ERBzine 2990: The Teenage Tarzan

First and Only Weekly Online Fanzine Devoted to the Life & Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Since 1996 ~ Over 10,000 Web Pages in Archive
presents
Volume 2990

The Teenage Tarzan
A Literary Analysis of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Jungle Tales of Tarzan
by Stan Galloway
with Foreword by James Gunn and cover art by Thomas Yeates
mcfarlandpub.com | Amazon.com
ISBN 978-0-7864-3853-2 ~ softcover 2010 ~ Price: $35.00

Following the 1912 publication of his wildly successful Tarzan of the Apes, Edgar Rice Burroughs authored four bestselling sequels in quick succession. In 1916, Burroughs decided to backtrack a bit by recounting selected adventures from Tarzan's teenage years. The result was Jungle Tales of Tarzan, a dozen short stories bearing such titles as "Tarzan's First Love" and "Tarzan Captures the Moon" and which chronicle the events preceding the youthful hero's ascension to "King of the Jungle."
The adolescent phase of the character is the primary focus of this detailed analysis. The context, themes, motifs, and stylistic techniques of Jungle Tales of Tarzan are all fully explored, as well as the property's literary antecedents and its links to the various comic book and film adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs' most celebrated and enduring creation.
About the Author
Stan Galloway has written several articles for "The Burroughs Bulletin" and has given presentations about Tarzan throughout the United States. He teaches literature at Bridgewater College in Virginia.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments      vii
Foreword: The Magic of Imagination by James Gunn      1
Preface      5
Introduction      7
1. It All Begins Again: “Tarzan’s First Love”      23
2. Running in Circles: Cycles and Technique in “The Capture of Tarzan”      44
3. All for One: “The Fight for the Balu”      70
4. (Un)Natural Theology: “The God of Tarzan”      87
5. Black and White and In Between: The Perception of Racism in “Tarzan and the Black Boy”      109
6. The Problem of Good and Evil in “The Witch-Doctor Seeks Vengeance” and “The End of Bukawai”      140
7. Painful Laughter in “The Lion” and “A Jungle Joke”      161
8. What You See: Lessons in Appearance and Reality in “The Nightmare”      185
9. Allegiance and Apathy: Community in “The Battle for Teeka”      210
10. Shooting in the Dark: The Role of Imagination in “Tarzan Rescues the Moon”      227
Bibliography      241
Index      253

Writing The Teenage Tarzan
By Stan Galloway
It is difficult to trace the beginnings of ideas. A project as long as The Teenage Tarzan must have a number of starting points. Let me go to just two.
In 2002, I attended my first ECOF in Woodland Hills, CA. I was excited because I knew ERB, Inc., was there in Tarzana, and that the conveners would be allowed to see the corporate headquarters. I arranged to speak, along with Bob Zeuschner, in a panel for those who would listen. I wrote a presentation about the Burroughs hero’s moral code. Afterward Patrice Bonnyrat asked Bob and me to replicate some of the presentation and provide interview footage for the PBS documentary he was working on. That was pretty heady stuff for me. It showed me how important ERB could be if it were sufficiently supported and enthusiastically endorsed.
Danton Burroughs was also in attendance at the ECOF. I was too shy to talk directly to him, but hung around the periphery, which was not an easy thing to do, since Danton was always moving. At some point, when I was near Danton, another of the conference guests (I wish I remembered who) said to me that I ought to write a book. Danton turned to me and said, “That’s a great idea,” then immediately turned back to his conversation. How he ever monitored my conversation and his, I’ll never know. But I came to find out that that was Danton, synapses firing in all directions. We did not speak anymore about it. And I had no real idea how to go about writing a book.
(Thomas Yeates was another conferee at that ECOF. We hiked the Mulholland Trail together and became acquainted. That made it possible, much later, to correspond with him to develop the striking cover art.)
Beginning number two: In 2004, the administration at Bridgewater College, where I teach, instituted a competitive grant to fund academic research. The book idea returned as I realized writing a book would take a great deal of research. I submitted a proposal and was selected. Now I had to do it. I had naively indicated that I could write the book in a single year, with no reduction of my current responsibilities at the college. As I poured myself into it, I realized increasingly how huge the project was. I was able to get McFarland to agree to look at the manuscript based on a few pages of synopsis, but after that year, I had mountains of paper, but very little coherently written. In my year-end report on the research, I indicated that what I thought I could do in a year, looked more realistically as a five-year project. Each succeeding year, I applied again, and was funded. During this time I talked with Danton about what could and couldn’t be done from his perspective. He had dozens of tangential projects that he suggested, which could have been incorporated but at the expense of more years. I was able to visit him at ERB, Inc., in 2006. I was planning to see him again in 2008, but that became a memorial trip. Both times I visited ERB, Inc., I was able to find valuable information in the archives. I am grateful for that assistance, because the book would be poorer without the insights gained from Burroughs’ actual letters.
The project took me six years, I say, from 2004 to the publication in January of 2010. Some of the ideas are older. Many of them I gained from writing the book. Sometimes I didn’t know what I thought, until I’d written it down. Then I responded with correction and nuancing to get my ideas clear.
I am glad to have written the book. It is solidly supported, and I think my enthusiasm for Burroughs shows as well.

