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 Edgar Rice Burroughs:
BIO TIMELINE
1920-1929
Compiled by Bill Hillman

The main source for these events is the Danton Burroughs Family Archive:
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., Tarzana, California
Letters ~ Journals ~ Memorabilia ~ Interviews ~ Newspapers



 1920
1920?: "The Absurd Quarantine" - an article attacking the quarantine regulations imposed on stock raisers and dairy owners. 
Tarzana undergoes major renovations: central heating, a three-car garage, servants rooms, darkroom, workshop, a study that doubles as a home school room, a  ballroom/movie theatre/playroom, projection booth, swimming pool, golf course, lion and monkey cages, riding trails, hen house, hog pen, dairy barn and horse stalls maintenance, etc. 
January 8: Ed writes to former MMA Commandant, General Charles King. He is sorry to hear of King's broken leg, the result of  being hit by an automobile, and laments that the drivers in California are just as bad. He describes his Tarzana Ranch of 540 acres overlooking the San Fernando Valley and situated a half-mile back from Ventura.  He can see the lights of seven villages across the valley at night. He has good riding horses and the three children have Shetland ponies on which they ride regularly on the many trails that weave across the ranch. He tells of there being coyotes and mountain lions on the property. Ed laments that his desire to sign up for the Great War caused much disruption in the family. He eventually had to settle with a role in which he trained recruits but wrote with pride that he had received excellent reports. 
March 16: Five pages of "The Ghostly Script" are begun but although it is resumed in October 1930, it is never finished. 
March 20 - April 17: "Tarzan and the Valley of Luna" is summarized in five parts in All-Story. 
March: Nephew Studley Burroughs returns to Chicago where his parents and Aunt Nellie are caring for his ailing daughter.
March 31: Mary Burroughs, Studley's daughter, dies of spinal meningitis - Age 1 year, 23 days.
April 5: Ed's beloved mother, Mary Evaline (Zieger) Burroughs (born November 10, 1840) dies while visiting Ed and Emma at Tarzana Ranch, California. 
April 30: Tarzan the Untamed  (Read the eText) (The six Red Book short stories and the 5 All-Story "Tarzan and the Valley of Luna" episodes) is published by McClurg ~ 428 pages ~ 1st. Ed. Print Run: 77,000 ~ Total: 299,500 ~ Heins word count: 110,000
May: Ed assigns rights to an English theatrical company, who produce Tarzan of the Apes and The Return of Tarzan as a stage play. Ed receives $1000 and 10% royalites, but the production meets with limited success. 
May 10: In a letter to Bert Weston Ed explains the reason for his killing off and then resurrection of Tarzan's Jane in Tarzan the Untamed:
"... I left Jane dead up to the last gasp and then my publisher and the magazine editor rose up on their hind legs and roared. They said the public would not stand for it as I was having Tarzan fall in love with Bertha, so I had to resurrect the dear lady. After seeing Enid Markey take the part of Jane in the first Tarzan picture I was very glad to kill her."
June: Ed corresponds with author Walt Mason whom he first met at his Kansas home during the Burroughs family 1916  cross-country auto trip. Ed's personal library contains a copy of Mason's book, Walt Mason: His Book, and is inscribed: “For Edgar Rice Burroughs with best wishes, Walt Mason.” Second inscription: “August 28th, 1916 at Walt Mason’s home, Euphoria Kansas, while en route to Los Angeles on camping tour. ERB.” 
Ed invites Mason to Tarzana from LA: "come straight to 7th and Broadway, then west onto Wilshire, north to Hollywood or Sunset, to Cuanga and over the pass to the San Fernando Valley. 15 miles from Hollywood. The most obvious Tarzana landmark is the Adair Stock farm buildings. We are glad to have you visit. Please let us know in a few days in advance as we occasionally take trips south...."
August: Joan enters the Ramona Convent in West Alhambra, but withdraws before Christmas. 
August: LETTER to Joan at "Ramona Convent, Short, California." Ed's letterhead reads: TARZANA RANCH ~ Ventura Boulevard at Reseda Avenue ~ Edgar Rice Burroughs ~ Members State and National Hampshire Swine Associations ~ Swine Department: C.J. Gilbert ~ Post Office, Van Nuys, California ~ Telephone, Van Nuys 100 ~ Tarzana Pure-Bred Swine
August: Hulbert and Jack enroll in the Page Military Academy - both withdraw after a short time.
August 14 - December 16: Tarzan the Terrible is written. Munsey's buys it for $3,000. 
October 21: LETTER to "My dear little girlie" Joan still in convent.
October 30: Thuvia, Maid of Mars ~ (read the eText) 1st Ed. by AC McClurg ~ 256 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 17,00 ~ Total: 104,500 ~ Heins word count: 45,000
December 7: Munsey Company informs Ed that Davis has left to form an agency for authors. 
December 29: "Sweetheart Eternal" and "Sweet Rose in God's Garden Above" - two love poems - are written.
 1921
A full description of Tarzana Ranch is featured in
BACK TO TARZANA RANCH 1921
*  Hulbert and Jack contract mild cases of polio
* Methuen release The Mucker in two volumes titled The Mucker and A Man Without a Soul. Ed is not happy with the choice of title which he has already used on another book. 
* Ed's payroll for Tarzana Ranch wages is $7,000. The carpentry bill is $585.
January: The Son of Tarzan - a 15-episode serial is completed by National Film. It contains a shot of Ed on his horse Colonel. Ed personally edits and cuts the 15 episodes to a feature length picture in his Tarzana ball-room theatre. (Spontaneous combustion of this nitrate film nearly destroys the ERB offices on Ventura Blvd. 38 years later.) 
January 4: Joan enrolls in the Hollywood School for Girls - a much happier place than the Convent. Her friends include the daughters of Jim Jeffries, Francis X. Bushman, and Cecil DeMille
January 4: LETTERto old MMA friend A.T. Connor
January 7 - November 12: The Chessmen of Mars is written. 
February 4: Arrangements are finalized to produce The Son of Tarzan in England under the same terms as last year's stage play. 
February 12 - March 27: Tarzan the Terrible - (Read the eText) is serialized in seven parts in Argosy All-Story  Weekly. 
April: The American News Trade Journal publishes an ERB article on the business of writing. 
April 3: 6 PM: Ed's Packard is hit by a dangerous driver on Ventura Boulevard. He sends a letter to the Automobile Club asking them to prosecute the driver, the likes of whom should be kept off the roads. "Only my good driving prevented a serious accident."
April 20: Ed decides to eat some of his prize Berkenshire hogs. He writes to the Department of Agriculture for information on slaughtering and curing of hogs and the building of smoke houses for smoking bacon.
April 29: Ed, who has been showing films for family, employees and the citizens of the valley, writes to the Universal Film Exchange Distribution Company in New York to request that they send no more Harry Carey pictures.
May 3: Secretary John Shea writes to the film distributors to cancel Blue Streak McCoy with Harry Carey and to send Hitching Post instead.
May 15: "Angel's Serenade" a story outline, is sent to the Century Film Corporation in Hollywood. It is rejected. Ed reworks the story in 1936 and three years later expands it into a 24,000-word story. 
June 7: Ed sends a sample of a plant he believes is Loco weed to California authorities for verification that it might be harmful to livestock. His gardener had planted it as an ornamental shrub. Professor Kennedy responds that it is a California variety of Loco weed but since they only have information on Colorado varieties they cannot determine how dangerous it is. Ed is requested to send reports on any harmful effects it may have on his livestock. Ed destroys the plant.
