My first real Tarzan book was THE RETURN OF TARZAN discovered back in 1955. It was a birthday gift from my mom, Louise, on January 11. 

Since the late '40s I had been a Burroughs fan: Star Weekly colour Sunday pages, daily strips, Big Little Books, Lex Barker films, radio shows, and comics. Actually, my first exposure to John Carter was the 1952 Dell comic. I bought it from our local drugstore -- coverless -- for 5 cents. Dealers would tear off the covers of magazines and comics and return them to the distributor for refund. Many dealers then sold the coverless comics for half price. It would be another 15 years before I saw what the original cover of that comic looked like.

We were going through a bit of a stressful time in January '55 since my grandfather, John Campbell, had just been hospitalized in serious condition. I sought solace in reading my birthday gift -- a really exciting Tarzan tale.

Curled up on the chesterfield with our pet cat on my lap, I had reached Chapter XXV: "Through the Forest Primeval," when my mom answered the phone. The news was not good -- Grampa had just died. Mom screamed -- I leaped up and the cat fell from my lap. As the cat fell, her claws ripped a gash across a page in my new ERB book. I still have the book and every time I reach page 295 the memories of that day come rushing back.

I eventually went on to purchase all the GD books in that series, but was disappointed to learn that Tarzan of the Apes, The Beasts of Tarzan and The Son of Tarzan were not offered. I contacted booksellers across Canada and England and bought as many ERB books as I could find -- or afford on my weekly allowance money. I already had a torn, ragged copy of The Chessmen of Mars that I had rescued from our school trash bin a year before. Four years later I finally found an English edition of Tarzan of the Apes at Smart Booksellers in Brandon -- a store where I bought many UK ERB editions and which also fed my passion for Zane Grey books.

My lifelong quest for all things Edgar Rice Burroughs had begun. Along this +60-year journey I have gathered many wonderful memories and ERB treasures, but these first ragged copies remain among my most valued.