on you, Mr. Megler," she mocked. "Your prophecy is already frightening me into senility!"

"I prefer to think my daughter will be just as young and lovely in four years as she is tonight," Mrs. Lawrence was passing more chic ken - delicious fried pieces that made you thankful for such cooking as hers." - Just as lovely and with the same healthy appetite," she concluded, glancing at Barbara's plate with evident satisfaction.

"On the other hand," continued Fritz Megler, stubbornly pursuing his favorite theory, "If her Metabolic rate decreased twenty times and the body temperature lowered accordingly - then it would require literally ages before she would grow old." Megler sank his teeth into the soft white meat of a chicken breast, while he allowed his small eyes to wander listlessly over Barbara's . . .

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Cable Address: WHITCO RACINE

WHITMAN
PUBLISHING CO.
Racine, Wisconsin
BOOKS * GAMES * GREETING CARDS * PLAYING CARDS
August 21, 1944 Mr. John Coleman Burroughs
Tarzana, California

Dear Mr. Burroughs:

Thank you for your letter of August 15 accepting the assignment to do the cover for our Better Little Book, TARZAN AND THE ANT MEN.

If you have not already started this cover, please use the scale of 1 to 2, as laid out on the tissues which I sent to you a week or so ago.

We will need this art as soon as you can complete it for us. I believe that you have all the material necessary to work from.

Very truly yours,

WHITMAN PUBLISHING CO.
Thomas Penfield

Tarzan and the Ant Men Whitman Better Little Book 1945 ~ No. 1444  Cover by John Coleman Burroughs  171 interiors from the 1932 Rex Maxon strip Featured in the ERBzine Better Little Book Gallery ERBzine 0044c

	John Coleman Burroughs' Treasure of the Black Falcon A journey to the center of an Atlantian abyss,  many-thousand leagues under the sea,  to find gold, adventure, romance, drug addiction,  and the progeny of creatures from beyond the farthest planet? Read the synopsis and reviews in: ERBzine 0938 and ERBzine 0939
	John Carter of Mars   1940 Whitman Better Little Book ~ No. 1402 Cover & 209 interiors: John Coleman Burroughs Story adapted from the first 7 chapters of  John Carter & the Giant of Mars  Last 15 pages are original material  ERBzine 0044c

Amazing Quarterly - Fall 1941

Amazing Stories - April 1961

Amazing Back Cover

Hybrid of Horror by John Coleman and Jane Ralston Burroughs Chapters 1 - 8

Tarzan.com	ERBzine.com	DantonBurroughs.com	Tarzan.org
BurroughsBibliophiles.com	JohnColemanBurroughs.com	Tarzan.com/tarzine	JohnCarterOfMars.ca
ERBzine.com/edgarriceburroughs	Weekly Webzine	Weekly Webzine	Pellucidar.org
John Carter Film	ERB, Inc. Corporate Site	ERB Centennial	tarzana.ca