June 20:  Tarzan the Terrible - (Read the eText) is published by McClurg ~ 408 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 45,000 ~ Total: 262,500 ~ Heins word count: 94,000
June 29: He writes Mr. Bosley of Universal Film Distributing requesting that at the end of the The Moon Riders serial that serials be replaced with two reel Century Comedies starting July 12. Films shown up to this time accompanying the serial included Reputation with Priscilla Dean ~ The Gilded Dream starring Carmel Myers Rich Girl, Poor Girl ~ A Shocking Night Under Northern Lights? ~ The Secret Gift ~ Frank Mayo films ~ Two Kinds of Love ~ White Youth ~ Fixed By George ~ Puppy Love? ~ The kids set up the chairs for the viewings 
August: Great Western Producing Company complete The Adventures of Tarzan with Elmo Lincoln - which they advertise as "picturized" from the concluding chapters of The Return of Tarzan
August:  August films in the Tarzana Ranch Ballroom Theatre: Stuffed Lions (short) ~ The Fire Cat ~ Tee Time ~ Society Secrets ~ Colorado with Frank Mayo.
August 17: The Burroughses decide to try educating the children with a tutor for one year. Ed writes the Hollywood School for Girls to tell them he was satisfied with Joan's education there but the daily commute was getting too hard to handle. He also requested that the tuition he had paid for Hulbert's and Jack's attendance there be refunded since they did not plan to attend.
August 23: German publisher Tauchnitz requests permission to publish Jungle Tales of Tarzan, instead of Tarzan the Terrible which has strong anti-German content. 
September: September films shown in the Tarzana Ranch Ballroom Theatre: All Dolled Up ~ Jail Bird ~ The Dog Doctor(short) ~ The Smart Sex ~ A Bunch of Kisses ~ The Blazing Trailwith Frank Mayo ~ Seeing is Believing (short) ~ Cheated Love cancelled because it starred Carmel Myer a popular vamp of the silents ~ No Woman Knows
September 1: The English Tarzan stageplay makes its US debut at New York's Broadhurst Theater. It has a short run. 
September 17: The Tarzan of the Apes play is reviewed in Weekly Review.
October 8 - 29: The Efficiency Expert appears as a four-part serial in All-Story.
October 17: "Notice to all employees: The following pictures will be shown at Tarzana Theatre:" Oct. 21: Open Shelter ~ Tough Luck (short) ~ October 28:  Desperate Youth ~ Harem Skarem ~ November 4:  The Beautiful Gambler ~ November 11:  Thunder Island ~ The Kiddie's Pal
October 19: Tarzan the Terrible serial ends in the British magazine, Ideas.
October 31: The Mucker (read eText) is published by A.C. McClurg ~ 414 pages ~ US 1st Ed. Print Run: 17,000 ~ Total: 122,830 ~ Heins word count: 138,000
November 4: Davis writes that he is returning to Munsey's. 
November 13: Film schedule at the Tarzana Ballroom Theatre: Danger Ahead ~ For Sale ~ Wolves of the North ~ Man Tamer ~ A Dollar's Worth (short) ~ (Luring Lips  was cancelled as most people had seen it downtown)
November 16 - January 7, 1922: "The Penningtons" (The Girl from Hollywood) is written. It is accepted by Munsey's but rejected by McClurg. Other titles considered were: "Shannon", "Fetters of Snow", "The Snow Slave", "The Demon of the Snow", "Rancho del Ganado", "The Little Black Box" - and Davis' suggestion, "The Needlewoman."
December 5: List of coming attractions at the Tarzana Ballroom Theatre:Moonlight Follies ~ On Account ~ Wood Simps ~ Man Trackers ~ Pals ~ Action with Hoot Gibson ~ Smart Alec
1921: ERB’s domestic royalties were $100,000
 1922
*  Film rights to Jungle Tales of Tarzan and Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar are sold for $40,000 to the Stern brothers and Louis Jacobs who later form Universal Pictures
Arbor Day: Ed prepares an ecology and conservation speech for the Uplifters social group. 
"Under the Red Flag" is revised and becomes The Moon Men - the second of a Moon trilogy. The Moon Maid is written as part one. Part three, The Red Hawk, is written in 1925. The trilogy is combined in the 1926 McClurg book, The Moon Maid. Ed starts the story on Ediphone but switches back to typewriter. In later years, however, he uses a Dictaphone
January 4: The Chessmen of Mars is purchased for $3,500 by Munsey's. 
January 20: Universal is making a Buffalo Bill picture in the canyon at the back of the ranch. Ed meets with only limited success in trying to rent the canyon, log Koonskin Kabin, etc. to movie companies. 
January 24: Under the Red Flag is rewritten as The Moon Men. Other titles considered were "Under No Flag"and"Under the Hawk's Wing."
February: Secretary John Shea leaves to work for Hollywood Studios. 
February 10 - May 31: Tarzan and the Golden Lion is dictated on Ed's new Ediphone. Munsey's later purchases it for $4,000. 
February 18- April 1: The Chessmen of Mars  runs as a seven-part serial in Argosy-All Story Weekly. 
June: "Wild Animals in Pictures," an article pushing for the humane treatment of animals, appears in Hollywood Screenland magazine. 
June - November: The Girl from Hollywood is serialized in six parts in Munsey's Magazine. 
June 1: Ed writes to the Matson Navigation Company for rates and reservation procedure for liner service from Los Angeles to Baltimore via Panama, Havana and other interesting ports of call along the route. He requires a deluxe suite on the bridge deck for two adults and children ages 9, 12, and 14. He is sent a beautiful brochure and a quote of $2457.
June 7 - July 20: The Moon Maid is written. Ed makes use of the Ediphone  - i.e. "Dic to Pg. 80, Typewritten from Chap. VIII." 
July 22: At the Earth's Core (Biblio Info) is published by McClurg ~ 277 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 17,000 ~ Total: 115,000 ~ Heins word count: 37,000
August - September 29: Ed contemplates writing a series of articles based on the Central American exploits of the soldier-of-fortune, General Lee Christmas. He abandons the necessary research trip to Guatemala when he can not obtain a guaranteed sale of the project. 
August 9 - 31: "Beware" is written. The 24,000-word story is rejected by Argosy, Blue Book, Detective Tales & Weird Tales, Weird Tales, and Detective Book. It is accepted by Fantastic Adventures, July 1939 ($245) where it is changed into a SF story. 
August 24: Ed applies for a loan to cover the ranch losses incurred over the last few years. He is considering subdividing 50 acres of the ranch land into business and residential lots. 
September 7: Ed reveals plans to transform Tarzana into a town with its own post office. 
September 8: Tarzan and the Golden Lion appears in the special 40th Anniversary issue of Argosy All-Story. ERB also contributes a 1,200-word introduction tracing the Tarzan series and characters from the first story. 
September 27: Ed receives samples of the first authorized Tarzan merchandise from Davis & Voetsch, New York toy manufacturers. The year's royalty is only $120. 
November 29: The Chessmen of Mars (Read the eText) is published by McClurg ~ 375 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 12,500 ~ Total: 89,000 ~ Heins word count: 93,000
December 9 - January 20, 1923: Tarzan and the Golden Lion  appears as a seven-part serial in Argosy All-Story Weekly (79,884 words). 
December 29: Ed submits a 1,000-word article to the Los Angeles Times in which he gives his views on literary people, collecting, writers of sex stories, and boring books. 
 1923
January: The Burroughs brothers finally sell the old Phoenix Distillery property in Chicago for $88,000. 
January 7: "Creator of Tarzan Speaks" appears in the Los Angeles Sunday Times.
January 15: Ed disposes of his livestock and farm equipment in an auction sale. Ed keeps saddle horses, including Colonel and Brigadier Rex
February: "The Passing o' my Pal, Bill,"  - a poem written as Texas Pete. It is later inserted in The Bandit of Hell's Bend 
March 2: Ed incorporates himself as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. to cut down on taxes. All literary rights are turned over to the company and shares are distributed among the family. Ed draws a salary for the rest of his life. 
March 24: Tarzan and the Golden Lion (Read the eText) is published by McClurg ~ 333 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 25,000 ~ Total: 228,500 ~ Heins word count: 80,000
March 26: Edgar Rice Burroughs incorporated his name on this date: ERB, Inc.
March 30 - May 24 (1924): The Bandit of Hell's Bend is written. 
