First and Only Weekly Webzine Devoted to the Life and Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs Since 1996 ~ Over 15,000 Webpages in Archive Volume 0759 and ERB C.H.A.S.E.R ENCYCLOPEDIA A Collector's Hypertexted and Annotated Storehouse of Encyclopedic Resources Present Large DJ Image Large Cover Art Image THE ETERNAL LOVER Part 1: "The Eternal Lover" working title: "Nu of the Niocene" begun in November 1913 ~ Part 2: Sweetheart Primeval 1914 Read the PD Online Text of this Novel  HERE

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COVER GALLERY

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Pulp Covers
From the Illustrated ERB Pulp Bibliography
 
The other three Sweetheart Primeval covers are displayed in our Pulp Biblio
on the ERBzine 0222 page

Paperback Covers

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ROY G. KRENKEL ACE ART GALLERY
Visit our Krenkel ACE Galleries
I. ERBzine 3330 : Earth's Core and Moon
II. ERBzine 3331 : The Planets
III. ERBzine 3332 : Savage Earth

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ACE F-234 | 1963

Frontispiece

Original

Alternate dust jacket using RGK art ~ created by Charlie Madison

Let’s take a look at what happened in the world of Edgar Rice Burroughs 100 years ago in October 1925. On October 3, 1925, A. C. McClurg published the first edition of THE ETERNAL LOVER. The story waited over ten years from its publication in ALL-STORY MAGAZINE before the book was published.

    All-Story published the two stories that became the novel. Part One, THE ETERNAL LOVER, was published in All-Story Weekly in the March 7, 1914 edition and Part Two, SWEERHEART PRIMEVAL, was serialized in All-Story Cavalier Weekly in four parts beginning on January 23, 1915 and concluding on February 13, 1915. Modest STEIN painted the cover  and Fred Small did a small black and white headpiece for THE ETERNAL LOVER and P. J. Monahan painted the cover for the first installment of SWEETHEART PRIMEVAL. More about the pulps later, back to the first edition.

The first edition cover was by J. Allen St. John, who else. The print run was only 5,000 copies in the common McClurg Blue Cloth binding. The book was reprinted regularly by Grosset & Dunlap. Ace Books reprinted the novel with cover art by Roy Krenkel during the 1960s Burroughs Boom, but changed the title to THE ETERNAL SAVAGE, believing the new title would be more appealing to fanboys.

The story established the beginning of THE EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS UNIVERSE, at least in my opinion. It’s what is referred to these days as a crossover novel. Tarzan and Jane appear briefly. The female protagonist, Victoria Custer, is the sister of Barney Custer, from THE MAD KING.  The story deals with reincarnation and eternal love, surprise. ERB regular wrote about various ways to achieve eternal or long life and this story is one of those. I especially enjoyed the idea that a soul has a single soulmate and that no matter how many times one is reincarnate, they’ll find that person again and again. H. Rider Haggard’s SHE and later Allan Quatermain novels explored similar themes.

Now to  return to the All-Story Weekly publications. The two installments of the novel shared the magazine issues with some well-known and not so well-known writers. There were a total of five issues, one for THE ETERNAL LOVER  and four for the serialization of SWEETHEARD PRIMEVAL.

The March 7, 1914 All-Story Weekly contained over a dozen other stories, mostly by writers largely forgotten. The exception is SECRETS by Rex Stout. The stories being serialized in that issue were THE DEVIL AND DOCTOR FOSTER by J. Earl Clauson, THE MAN WHO COULD NOT DIE by De Lysle Ferre Cass, THE SMOULDERING by Francis William Sullivan, and THE CASTLE ON THE CRAG by Stephen Chambers. Clauson authored a couple dozen stories and sold all of them to a Munsey magazine.  De Lysle Ferre Cass has eight pulp credits including OAHULA THE CARNIVOROUS (love the title). He is of ERB related interest as well for a Lost Race novel, involving Apes as Human encounters, which lay unpublished in the files of The Thrill Book until after his death, when it was discovered, it was believed to be by Clark Ashton Smith (despite bearing Cass's name), and published as AS IT IS WRITTEN  as by Clark Ashton Smith. Cass was only discovered to be the author after the book's release. Stephen Chambers authored over 100 pulp stories and founded the Stevenson Society (Robert Louis Stevenson) in the United States.

Francis William Sullivan, who wrote with the nom de plume Frank Williams, wrote TH WILDERNESS TRAIL, made into the film The Wilderness Trail starring Tom Mix. The story was originally published in Photoplay Magazine as GLORY ROAD and was followed by a sequel titled Star of the North. Two more of his novels were made into films, CHILD OF BANISHMENT and THE GODSON OF JEANETTE GONTREAU (THE FLAMES OF CHANCE – 1918).

    The issues that serialized SWEETHEART PRIMEVAL included the serializations of THE COASTS OF ADVENTURE by William Paterson White, a man from Tularosa, New Mexico and specialized in Westerns. He wrote over a hundred stories for the pulps.

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