Pierre Boule, “Planet of the Apes”, 1963 was the topic of an earlier blog post. Here I present Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, 1912 an African-adventure SciFi. Tarzan (in ape-language means “white skin”) is marooned on a coastal African jungle as a child and is raised by apes. Growing up in the jungle with no idea of his heritage, Tarzan eventually learns how to both write and read books. Although, Tarzan learns to read English and French he still can’t speak them, since he never meet any real speakers. Tarzan meets Jane Porter, who is a white woman, and the only one he’s ever seen. Eventually, Jane becomes the means to Tarzan’s search for his heritage as John Clayton II (of English descent). This ape fiction was followed by two dozen other books. Edgar Rice Burroughs character of Tarzan as escapist adventurer is historic.
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