May 5 - June 2: The Moon Maid appears as a five-part serial in Argosy All-Story Weekly (61,910 words). 
June 3: Ed reminisces about a major influence on the creation of his Mars and Tarzan novels. He recalls being a little boy sitting in the attic retreat in a country cottage with raindrops falling on the shingled roof. His most vivid memory was reading about a colony of ape men in a little province in China. This seems to be the first major event that stimulated his imagination which took him on fantasy trips to Africa, Mars, and far-off lands decades later.
In a magazine article he is quoted as saying that he feels he owes his success to never having taken himself seriously and never having excessive feelings of self-importance. His parents wanted him to be a doctor or lawyer and he had no formal training in writing: he trained himself.. He says there are no new plots and he constantly returns to his past experiences for plot ideas. He works after breakfast each day for four hours and believes that his best work comes out of a short day of writing. Ed says he is interested in all but excels in nothing. He prefers to read the type of stuff he doesn't write  He feels that the time spent with his family is most important. He doesn't like to kill wild animals for sport and has only shot predators such as snakes and hawks. He professes to having no hobbies and does not excel in the sports he enjoys such as.tennis and golf. Two lifelong interests are horsemanship and auto expeditions.
June 5: LETTER  Ed writes a letter discussing the League of Nations and socialism: "A League of Nations would become a mere scrap of paper when it ceased to serve the purposes of a powerful member. Like socialism, it is a lovely theory."
June 20 - November 22Tarzan and the Ant Men is written. 
July 2: ERB writes in a letter to brother Harry on how he came up with names in his writing. This is how he explained the name "Numa": "I try to originate all the peculiar names for people, places and animals in my stories. Sometimes I must unconsciously use a word or name that I have read and forgotten, as for instance Numa the lion. There was a Roman emperor, Numa, whom I had forgotten until I was recently re-reading Plutarch’s Lives. The name must have been retained in my sub-conscious brain, later popping out as original."
I try to originate all the peculiar names for people, places and animals in my stories. Sometimes I must unconsciously use a word or name that I have read and forgotten, as for instance Numa the lion. There was a Roman emperor, Numa, whom I had forgotten until I was recently re-reading Plutarch’s Lives. The name must have been retained in my sub-conscious brain, later popping out as original.
– ERB letter to Harry Burroughs, July 2, 1923
August: Emma has an appendectomy 
August 10: The Girl from Hollywood is published by The Macauley Company ~ 320 pages ~ Heins word count: 67,000 ~ in a deal set up by Bob Davis. Reviews were highly critical. The semi-autographical story is illustrated by P. J. Monahan
Fall: ERB turns the subdividing of Tarzana over to a land developer. Secretary Shea is replaced by G. L. Young
* Ed enrolls Hulbert and Jack at the Urban Military Academy in Los Angeles. 
* In preparation for a career in theatre, Joan enrolls in the Cumnock School of the Theatre in LA. 
September 5:  Pellucidar (read the eText) is published by AC McClurg  ~ 322 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 10,000 ~ Total: 93,500 ~ Heins word count: 61,000
September 12: The National Library for the Blind is granted permission to publish A Princess of Mars and The Gods of Mars in non-profit braille editions. 
September 27: Tarzana development advertises “great jungle barbecue” to be served by Elmo Lincoln. Elmo irked by inaccurate advertising backs out and threatens to sue. 
October 3: ERB writes to the Hollywood Athletic Club promoting the application of Maurice DeMond, whom the Club suspects is a Jew. Ed has gone to bat for him previously when he had applied for membership in The Writer's Club
November 23: Ed submits Tarzan and the Antmen -- based on an idea suggested by Davis. 
 1924
January 12: Ed agree to a script writing collaboration with George Merrick of Reputable Pictures Corporation, NY. These plans to produce a movie called the "Daughter of Tarzan" fall through. 
February 2 - March 15: Tarzan and the Ant Men is serialized in Argosy All-Story Weekly. 
April: A Moscow journal laments that pirated ERB novels are more popular than books about Marxism. 
April 4: The article, "Out of Time's Abyss," appears in The Urbanite, the publication of the Urban Military Academy. Ed's two sons are attending the academy. The article is ERB's recollection of the famous "duel" during his days at Michigan Military Academy. 
April 12 - October 13: Marcia of the Doorstep (unpublished until 1999 - ERB’s longest novel at 125,000 words) is written in secret. Davis rejects it on October 30th. Despite numerous other submissions, it is never published during Ed's lifetime. 
May: Former ERB secretary  Shea, now working at Hollywood Studios, returns a Burroughs scenario titled "The Savage Breast." The work has since disappeared. 
May 8: Ed, in a letter to Time's editor Henry R. Luce, reveals his amusement over his great popularity in Russia and England. 
May 20: In a letter to the LA times Ed registers a protest against the "ruthless and inconsiderate methods of the government Biological Department in placing of poison in the hills without proper posting or other notification." As a result of ths procedure the Burroughs family's beloved Airedale, "Tarzan," has died.
May 24: Ed completes the 81,000-word western, The Bandit of Hell's Bend - a story he wrote at the request of England's Sir Algernon Methuen. He drew heavily from his experiences in Idaho and the 7th Cavalry in Arizona. (Working titles were "The Black Coyote" and "Diana of the Bar Y."
June: The Burroughs family move to 544 South Gramercy Place, Los Angeles
Date Unknown: "Glossary of Hoodlum Language"
June 14: The Land That Time Forgot  (read the eText) is published by McClurg ~ 422 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 10,000 ~ Total: 100,250 ~ Heins word count: 117,000.
July: Grand opening of the club house of the exclusive El Caballero Country Club of which Ed is managing director. Earlier in the year Ed had sold the main house and 120 acres of Tarzana Ranch to the promoters of the new club. 
July 23-24: The Golden Gate Oil Company drills to a depth of 1,300 feet in their search for oil. Only traces were found and they abandoned their lease in the fall of 1926. 
August 22 - September 1: "Notes on Trip to Mono Creek and Porpoise Lake" - a 10-page description of a fishing excursion with his sons into the Sierras. The famous Doodad is created during this trip. Ed shows early symptons of heart trouble. 
1924-1926: Joan attends the Marta Oatman School of the Theatre in Los Angeles. 
Fall: Hulbert attends Los Angeles High School and Jack at John Burroughs Junior High
September 13 - October 18: The Bandit of Hell's Bend appears in six parts in Argosy All-Story. 
Ed rents out Tarzana Ranch and Koonskin Kabin to movie companies: “The Bar ‘F’ Mystery” and “Bred in the Bone” starring William Fairbanks, “The Pioneer” and “Terrible Terry” with William Duncan, and “The Squatters” with Bill Patton. 
September 30: Tarzan and the Ant Men is published by McClurg ~ 346 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 10,000 ~ Total: 187,500 ~ Heins word count: 86,000
* Tarzana Ranch became a social hub for the valley. Liquor flowed despite prohibition. When Emma developed an over-dependence on alcohol, Ed called a halt to the partying. 
John Shea resumes his position with ERB and helps with the Country Clubs. 
October 28: Rights to Tarzan and the Ant Men are sold to Methuen.
 December 10: Ed contacts a Franklin High School (LA) principal asking assistance in revising a current piece of writing - probably Marcia of the Doorstep
December 16: Ed is excused from jury duty owing to heart pains and exhaustion and anxiety from overwork.
 1925
1925-26: Ed rents offices in the Commercial Exchange Building in downtown Los Angeles and in the Hohm Building at Sixth and Western. 
Tarzan Grattan wins the American Pacing Derby. Ed approves of the unauthorized name as it fulfills a prophecy he had made 13 years ago. 
* Ed orders numerous bottles of Prim from a St. Louis lab (Prim Oil: herbal bee pollen mixture appears to have many qualities: deodorant, vitamins, aids for hardening of arteries, heart, PMS, MS, inflammation, release of sex hormones, lowering cholesterol, etc.) (In his quest for health, fitness and longevity Ed was very aware of health and fitness aids and is even rumoured to have tried injections of monkey glands at one time).