A SMALL IMAGE PREVIEW OF SOME OF
THE MANY LARGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEENAGE TARZAN

ERBzine's Young Ed Burroughs' Remarkable Summer of 1893
Chicago Columbian Exposition

A Review of
Stanley Galloway's The Teenage Tarzan
Adapted from the article “Prolific year for Bridgewater faculty.” by Bethany Funkhouser
The article appeared in the Bridgewater College Veritas, volume 9, issue 19 (29 April 2010), pages 6-7.

What inspires a writer? Natalie Goldberg, an American author, said that “writers end up writing about their obsessions.”
For Dr. Stanley Galloway, professor of English, that obsession was Tarzan, the series and the character. His book, The Teenage Tarzan, published in January, gets its inspiration from a pastime he enjoyed as a fifth grader. He remembers complaining to his teacher at the time about wanting to read more Tarzan books.
She kindly sought them out in a neighboring town library. Throughout high school, Galloway, along with his older brother and a friend, used to get Tarzan novels and pass them around. By the end of high school, he said, he had read nearly all of the stories that were available.
Galloway forgot about Tarzan until graduate school, when his parents dropped off a box of books he had left at home. Around the same time the university library held a book collection contest. Galloway put together an entry revolving around his Tarzan collection, but did not win.
When he picked his collection up from the library, it had a note attached. The librarian suggested ideas on how to strengthen the entry for the next year. Galloway took the advice and purchased other kinds of editions and rarer articles related to Tarzan. He entered the contest again the next year and won.
“That’s when I thought maybe there is something about Tarzan that is worth pursuing,” said Galloway.
Now, Dr. Galloway’s office is decorated with his collection, and a large glass showcase houses some of his rarer pieces. In addition to collecting tangible Tarzan memorabilia, Galloway became somewhat of an expert on the topic. He spoke about Tarzan at several conferences.
He remembers one in particular, a conference in 2002, where someone suggested he write a book.
“I thought that’s crazy, why would I do that? It’s a lot of work. But then I realized I could because, in lecturing, I realized that I do know more about the topic than a lot people do.”
Galloway applied for a faculty research grant, which began in 2004, and used the funding for further research. Galloway describes many highlights of his research, but one of his favorite opportunities was meeting the grandson of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the original author of the Tarzan stories, in Tarzana, Calif. The grandson, Danton Burroughs, has since passed away.
The Teenage Tarzan is set up as a question and answer book. It revolves around Burroughs’s short stories, which deal with early tales of Tarzan. Galloway describes them as a formative time in Tarzan’s life; hence, the origin of the book’s title.
Galloway feels that each story in the collection asks the question, “who am I?” Each story gives another facet of the answer to that question.
Galloway’s book sets up each chapter based on one of the stories in the Burroughs collection, with the exception of two chapters where stories are combined.
Each chapter assumes a question. For example, one chapter asks the question “what is it, a man?” Galloway then explores the turn of the century perception of apes using anthropological literature from the day.

UNVEILING OF THE THOMAS YEATES COVER ART
ECOF 2009 ~ May 29-31
El Dorado Hills, California

From A Photo Tour by Cathy Wilbanks and Janet Mann of ERB, Inc., Tarzana, California: ERBzine 2290
Thomas Yeates and Stan Galloway
Presenting Yeates cover art for the soon-to-be-released Galloway book
Visit the Thomas Yeates Tribute Site

From ECOF photos by Huck Huckenpohler: ERBzine 2277
Stan Galloway with Thomas Yeates art
commissioned for the cover of The Teenage Tarzan.

From a Photo Tour by Huck Huckenpohler: ERBzine 2275
Stan Galloway and Janet Mann of ERB, Inc.

From the Danton Burroughs Memorial Tribute by Bill Hillman: ERBzine 2190
Remembering Danton at Charlie G's, Tarzana, California 2008
(clockwise from left)
Cathy Wilbanks ~ Janet Mann ~ Thomas Yeates
Stan Galloway ~ Henry Franke ~ Bill Hillman

WEB REFS

J. Allen St. John: Jungle Tales of Tarzan - 5 sepia plates & 12 interiors

Online eText Edition
ERBzine Illustrated Bibliography

See the text of J. W. Buel's Heroes of the Dark Continent
complete with 8 art galleries in ERBzine 1813

ERB Personal Library
Paul du Chaillu: Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa - 1861
Thomas Yeates Tribute Site
Chicago Columbian Exposition
Early Influences on Edgar Rice Burroughs Series:
Paul Du Chaillu's Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa: Art Galleries

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