St. John’s underwhelming cover for the McClurg edition, 1920. The Tarzan “dagger” logo is awesome, though.

One hundred years ago today, Tarzan the Untamed was published in hardcovers for the first time. This was a very important book in the evolution of the Tarzan series and an exciting, classic novel in its own right. I'll let the ERB fans at The Oparian Vault give you the gory details of the publishing history:

"Tarzan the Untamed is the seventh book in the Tarzan series written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was originally published as two separate stories serialized in different pulp magazines; "Tarzan the Untamed" (AKA "Tarzan and the Huns") in Redbook from March to August, 1919, and "Tarzan and the Valley of Luna" in All-Story Weekly from March to April 1920. The two stories were combined under the title of the first in the first book edition, published in 1920 by A. C. McClurg. In order of writing, the book follows Jungle Tales of Tarzan, a collection of short stories about the ape-man's youth. Chronologically, it follows Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar."

The McClurg edition sported a J. Allen St. John dustjacket--the less said about, the better--and was graced with eight more gorgeous St. John interior paintings--see more on those below. In the space of a year, Tarzan the Untamed sold nearly three hundred thousand copies in hardcover. I'd bet that pretty much all of the Hugo winners from the last decade would kill for those kind of numbers today.

Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote the novella "Tarzan the Untamed" immediately after the end of World War One. Ed was an extremely patriotic American who had previously served in the US Army. He developed an antipathy to Germans during the war and it definitely shows in the first half of Tarzan the Untamed, which was a fix-up novel combining "Tarzan the Untamed" and "Tarzan and the Valley of Luna".

Let's take a look at the book itself, shall we? As usual, there will be some spoilers.

The novel begins with Tarzan being away from his bungalow situated in the grasslands of East Africa, where Tarzan lives within the territory claimed by the Waziri tribe. A detachment of German soldiers from German East Africa attack and slaughter the entire household--including Tarzan's wife, Jane--as well as any Waziris in the vicinity. Before leaving, the Germans torch the compound, leaving the Waziri warrior, Wasimbu, crucified.

Tarzan returns and, quite frankly, goes a little crazy. He starts tracking down Germans and slaughtering them in various ways. He then finds the battlefield where the Germans are facing off against the British. He does a bit of sniping with a German rifle. He then unleashes a hunger-maddened lion into the German trenches while he simultaneously uses a German heavy machine gun to mow down the demoralized and terrified soldaten. While doing so, he says only,"They murdered my Waziri, they crucified Wasimbu, son of Muviro." A huge German officer attempts to bayonet him. Tarzan attacks first with his teeth and then breaks the man's back. After that, he leaves the battlefield without a backward glance.

Rambo who?

Tarzan readers used to the later novels where the Ape Lord is a bit more chilled out might be somewhat surprised by this, but we got a good preview of such behavior in The Beasts of Tarzan. In that novel, Tarzan's wife and infant son were abducted and taken deep into tropical Africa. The kidnappers gained only bloody deaths from their foolish schemes. Messing with Tarzan's family tends to end up being a very painful form of suicide.

The first half of Tarzan the Untamed is definitely Tarzan in "reset" mode, where the "thin veneer of civilization" is ripped away, leaving only the hairless ape-child, son of Kala the Mangani. Tarzan decides to swear off humanity. After all, what does he have left? His wife is gone, his home burned and the Waziri slaughtered. He turns back to the Wilderness from whence he came.

Tarzan journeys west into a desert plateau which challenges even his superhuman constitution and survival skills. This results in one of the most iconic scenes in the entire Tarzan series. Tarzan is almost dead, lying in the desert as Ska, the Vulture, circles overhead. Check it out:

"Circling slowly [Ska] dropped closer and closer to the dying man. Why did not Tarzan move? Had he indeed been overcome by the sleep of exhaustion, or was Ska right—had death at last claimed that mighty body? Was that great, savage heart stilled forever? It is unthinkable.