January 1 - 2 a.m.: Ed wins the first 1925 golf tournament - under lights - on the El Caballero golf links. 
January 1: The article, "The Saddle Horse in Southern California" appears in the Los Angeles Times. 
February 12: Ed revises the proofs of The Land That Time Forgot for Methuen & Co. Fearful of the rising German furor over his anti-German stance, he removes inflammatory references. This does little to defuse the hostility expressed by the German press all through 1925 and 1926. 
February  21 - March 14: The Moon Men is serialized in four parts in Argosy All-Story Weekly. 
March:  Bob Davis convinces Ed to donate his books to the Library of American Fiction dedicated to the memory of O. Henry. He receives word that his books are the most translated books in the world -- 7 foreign languages and growing -- surpassing authors such as Galsworthy.
March 3: Ed replies to a query from Enrico Caruso, Jr. informing him that Italian book rights are held by Curtis Brown, Ltd. of London.
March 4: Ed mortgages Tarzan Ranch for $200,000 to rescue the foundering El Caballero. He is soon near collapse from overwork: selling lots, making improvements of El Caballero, launching the Rolling Hills Golf Club near LA, planning a new home in Beverly Hills, developing bridle trails... and writing. 
March 21: The Cave Girl is published by AC McClurg ~ 323 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 5,000 ~ Total: 65,000 ~ Heins word count 75,00
April 20 - May 14: "The Red Hawk" the last of the Moon Maid trilogy, is written (38,500 words). 
May 14: "The Red Hawk" is sent to Davis. 
June 4: The Bandit of Hell's Bend (Read eText) is published by McClurg ~  Modest Stein colour DJ with same illustration as sepia FP ~ 316 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 5,000 ~ Total: 108,000 ~ Word count estimate: 81,000
June 6: The Outlook of London states that Tarzan of the Apes has been published in 17 languages (ERB's count is over 20). Foreign royalty cheques are huge. 
July 6: Influenced by the Scopes Trial, Ed writes a pro-evolution article for the newspapers of the International Press Bureau and Universal Service. 
July 16: A reply is sent to John M. Stahl, president of the Allied Arts Association, Chicago: "I shall be delighted to have you use my letter . . . as a basis for a radio talk.  I appreciate your invitation to be guest of honor at the Allied Arts dinner." 
August: The Burroughs family drives to and from Grand Canyon on a 1,400-mile camping trip. 
August 7: General Hamas Carrillo of the Mexican Army pays $1,000 for Ed's horse Brigadier Rex in a public auction at the Breakfast Club polo field. 
September 1: Ed celebrates his 50th birthday in Phoenix, returning home with the family from the South Rim of Grand Canyon
September 5 - 19: "The Red Hawk" runs as a three-part serial in Argosy All-Story Weekly. 
Fall: Ed severs all official connections with the financially-troubled El Caballero Country Club
October: "Hollywood" is a poem probably written for the Breakfast Club. 
October 3: The Eternal Lover (read the eText) is published by A.C. McClurg ~ 316 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 5,000 ~ Total: 60,000 ~ Heins word count: 68,000
November: "I'm the Guy That Sowed the Sage Brush in the Hills of Hollywood" or "I Knew Him When" - is a poem probably written for the Breakfast Club
November 16: "A Weird Adventure on Mars" (Mastermind of Mars) is completed. It is rejected by Argosy, Popular Magazine, and Elks Magaizne. 
November 20: "The Wampas" is a poem written for the Western Associated Motion Picture Advertisers group attending a Breakfast Club meeting. Numerous other poems were written around this time. 
November 24: Emma has gallbladder surgery and later suffers from arthritis. 
December 17: Ed submits a proposal for doing  a Hollywood gossip column to the Newspaper Enterprise Association of Cleveland -  nothing comes of it.
 1926
* A possible appearance of "An Adventure in Plagiarism" in The Bulletin of the Author’s League.
January 28: The British version of The Bandit of Hell's Bend is published by Methuen. 
February 6: The Moon Maid is published by McClurg ~ magazine serial is shortened in the book version ~ 412 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 5,000 ~ Total: 60,000 ~ Heins word count 140,000
February 15: Ed signs a contract with Joseph P. Kennedy's company FBO and R-C Pictures for the production of the film, Tarzan and the Golden Lion
February 18: Letter  to Miss Irene Ettrick in England: ". . . the Englishman's ability to withstand the English climate that has fitted him to wage his many successful battles against adverse conditions in all parts of the world. I have a very warm spot in my heart for the English, and a natural pride in my English descent, which combined with the Dutch blood of my mother's forebears should have endowed me with much finer characteristics than I possess. . . . I have not seen Capt. Thurley's picture "Pearls and Savages", but I greatly enjoyed his book . . . I do very little shooting. I do not even own a shot-gun, although I have a number of rifles and revolvers. When we lived on Tarzana we usually carried a small caliber revolver or a pistol of some sort when we rode mornings and often got a shot at cayotes. My older son, Hulbert, bagged several small animals and rattle snakes. I cannot derive any pleasure from the taking of a wild animal's life. I would rather shoot a man than a deer, and I used to spend a great deal of time during the deer season riding over my property trying to protect the deer from a lot of counter jumpers who would just as soon shoot a doe as a buck. I never had a great deal of admiration for any of the big game hunters, but to me the sporting thing is hunting savage animals with a camera and shooting only in self-defense or for food. . . . I think that most of the decadence of the younger generation exists in the minds of the muck-rakers. I see a  great many of the girls and boys who are friends of my children and I think that they are the finest, cleanest lot of young people that I have ever met, much finer than my own generation at their age."
February 27: Ed writes 325-word article about Colt revolvers for Samson Service, Washington, DC. It was commissioned for publication in a small booklet. 
May 12: Joan plays "Kathie" in the drama school play The Student Prince. She later appears in Enter Madame
Summer: Joan meets future husband, James Pierce, on a blind date at an El Caballero Country Club swimming party. Ed thinks he would make the perfect Tarzan. 
July: The family moves from 674 South New Hampshire, LA, back to Tarzana at 5245 (later changed to 5046) Mecca Avenue where Ed has built a cottage on Lot 76 of his tract 5475. He also moves his office to 5255 (later changed to 5135) Avenida Oriente in Tarzana. Ed describes the new house as "a little 2 x 4 dump that is about half large enough for our own requirements, but there is a lot of outdoors surrounding  it. . . "
*  Hulbert and Jack commute daily to the Los Angeles Coaching School. Jack starts writing and illustrating his own stories. 
Fall: Thanks to Ed's influence, James Pierce takes a screen test and is hired for Tarzan and the Golden Lion, the last of the Tarzan silent movies. Influenced by his and Joan's interest in Pierce - former All-American centre, Ed takes on a renewed interest in football and attends many of the college games with U.S.C, Stanford, etc.
September 18: The Mad King is published by A.C. McClurg. ~ with corrections made in second state edition ~ 365 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 5,000 ~ Total: 55,000 ~ Heins word count: 93,000
September 25: "Clubs Like the Edgewater a Force for Good in the Community" article appeared in the Edgewater Breeze, Santa Monica, California.
October 20: The day of Harry's son, nephew Studley Oldham Burroughs' second marriage, to Alice Carroll Armstrong.
October 27 - November 4: At the invitation of the London Daily Express, Ed responds to the headline: "Mars Message Waited." At this time Mars closer to Earth and thousands of radio enthusiasts are listening for possible messages. 
William Waterhouse is hired as secretary. 
November 16 - January 15, 1927: The Tarzan Twins is written.
December: "With The Author of Tarzan: An Interview With Edgar Rice Burroughs in Which He Frankly Discusses His Methods and Gives Sound Advice" by Glenn B. Gravatt appears in The Writers' Monthly.
December 3: The War Chief of the Apaches is rejected by The Country Gentleman magazine. 
December 13: Ed writes Louis B. Mayer requesting that Joan be given a tryout for a part in "Old Heidelberg." 
