Here we are, Labor Day 2025 in the U.S. of A. What better day to celebrate the birth of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the quintessential American ‘author of the working man’? For ERB was—and remains—exactly that. He gave the ‘common folk’ of America what they wanted—and also goals to aspire to. In return, Americans took Burroughs to heart, making him rich and influential beyond his dreams.

Edgar Rice Burroughs was born on this date in 1875. His father was a brigadier general during the Civil War, serving with distinction in the Union Army. Young Edgar was a trial to his strict father, who called any tales from the young storyteller 'lies'. Like many a boy with intelligence--but no real direction--Ed found himself in trouble with his schoolmasters. Eventually, ERB's father sent the boy to the Michigan Military Academy, an institution that Ed himself referred to as a "polite reform school". Burroughs graduated knowing the basics of unarmed combat, fencing and horsemanship--but with his spirit unbroken.

Possessing the training--and with family tradition behind him--Burroughs joined the storied U.S. 7th Cavalry. He served at Fort Grant, Arizona Territory, with his main job being the apprehension of the Apache Kid. Like many a soldier before and since, ERB never fired a shot in anger, but that cavalry stint laid the groundwork for both the 'Barsoom' series and his Shoz-Dijiji/'Apache' novels. He was invalided out of the 7th due to a heart condition in 1897. He would outlive almost every trooper he served with.

Ed drifted a bit after that. He spent half a year working at his older brother's ranch in Idaho--gaining yet more 'IRL' experience, a working man on a working ranch. Growing up on a ranch myself and knowing those details of ERB's life, when things were particularly grueling--or boring--I would console myself, knowing that Ed had gone through similar crap.

The Dark Horse Comics edition of Minidoka. Cover by J. Allen St.John and illustrations by Michael Wm. Kaluta.

ERB returned to Chicago in 1899, working in a battery factory. Having worked in factories myself, I can only imagine what working in such a place was like at the turn of the century. On the plus side, Burroughs married his childhood sweetheart, Emma Hulbert, in January 1900.

In 1903, with no real prospects, Ed returned to Idaho, joining his brothers, Yale graduates George and Harry, who were successful ranchers in southern Idaho, and partners in the Sweetser-Burroughs Mining Company. ERB became manager of their Snake River gold dredge operation. Financially, it all led to nothing, but Burroughs did write his first novelette/short novel, Minidoka, during this period.

Minidoka was set in a hidden 'lost land' in Idaho. While borrowing elements from Frank L. Baum--the preeminent American fantasist at that time--it presaged much of ERB's subsequent work. Breakneck adventure, romance, wildly imaginative settings and political/social satire--all emblematic throughout Burroughs' later literary oeuvre—were present in that seminal work. It would be over a century until it was published.

Burroughs spent about seven years as a pencil-sharpener wholesaler. While certainly not the worst of all occupations, it is hard to see someone of Ed's temperament and obvious intellectual capacity being happy and content in such a position. Apparently, having ample time on his hands, he read a lot of pulps. The pulps were entering their golden age. ERB would gild that age even further.