Ska, filled with suspicions, circled warily. Twice he almost alighted upon the great, naked breast only to wheel suddenly away; but the third time his talons touched the brown skin. It was as though the contact closed an electric circuit that instantaneously vitalized the quiet clod that had lain motionless so long. A brown hand swept downward from the brown forehead and before Ska could raise a wing in flight he was in the clutches of his intended victim.

Ska fought, but he was no match for even a dying Tarzan, and a moment later the ape-man's teeth closed upon the carrion-eater. The flesh was coarse and tough and gave off an unpleasant odor and a worse taste; but it was food and the blood was drink and Tarzan only an ape at heart and a dying ape into the bargain—dying of starvation and thirst."

Remind any of you Conan fans of a certain passage in "A Witch Shall Be Born"? Robert E. Howard wrote "Witch" almost fifteen years after Tarzan the Untamed was published.

The St. John painting for that scene is considered one of his best. A tour de force of composition and technique. I've seen it attributed to Jeffrey Jones out on the webz. It does look like something that Jones might've painted in the mid-'70s. We know that Jones was a fan of Tarzan and St. John, so a resemblance isn't surprising.

St. John’s classic painting, “The fight with Ska.”

Tarzan makes it out of the desert and finds a lost city. I can hear the "ho-hums" from here. "Tarzan and another lost city?", you say. That's the thing. This was the seventh Tarzan novel and the only lost city that Tarzan had found up to that point was Opar. It was with Tarzan the Untamed-- actually the novella, "Tarzan and the Valley of Luna"--that ERB really went all in with Tarzan and lost cities. You know what? I don't mind. I love lost cities.

I should note that ace pulp artist, P.J. Monahan, did the cover for "Tarzan and the Valley of Luna" for All-Story Weekly. I know it's heresy, but I wish his cover had been used for the McClurg edition, while keeping the otherwise great St. John interior illos. Never coulda or woulda happened, but there ya go.

Speaking of those paintings, let's look at a few others.

This painting is titled “He screamed forth his challenge”. Tarzan has joined a moonlit gathering of the Mangani, the Great Apes. Here is the passage it illustrates:

“His roars and growls were more beastly than the beasts. His handsome face was distorted with savage ferocity. He beat upon his great breast and screamed forth his challenge as his smooth, brown hide brushed the shaggy coats of his fellows. It was weird; it was wonderful; and in its primitive savagery it was not without beauty—the strange scene she looked upon, such a scene as no other human being, probably, ever had witnessed—and yet, withal, it was horrible.”

Powerful stuff. Others have noted that ERB’s prose in this novel is particularly good. I agree.

This next one is titled “The ape-man swung pendulum-like in space.”

That’s right. Tarzan is swinging from a grass rope and getting ready to hijack a biplane. Tarzan the Untamed has it all.

Finally, there is “A fierce cut drove through the fellow's collar-bone.”

Here we have Metak, insane prince of Xuja, the lost City of Maniacs. He has just grabbed a beautiful girl and is sabering anyone who disagrees. That would include royal guardsmen. This painting is particularly interesting if Robert E. Howard read this edition. I think he did.

While I’m totally underwhelmed by his cover painting, St. John’s Tarzan logo for this edition was a keeper. This was the first cover to sport the now-iconic Tarzan font using the daggerish-looking “T”. It still appears on various Tarzan products to this day, as far as I know.

In Tarzan the Untamed, we see Burroughs hitting the Reset button, stripping the Ape-Man of everything and sending him back to his foster-people, the Mangani. However, as happens throughout the series, Tarzan cannot resist getting entangled in the affairs of humanity. Blood will out and all that. Tarzan is a man of two worlds and, yet, of neither. This dichotomy, this eternal tension, is what makes Tarzan so interesting and compelling and that tension powers the entire series to one extent or another. Like Michael Corleone, every time Tarzan tries to leave humanity behind, he gets sucked back in. Try as he might, he cannot deny his heritage.

You can find an excellent e-version of Tarzan the Untamed, complete with all of the St. John illos, at Roy Glashan’s Library. Tell ‘em Deuce sent ya.