December: Ed gives support to another fan club: The Edgar Rice Burroughs Club. He later suggests they use the name of the 1916 club: The Tribe of Tarzan
December 20: Apache Devil is rejected by Popular Magazine.
 1927
*  Ed approves of a company's unauthorized use of watermarked Tarzan bond paper, and uses it for his manuscripts. He also welcomes the publicity from Tarzan being used as the name for: Ken Maynard's horse, a Berlin cafe, a circus freak, a dog registered in the American Kennel Club Stud Book, one of the Prince of Wales' horses, and more.
*  Ed, wishing that were living nearby, tries to arrange a position for him as West Coast representative for the Rothacker Industrial Film Corporation. He is not successful. 
January: Ed's new address is: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., Tarzana, Reseda, California ~ Telephone: Owensmouth 220.
January 7-9: The El Caballero Golf and Country Club host the Los Angeles Open Golf Tournament. Ed and Studley have prepared a souvenir booklet for the event.
February: After seeing the previews for Tarzan and the Golden Lion, Ed wishes he knew enough about film techniques to have directed it himself. He was not happy with the film. 
February 5-12: Ed and family take in the LA Horse Show featuring the greatest saddle mare in the world, harness races, five-gaited events, etc. with people from all over the US and Canada.
February 14: Film producer Ashton Dearholt and his wife, Florence, visit ERB to discuss adapting his books into movies. Back in 1918 Florence had travelled to LA from Chicago to pursue a film career. 
February 19: The Outlaw of Torn, the second story written by ERB, is finally published by McClurg. The dedication is: "To My Friend Joseph E Bray" - the head of publishing at A. C. McClurg. ERB thinks The Outlaw of Torn, Tarzan of the Apes and the Apache novels are the best things he has written.  298 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 6,000 ~ McClurg Total: 57,000 ~ Heins word count: 65,000
February 20: Joan opens with a stock company at the Weber Little Theatre in Ogden, Utah in the play "The Whole Town's Talking." Emma accompanies her as chaperone and Ed flies in for opening night. 
April 6: Ed's play: "Mary Who?" aka "Why Razz the Kids"  aka "Holy Bonds of Wedlock" is commenced. It was perhaps written for Joan but was never published. 
April 16 - May 14: The War Chief appears in Argosy All-Story in 5 parts. LETTER
April 25: There are plans for a possible monkey farm to be located at Tarzana -- patterned after Gay's Lion Farm. "Since the matter has come up, I have been making the personal acquaintance of a various assortment of monkeys. Yesterday, I called on quite a bunch of them over at the Selig Zoo, meeting for the first time three or four orang-outangs who arrived from Singapore Saturday or Sunday. One of them was filled with vast content if I merely stood and held his hand. Joan wanted me to buy him, but when I told her that I thought they cost from five hundred to one thousand dollars, she changed her mind."
April 26: Ed decides to not go through with a purchase of a new Lincoln through Weston who can get a good deal on it and decides instead to fix his old car up for $300 and use the money saved to make improvements on Tarzana. Ed, a Jack Dempsey fan, does not share Weston's admiration of boxer Gene Tunney (the Westons had met Tunney on a train trip from Grand Canyon). He considers Dempsey to be a true fighting machine.
*  The El Caballero hosts the 1927 Open Golf Tournament.
May 13 - July 22: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle is written. ERB starts the  manuscript at his office at 5255 Avenida Oriente and completes it at the new office, 18354 Ventura, where he moves on July 14. 
May 16: Ed becomes a member of the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, Inc., Washington, D.C. Ed has numerous problems and experiences many different attitudes toward alcohol over the years. 
May 24: Boris Karloff who played a Waziri chief in the Tarzan and the Golden Lion movie, writes to thank Ed for sending him an autographed motion picture edition of the novel. Twenty-five principals in the film, including Ed, Kennedy, Pierce, Karloff, etc. had signed and received 25 copies of the special photoplay edition. 
May 31: ERB contributes an article to The Daily Maroon of the University of Chicago in which he discusses the origin of the Tarzan idea, as well as his thoughts on what he thinks a child actually raised by apes would really be like. 
June: "Tarzan and the Lost Tribe" (Tarzan and the Lost Empire) is completed. It is rejected by Popular Magazine who offer 10 cents per word for a real Tarzan jungle story. 
June: Cyril Ralph Rathmund takes over as secretary and manager. 
June: The idea for the Tarzan strip is conceived. Joe H. Neebe (an acquaintance of Harry's) of Detroit's Campbell-Ewald Advertising Company, comes to Tarzana with a proposal to form Famous Books and Plays, Inc. to create and market a Tarzan cartoon strip - newspaper payments would be split 50/50. Ed is excited over the potential profits - the strip would be offered to Hearst newspapers at a rate of $1.50 per day per 10,000 subscribers. Ed later suggests that a Tarzan parody strip also be created. 
July: The Master Mind of Mars appears in Amazing Stories Annual. 
July: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle is rejected by Liberty, Colliers, Youth's Companion, Redbook and The Elk's Magazine
July 5: Ed is unhappy over the Methuen's deletions and alterations of his text. He advises them to use the full text of the McClurg edition for their upcoming War Chief release. 
July 14: Start of the move of offices to the new store and three-office complex on Ventura Boulevard (the present ERB, Inc. offices). The new office is fully occupied by the next day. The building is of old Spanish farm type architecture and is almost completely hidden by a black walnut tree.
July 19: Ed's receipt of Weston's Detroit Free Press clipping about the Oak Park (MMA) Academy prompts him to consider forming an association of Orchard Lakers that could bring pressure to bear upon the state of Michigan to re-establish a new Michigan Military Academy, preferably located at Orchard Lake.  He turns down Weston's offer for wholesale priced home movie equipment, saying: "I have purchased so many things that the family was hectic about only to find that they were nine day wonders. I now have three projecting machines and seven hundred and twenty eight thousand miles of film which are never used."
July 21: McClurg reject The Oakdale Affair, despite the fact that it has been made into a movie, alternately titled: "Bringing Up Baby" and "The Warning."
July 27: From a letter replying to the editor of Red Book mag: "I got a kick out of your letter of July 20th relative to my breaking so many rules. Life would be much simpler if there were not so many rules. I imagine I have broken every rule of English grammar several thousand times and being at heart a purist, I should be desolated if I was was aware of it, but as do not know a single one of these rules, I am saved much mental anguish...."
July 30: Ed gives more reasons for not getting into the home movie hobby: "Every once in a while we destroy a bunch of photographs that were taken several years ago and which now make us appear ridiculous. What's the use of leaving something to posterity that will make them ashamed of our poor taste and sorry for our lack of intelligence? Caesar, Napoleon and George Washington would be no great heroes if we had 16 mm movies of them."
August: The Tarzana Bulletin - "an aid to the development of Tarzana" is published. The editor is Ed's new secretary, Ralph Rothmund. The "Building Notes" section reports the construction of a new store and office building at 18352 Ventura Boulevard. There are also references to the "beautiful old walnut tree in the center of the yard" and Ed's study. 
August 4 - November 20: The Apache Devil is written (73,333 words). 
August 28: A Charleston, Illinois English teacher writes Ed to compliment him on his writing, but goes on to list sections in Tarzan and the Golden Lion which should could have been corrected before publication. He suggests that she read his new novel, Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, which is about to start in Blue Book. 
August 28-September 4: In commemoration of their 1916 cross-country trip, the family travel to the Grand Canyon North Rim, Kaibab Forest, Zion Canyon and Bryce Canyon in northern Arizona and southern Utah.. Ed notes that they had slept out in four states: California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada and both he and Emma had lost seven pounds during the seven-day tour. His 52nd birthday was spent in Arizona, as were his 21st and his 50th: "Emma and I piloted my roadster with the trailer, and Hulbert and the children trailed along in the dust in his Buick." They install a canopy over the rumble seat of Hulbert's roadster to fend off sun and wind. Emma and Joan share a bed in the trailer and use their old beach tent for a dressing tent. Ed and the two boys sleep on folding cots in the open. 
