“Entertainment is fiction’s purpose.” —Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1930

Seventy years ago--as of yesterday--we lost one of the greatest storytellers and one of the most imaginative human beings in the history of literature. Edgar Rice Burroughs was that bad-ass.

Edgar Rice Burroughs was born the son of a no-nonsense brigadier general for the Union Army who served during the Civil War. Ed's father held a dim view of his young son's imaginative musings--deeming all of it "lying"--and punished Ed for even entertaining such frivolous thoughts.

Upon reaching adulthood, Burroughs knew the pain of failure after failure. Of not meeting his father's expectations. He had gone out to work his brother's ranch. He had chased Geronimo with the Seventh Cavalry. He sold pencil-sharpeners. None of it with notable success. Then, he sent "Under the Moons of Mars"--henceforth to be known for all eternity as A Princess of Mars--to All-Story Magazine... and the entire world changed.

There is simply "Before ERB" and "After ERB" when it comes to imaginative literature.

H. Rider Haggard was arguably a better writer. The same can be said for Kipling. Neither of them expressed the revolt of the Western Man against what the Western World had become better than Edgar Rice Burroughs or with the same breadth of imagination. Between A Princess of Mars and then Tarzan of the Apes--published less than a year later--Burroughs laid the foundation for much we take for granted in Twenty-First Century SFF.

When it comes to ERB today, I keep reading reviews that disparage him for writing "cliche this" and "cliche that". Burroughs invented those "cliches" and he did them better than almost any author subsequent. The present-day Orwellian culture of memory-holing the true founders and innovators in the history of SFF has borne bitter fruit, indeed.

I also see Burroughs' work classed in the "fantasy" category. Pure bullshit. ERB--at least when he was creating a setting--always made sure to consult current scientific opinion before starting a new series of books. As any author of imaginative fiction should, Ed knew the value of verisimilitude. If science overtook a setting--as occurred in the case of Mars--ERB simply carried on. Any current fiction author would--or should--do the same. The story's the thing, after all. Ed was neither a pedagogue nor a didact. Anyone who states that “Edgar Rice Burroughs didn’t write science fiction” has bought into the “Hard SF” fallacy and should be summarily ignored.

Does Edgar Rice Burroughs have any influence upon today's market and the audience thereof? I would say he does. In the most raw terms, The Legend of Tarzan did better than all right. John Carter was sabotaged by the same people who now expect you to buy into the next “Star Wars” movie whether you like it or not.

Edgar Rice Burroughs is still a strong brand. Believe me, I've heard and read the prognostications of the doomsayers for the last three decades and more. Somehow, ERB and his creations continue to find an audience. Like Homer, Burroughs can't die. He gave us heroes that we need.

As Ray Bradbury once said:

"I love to say it because it upsets everyone terribly—Burroughs is probably the most influential writer in the entire history of the world."

"By giving romance and adventure to a whole generation of boys, Burroughs caused them to go out and decide to become special. That's what we have to do for everyone, give the gift of life with our books. Say to a girl or boy at age ten: Hey, life is fun! Grow tall! I've talked to more biochemists and more astronomers and technologists in various fields, who, when they were ten years old, fell in love with John Carter and Tarzan and decided to become something romantic. Burroughs put us on the moon. All the technologists read Burroughs."

"By giving romance and adventure to a whole generation of boys..." ERB most assuredly did that. H. Rider Haggard and Lew Wallace, during the late nineteenth century, were among the first to challenge the growing literary hegemony of "realistic fiction" spearheaded by the vile William Dean Howells at The Atlantic Monthly. Their vigor and influence was waning by 1912, however, whilst the forces of mediocrity and vapid workaday fiction glorifying the "common man" were finding fresh strength across the globe, with the Bolshevik Revolution just a few years away.

Burroughs knew what the "common man"--who had never been asked for his opinion by his "betters"--really wanted. The buyers of pulp magazines wanted action, romance and wonder. ERB gave it to them good n’ hard.