"The Eleven Year Itch," a 6,000-word article is written to describe the event. 
September: The article "Who Cares?" by Normal Bean and other articles by ERB appear in the Tarzana Bulletin. ERB pleads for the protection of wildlife. 
September: In his letters, Ed disagrees with Sinclair Lewis' forcing his anti-religious views on the public in Elmer Gantry. He feels a novelist's sole purpose should be to entertain. At the same time he praises the work of Charles Lindbergh
September 6: Harry writes a letter to brothers George, Coleman and Ed.
September 15: The War Chief is published by McClurg ~ Glossary at end of book ~ 382 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 6,000 ~ Total: 48,500 ~ Heins word count: 79,000
Fall: Joan joins the Menard Players at the Glendale Playhouse for $40 a week. "She played one week as leading woman, but since the return of the regular leading woman she has been playing ingenues. She is accumulating a great deal of valuable experience inasmuch as they put on a new play each week, rehearse six days a week and give fifteen performances weekly of each play -- the rest of the time she has to herself."
September 12: McClurg report US and UK sales to be 6,350,000 copies. 
September 20: Ed avoids the downtown crowd of admirers who welcome Lindbergh, a man he admires as much as Teddy Roosevelt. He prefers to wait at Tarzana to see his aircraft pass overhead since the ranch is on the airmail route between San Francisco and LA. 
October: "The Illustrator and the Author" article appears in The Authors' League Bulletin, written in praise of  J. Allen St. John's work. The League requested the article on May 17. 
October 10: The Tarzan Twins (Read the eText) is published by P. F. Volland Company with illustrations by Donald Grant and containing the dedication: "To Joan, Hulbert and Jack, who were brought up on Tarzan stories, this volume is affectionately dedicated by their father." ~ 126 pages ~ Heins word count: 23,000
October 11: LETTER to fan in which he mentions that "The 'Warming'? is, I believe a new name given the picture version of THE OAKDALE AFFAIR." 
October 19: Ed gives Joan a rough draft of a play written with her in mind: "You Lucky Girl!" It is not performed until 1997 at the Palmdale Playhouse, California.. 
November - December: Apache Devil (sequel to The War Chief) is rejected by Collier's, Liberty, Popular, and Blue Book. 
November 7: Ed suggests that the first cartoon compilation of the Tarzan strips could be named Tarzan Book No. 1, with others to be titled consecutively. 
November 7: Joan's stock company is playing "Buddies." She has the part of the American sweetheart and sings a cute song. Ed notes that she is improving a great deal as she gains experience.
November 9: Ed and the boys attend the wrestling matches. 
November 10: Ed writes that he has seen only one football game this season (U.S.C. vs U.C.), preferring to listen to the games on radio. He and the boys have become wrestling fans. ". . . but the game is so damn crooked that much of the kick is taken out of it. They say that every opponent who faces Stecher, the heavyweight champion, has to post a twenty five hundred dollar bond that he will not beat him, and the bouts certainly suggest that this may have foundations in truth. We saw him wrestle Zbyszko last night and in my opinion if Zbyszko had dared, he could have killed him. Of all the rotten excuses for a champion, I think Stecher the rottenest. We also attended the classical Dundee-Ace Hudkins fiasco last week. If all the lousy crooks who make an easy living off the fighters and wrestlers could be eliminated, I think the public might enjoy some pretty good sport, but as it is going now it will not be long  before boxing and wrestling will be stopped in California entirely."
December - May 1928: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle starts as a 6-part serial in Blue Book
December 3: Ed attends the U.S.C.-Washington football game. Star Morley Drury leads USC to an easy victory.
December 9: "We ceased sending Christmas cards last year. It grew to be a meaningless gesture. We had a list of names in a book, we ordered the Christmas cards a month ahead of time, some one else addressed the envelopes -- that is Christmas sentiment for you. All our friends were vying with each other to outdo everyone in the expense and elaborateness of their Christmas Greetings. We decided that it was vulgar, shoddy and bunk. Therefore, we cut it out."
1927-1928: Ed writes a home movie script, a silent slapstick melodrama, called "Tarzan Pictures Presents 'Them Thar Papers." The cast included all family members, James Pierce, and Joan's friend Miss Florence Gilbert.
 1928
January: Apache Devil is sold to Argosy All-Story for $4,400. 
January 12: Ed expresses bewilderment to his publisher that his name is not in Publishers' Weekly list of the ten most popular authors in America. By all reports, his book sales are among the three highest in the country. He attributes this rejection to the snobbishness of the literary intelligentsia and the German furor against some of his books. 
January 17: ERB's attempt to enroll Hulbert in Yale is not successful because of low marks. Joan is thinking of leaving the Glendale stock company as it pays very little and she is not getting proper direction.
January 26 - February 10: Ed is hired by the Los Angeles Herald to write a series of opinionated and controversial editorials about the Hickman kidnap-murder trial
Unknown date: Ed writes a six-page article - "I See a New Race" - that offers a description of an idealistic civilization of the future, stressing a new approach to government and an acceptance of eugenics. 
February 20: Jad-Bal-Ja and the Tarzan Twins, a 22,878 juvenile sequel to The Tarzan Twins, is completed. It meets rejections from Youth's Companion, American Boy, Everybody's Magazine and Astounding Stories. It is eventually published in 1936 by Whitman
March 10: Master Mind of Mars published by AC McClurg ~ 312 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 5,000 ~ Total: 54,000 ~ Heins word count: 51,000
March 19: Discussing the St. Francis dam catastrophe, Ed notes how lucky they were that it hadn't been one of the dams above the San Fernando Valley or the Weed dam above Hollywood. He believes that a 24 hour inspection of all dams should be required by law. He also writes that the new acting job taken by Joan did not work out as conditions had been misrepresented to her. She is reluctant to return to the Glendale company as it would take the job away from her replacement actress. The family apparently miss her $40 per week income. 
March 29 - May 26: Tarzan and the Lost Empire  is written (66,402 words). 
June 1: The cesspools are backing up into the front parlor again.
June 1: Ed is making plans for driving Joan and friend over to Flagstaff and Tuba, Arizona next week, as Jim Pierce is on location with the Fred Thompson Motion Picture Company there. 
June 2: Munsey, as a goodwill gesture, relinquishes serial rights to four of Ed's stories.
June 14: Ed is furious over the liberties Universal Pictures have taken with Jungle Tales of Tarzan (Ed sold the rights in 1922) in turning it into the serial, Tarzan the Mighty
June 26: Ed orders a home movie camera and projector ($287.00 less a 30% discount through Owl Pharmacy) from Bert Weston (a few months later Weston gives a similar deal to Ed's friends the Rosenbergers). He wants it in time to experiment with it so he can get some good pictures of Joan's outdoor wedding on August 8. They plan to use the area between the chicken yard and the corral. He builds a cabinet similar to a small smoking stand that holds everything pertaining to the photo outfit.
June 29 (circa): Ed, the boys and Mr. Rosenberger go on a camping trip into Shasta County taking two roadsters and a trailer. They travel up the west side of the Sierras, cross over to Reno and come down on the east side. They are impressed by the scenery and Mt. Shasta, Mt. Whitney and the recently-active volcano Mt. Lassen.
July 2: Joan Burroughs and James Pierce are engaged. 
July 2: (AP News Release: Glendale, Cal., The engagement of Joan Burroughs, stage actress, and the daughter of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author, to James Pierce of this city, was made known here today. Pierce was formerly a football star at the University of Indiana and now coaches the University of Arizona grid team.
July 8: Ed returns from the Shasta fishing trip. 
July 9: Despite the unpopularity of prohibition Ed is convinced that Republican Hoover is a far better candidate for the presidency than Smith, the Democrat. 
July 10: Newspaper clippings announcing Joan's impending wedding are starting to appear around the country. Joan, a true actress, loves the publicity and is ecstatic over the wedding gifts that are arriving. Ed notes that he receives his most desired clippings from his friends rather than from the clipping bureau he pays to do the job.  Ed is planning a dry wedding -- he hates drunken brawls.
July 20: The community officially approves the name Tarzana
July 31: News Release: Joan Burroughs, daughter of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author, was assigned to find somebody who could play "Tarzan" in a screen production of one of her father's books. She picked James Pierce, film "heavy," and work on the picture began. Now she has picked Pierce for herself. They'll be married this summer.
August 8:  Joan (20 years) and James Pierce (27 years) wedding day at Tarzana Ranch. The date is also Pierce's birthday. Pierce, former University of Indiana football star  is now working as a coach at the University of Arizona. "The wedding went off as per schedule and everyone seemed to think that it was a very lovely affair, principally because of its simplicity. Joan was married on the knoll at the east end of the lily ponds. It made a very pretty setting." Ed rents an extra camera and Jack and Mr. Rothmund film until dark, taking four reels of film. They had some difficulty as many of the important shots had to be taken into the setting sun. Chris, the stableman, the self-proclaimed "world's greatest photographer," was assigned the task of taking stills. "He succeeded in getting two, one of which is good. This was the only disappointment of the wedding as I had banked on having at least two or three dozen pictures." "After the ceremony they made their escape without being seen, and after driving around the Valley for several hours came back and hid under some trees down the road until after the last of the guests were gone when they came back to see us, which was mighty sweet of them."
August 9: Joan and Jim, the newlyweds, come home to Tarzana to say good-bye and then leave in Jim's car for Indiana to visit his people and then on to Coldwater and Chicago to see relatives of Ed and Emma.
August 27:  Ed buys a glass bead movie screen from the Arrow company to replace the wrinkled bedsheet he had been using and they view two films that Hully has sent from Chicago. Emma and Hully have been visiting friends and family. Ed is excited about the new Eastman color film that has come on the market.
August 28: Autograph LETTER  to Thomas Price, Chicago.
August 30: Emma and Hulbert end their Chicago visit and leave for home with Jim and Joan
August 31: Ed and Jack spend labor day weekend at Catalina.
Fall: Hulbert enrolls as a senior at Van Nuys High School
September 12: Ed decribes his new Tarzan dog: "He is a six month Old English Sheepdog, weighs fifty five pounds and is still going strong. I think he is one of the brightest dogs I ever saw, but, like all puppies, a damn nuisance and eleven times as much a nuisance as though he weighed only five pounds."
September 12: "We have been at the beach for two days now, and as far as I am concerned I would just as soon be home. The damned ocean depresses me terribly and there has been fog, or haze, or mist, or something that made it impossible to see much further than spitting distance. Everything is grey and somber and gloomy. However, if Emma and the boys enjoy it, I can put up with it. And I do like the cooler weather, I shall have to admit that. I was certainly fed up on heat this summer." 
September 13 - November 21: Tanar of Pellucidar is written (77,825 words). The manuscript is begun at 9 Sea View Terrace, Santa Monica and is completed at the Ventura office
September 15: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle is published by AC McClurg ~ (377 pages 7,500 copies 1st Ed.) ~ Total: 122,777 ~ Heins word count: 70,000
September 17: Ed receives the wedding films and they view them at night. He has also taken film of Tarzana, Jack shooting a coyote and horses galloping around the paddock. Jack is experimenting with putting titles on the films.  He later sends the wedding films to the Pierces and then on to Westons.
September 22: Neebe, having received rejections from Hearst and running low on funds, reports that has decided to turn the Tarzan strips over to an established syndicate. 
September 27: ERB authorizes the adaptation of ten Tarzan novels to strip form - he even suggests that his six Mars novels could also be adapted. Soon after, he expresses his satisfaction with the artwork of Harold Foster. The first six strips have already appeared in London Tid-Bits
October 18: The Bandit of Hell's Bend serial ends in Argosy All-Story.
October 23: Continuing his longtime correspondence with General Charles King, Ed sends him 84th birthday congratulations 
October 25: Ed endorses some of the ideas of William R. Thurston concerning the hazards of "excessive sexual intercourse" and overpopulation by mental, moral and physical defectives. ERB is witness to an exchange of written arguments between Thurston and George Bernard Shaw
October - February 1929: Tarzan and the Lost Empire runs as a five-part serial in Blue Book. 
November: Tanar of Pellucidar is completed (77,000 words). For one of the cities in the book Ed spells the nearby town Pacoima backwards: Amiocap.
November 16: "I am working on a story and worrying my damn fool head off over the back property, which several wealthy gentlemen are trying to steal form me now that El Caballero has busted, with the result that I am not entirely accountable for the things that I neglect doing."
December 6 - February 7, 1929: Tarzan and Pellucidar (Tarzan at the Earth's Core) is written (79,446 words). Some or all of the book is dictated to Ediphone cylinders.
December 27: "It gives me a great deal of pleasure to hear from children and to know that they like my stories. An odd thing about my work is that my stories are written for adults and I have a very large adult following and that the only juvenile that I ever wrote, The Tarzan Twins, is practically my only flop. Trying to find out why has taught me a lesson. I have it from no less an authority than the president of A.C. McClurg & Company, who has been publishing books for many years, that from fifteen years up children read and enjoy adult literature. I made my mistake in The Tarzan Twins by doing what is known as 'writing down' and succeeded only in reaching a mental level far below that of the young people I wished to appeal to. I think Kipling did the same thing in his "Just So" stories, for I know that as far as I was concerned they were the rottenest things he did."
 1929
1929 - 1930: Ed forecloses on the El Caballero and gets back the Tarzana buildings and much of the land. 
1929: Ed works on "Genghis Khan"  a 2,215 word, unfinished epic narrative poem - Twenty 14-line stanzas.
January 7: American release day of the Tarzan of the Apes daily strip by Hal Foster - a predecessor to the Tarzan Sunday page.  There are thirteen American and two Canadian outlets (Toronto Star and Halifax Chronicle). Discouragingly, the strips are slow to produce significant returns. 
January 14: ERB signs a movie authorizing the filming of Tarzan the Fearless, stipulating that James Pierce play the lead role. 
February: The report in Authors' League Bulletin of high prices paid to authors sets Ed off on a crusade to obtain higher prices for his stories.
February 6: Ed writes to his brother George, who has a hardware store in Burley, Idaho,  to persuade him to move to California and start a business. 
February 28 - May 10: A Fighting Man of Mars is written (83,633 words). Some or all of the story is dictated to Ediphone cylinders. 
February 29: Jack is given a Kodak enlarger and diffuser equipment for his birthday.
March - August: Tanar of Pellucidar appears in Blue Book which has outbid Argosy ($7,500) 
March 15: The Monster Men | Read the PD eText | is published by AC McClurg (paid $1,165) ~ 304 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 5,000 ~ Total: 40,675 ~ Heins word count: 59,000
March 28: Ed indicates to Blue Book that he about to write a Venus series. 
*  Ed visits New York and meets Bob Davis who had left Munsey in 1926. 
April 1: Ed, long dissatisfied with the royalties paid to him by McClurg, complains to Bray -- suggesting that his contemporaries, such as Zane Grey, are far better off financially. Soon after he announces his intention to publish his own books, with G& D handling reprints.
April 15: Ed is unsuccessful in his attempt to get the boys into West Point
May: "The Citizen and the Police" article appears in The Police Reporter in defense of the police departments which had suffered newspaper criticisms. Ed follows this up with another article,  "A Scrambled Parable," which is not published - presumably it went a "little too far" and was considered unsuitable for publication in the staid Police Reporter
May 7: Bray, while promising better promotion and larger royalties, refuses to apply larger royalties on titles covered by previous contracts. 
May 18: Bray's letter indicates that ERB and McClurg are in a stalemate. Ed soon travels to Chicago. The meeting with Bray is unsuccessful and ERB retrieves the manuscripts for Tarzan and the Lost Empire and Apache Devil. The relationship with McClurg which began in 1914 has come to an end. 