A Princess of Mars hit like a thunderbolt. A man of Earth finds himself on Mars, where he discovers wonders undreamt of on his home planet. He also finds foes worthy of his sword--and friendship, in the case of Tars Tarkas--and the love of "the most beautiful woman of two worlds", Dejah Thoris. Readers couldn't get enough and Edgar Rice Burroughs would write numerous Martian novels in the subsequent thirty years.

Tarzan of the Apes, also published in 1912, hit even harder with the general public, if anything. Here was a man--Tarzan--raised in a state of nature. A man of the wilderness who rose above his brutal upbringing to become someone of consequence, albeit, a man who could shrug off "the thin veneer of civilization" at the first opportunity. Americans at that time were far less urban and the "back to nature" vibe perhaps struck more of a chord because of that, but it resonated around the world and resonates to this day.

Edgar Rice Burroughs became a rich man almost overnight. He soon moved out to California, becoming--along with Mulholland and others--one of the main developers of the San Fernando Valley. The city of Tarzana is named after Tarzan because the core of the city is centered upon the former ranch of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Without the influence of ERB, southern California might look much different than it does now.

But getting back to Edgar Rice Burroughs being "the most influential writer in the entire history of the world..." A young-ish H.P. Lovecraft was a big fan of the Barsoom novels and sent in a letter of praise gushing about The Gods of Mars. The influence of ERB on Robert E. Howard is patent. REH possessed more Burroughs novels in his personal library than those of any other author. Fritz Leiber was a major Burroughs fan, referencing ERB in various novels and writing the first Tarzan pastiche, Tarzan and the Valley of Gold, which has recently been reprinted. Michael Moorcock started out as a Burroughs pasticheur and his novels, especially pre-1980, show the clear influence of ERB in their structure and plots.

In the realm of SF, the influence of Burroughs is, understandably, vast, though very much understated in modern times. As has been noted again and again, the influence of ERB on subsequent SF writers at The Argosy and All-Story pulps during the '20s and '30s is undeniable. Even Weird Tales published Burroughsian SF by Otis Adelbert Kline and REH... and I'm sure that Farnsworth Wright would've been more than happy to publish ERB if Ed had come down on his going rate.

Moving on to the (supposed) "Golden Age of SF", we know that Robert Heinlein was a lifelong ERB fan, as were Leigh Brackett and Frank Herbert. C.J. Cherryh has stated more than once her early debt to Edgar Rice Burroughs. Even a Bud of Hard SF like Larry Niven admitted to admiring Burroughs' Barsoom novels. The late, great Gene Wolfe, while a bigger fan of Kipling, read and enjoyed the Tarzan books as a youth. You can rest assured that there are many, many other SF authors I haven't mentioned... and other SF authors of the present day who keep their opinions to themselves, since ERB has now been designated as being "problematic". Most such now cite Leigh Brackett as a proxy, in my opinion.

Moving further afield, Burroughs—especially his John Carter novels—was one of the inspirations for Superman. George Lucas has admitted his debt to ERB. We know that Gore Vidal was a Burroughs fan. Patrick Dearen, the winner of numerous awards for his Western genre novels, is proud to say that ERB is his greatest inspiration. Anne Rice is also an admirer of Burroughs. Last, but certainly not least, the mighty Ronnie James Dio stated numerous times that he was a lifelong Edgar Rice Burroughs fan.

In the here n’ now, Burroughs is still a vital influence… at least, if you look beyond the offerings of the slowly dying TradPub publishing houses. Right here at DMR Books, we’ve published Under a Dim Blue Sun by avowed ERB fan, Howie Bentley. Swordsmen from the Stars, a collection of Poul Anderson’s planetary adventures—which trace an obvious lineage back to A Princess of Mars—will be coming soon from DMR in April. Henry Vogel’s “Scout” series is an admitted homage to ERB’s sword-and-planet novels. Beyond that, the PulpRev and Superversive literary movements have embraced Burroughs, especially his classic aphorism that “Entertainment is fiction’s purpose”. Don’t worry about ERB. Worry about those who have forgotten or repudiated him.

Well, I was a day late, but not a tribute short. Requiescat in pace, Ed.