May 28: ERB goes on to New York where he strikes a deal with Elser and Metropolitan Service to publish Tarzan and the Lost Empire
May 29: A Fighting Man of Mars is submitted to All-Story. It is rejected. 
Summer: Ed makes unwise investments in a San Fernando Valley Airport (The Los Angeles Metropolitan Airport) and Apache Motors airplane engine company. Following Ed's advice, the Westons also have bought stock. The Government buys a dirigible base near Zelzah near Tarzana and General Motors is trying to get control of the Metropolitan Airport. 
June: Hully graduates from Van Nuys High School and soon drives east with his girl friend and her mother in the new car. Ed suggests that he bring Mrs. Hulbert and Jessie back to California so he won't be alone on the trip back.
June: In a letter to brother Harry he mentions that while in New York he was appointed Grand Master of the Order of the Grand Exhausted Satan. He explains the reason for the shake-up in the Tarzan newspaper strip was a difference of opinion between the publisher and editor. He explains that the name of the new talkies film company started by David Sarnoff of RCA (Radio Corporation of America) is derived from the amalgamation of RCA's purchase of FBO: Film Booking Office studios and Keith-Albee-Orpheum theatres. Hence RKO = Radio Keith Orpheum.
June: RKO build a $12,000 set on the back pasture for the $600,000  musical comedy sound film Rio Rita which is to star Bebe Daniels, John Boles, Bert Wheeler and many chorus girls. Ed will be paid $15 a day while the set is being built ~ $500 total for the whole picture ~ and $50 a day for retakes. Ed will have ownership of the sets after the company leaves. He plans to use the 2"x4" lumber to expand their cramped quarters in the house at the bottom of the hill as it may be years before they regain possession of the Tarzana Ranch house. They have lived in the small house for almost three years. 
June: Mother-to-be Joan stays with Ed and Emma while Jim is on location at Catalina. She is suffering from severe morning sickness.
June 5: Ed and Emma return from a visit with Bert and Margaret Weston in Beatrice, Nebraska.
June 6: Jack has accumulated seventy newly-hatched baby turkeys and a bunch of light brahmas while Ed was away.
June 8: ERB contacts Bray about the possibility of repurchasing all of his book rights. 
June 20: The Planet of Peril, a Venus novel by Otis Adelbert Kline is serialized in Argosy All-Story. ERB's plans for his Venus series are set back. 
July 17: ERB telegrams Elser for assistance in finding a job as a war correspondent in the Russo-Chinese conflict. An incredulous Elser replies that he can offer no assistance. 
July 18: Jack reaches New Mexico on his way back from Michigan. He is driving his grandmother, aunt and a cousin.
July 29: Ed sends an ironic rebuff to the Tarzana branch of the LA  Public Library which has requested copies of his books. He points out that their main library has banned his books.
August: The Illustrated Tarzan Book No. 1 is published by Grosset and Dunlap. Ed is very happy with Harold Foster's  work. 
September: Ed and the boys take an auto-camping trip to the Ensenada area in Lower California. Ed and Hulbert have built a sleeping trailer for Hully's Buick. The family also travels north to Grant's Pass, Oregon in two Pullman Aerocoaches
September 4: Ed anonymously sends Ashton Dearholt a movie outline. 
September 9: ERB receives copy number one of Tarzan and the Lost Empire. The official release is on the 28th. The dedication is to: "To Jean Hulbert." She is the daughter of Murray Hulbert, a New York attorney and judge, and a distant cousin on his mother's side of the family.
September 20: Ed submits the last installment of the 20,000-word "Autobiography," (ONE PAGE SAMPLE) fulfilling Metropolitan's request for publicity material to promote the release of Tarzan and the Lost Empire.
September 28: Tarzan and the Lost Empire is published by Metropolitan Books: (first title not published by McClurg) ~ 313 pages ~ Estimated word count: 66,000.
September 29 - March 1930: Tarzan at the Earth's Core (written as Tarzan and Pellucidar) is serialized in 7 parts in Blue Book. 
October 2 - December 30: The Land of Hidden Men (Jungle Girl) is written (67,443). A combination Ediphone dictation and longhand approach is used in producing the manuscript. 
Fall: Jack enrolls as a senior in Van Nuys High School. He later becomes the school sports editor. Hulbert is attending Pomona College in Claremont in his freshman year. Joan is awaiting the birth of her first child in December.
October - February 1930: Universal releases Tarzan and the Tiger, a second serial based on another property purchased in 1922, Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar. ERB receives no royalties from either of the Universal serials. 
October 4: The Toronto Star complaint that the story line in the Tarzan strips is "thinning out" coincides with reports that the G&D Tarzan strip book is experiencing poor sales. 
October 19: ERB receives word from Elser of renewed interest in the Tribes of Tarzan club. There follow a series of renewals and revisions of the club formations. 
October 23: Elser talks ERB out of investing in the Los Angeles Monkey Farm
October 24: Ed responds to Metropolitan Books request for promotional material by submitting a rambling article, "My Diversions,"in which he describes his activities and philosophies. 
October 27: ERB's article, "How I Wrote the Tarzan Books," is appears in the Washington Post and New York World
October 29: The Stock Market Crash signals that Ed and Weston's investments are in trouble.
November 11: "I have one of those noiseless typewriters, but as far as I am concerned it is a total loss. I want to hear them go."
November 11: Ed's pointers for a uniform to wear onboard a yacht: "The hat is the principal item. This should be of the well-known cocked variety with a white plume. The hat should be done in blue or green to match the sea. In addition to this I suggest large epaulets and a red sash. What else you wear will be a matter for your own discretion, but if you like suntan and do not freckle the above will be all that you will require."
November 25: LETTER to fan.
November 30: "How Tarzan Kept The Wolf From The Door" - a bio article on ERB is published in The Literary Digest
December 4: Ed shares his criticisms over the Tarzan strips with nephew Studley. Studley later forwards detailed criticisms to the Metropolitan Syndicate. 
December 9: Universal releases the serial Tarzan and the Tiger with Frank Merrill.
December 10: In a letter to Hulbert, Ed expresses some views on religion "I have no quarrel with religion, but I do not like the historic attitude of any of the established churches. Their enthusiasms and sincerity never ring true to me and I think that there has been no great change in them all down the ages, insofar as the fundamentals are concerned. There is just as much intolerance and hypocrisy as there ever was, and if any church were able to obtain political power today I believe that you would see all the tyranny and injustice and oppression which has marked the political ascendancy of the church in all times. ...  I do not subscribe to any of the narrow, childish superstitions of any creed."  He speaks of "the disgusting lust for publicity, which animates many divines."  Ed as a man of science and a staunch believer in Darwin's theories is a strong critic of the church's attitude toward scientific progress and "toward the promulgation of the truth in art and literature. . . ." "A man can be highly religious, he can believe in a God and in an omnipotent creator and still square his belief with advanced scientific discoveries, but he cannot have absolute faith in the teachings and belief of any church, of which I have knowledge, and also believe in the accepted scientific theories of the origin of the earth, of animal and vegetable life upon it, or the age of the human race; all of which matters are considered as basic truth according to the teachings of the several churches as interpreted from their inspired scriptures."
December 18: Ed writes to brother Harry to try to convince him to write about his colourful experiences in Idaho. "Put plenty of Sam Land and Mac Harberson in it, of cattle thieves and reminiscences of old timers, a description of Blanco and all of the interesting characters you knew in Idaho."
December 24: Ed becomes a grandfather when daughter Joan, in Holllywood Hospital,  gives birth to a daughter -- blonde-haired, blue-eyed little Joan (later they changed the spelling to Joanne to avoid confusion). The proud grandfather dedicated his next book (Tanar of Pellucidar) to her: "To Joan Burroughs Pierce II." 
December 24: Elser promises to follow up on Ed's request to have Webster's and Funk and Wagnall's dictionaries include his bio and the word "Tarzan" in future revisions. 
December 30: The Dancing Girl of the Leper King is completed.

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