Edgar Rice Burroughs

Tarzan of the Apes Annotated and Illustrated Edition Edgar Rice Burroughs

The legend of Tarzan was born from desperation and boredom. Edgar Rice Burroughs desperately wanted to be a writer, but had run through a long list of miscellaneous jobs: railroad cop, storekeeper, gold prospector, lightbulb peddler, and even patent medicine hawker. One fateful day he was browsing through the classified ads in a pulp fiction magazine and had a revelation. Maybe he wasn't a greater writer, but he could certainly write as badly as those who got published in that magazine. He decided to put his fingers where his brain was and pounded out a manuscript for Tarzan of the Apes.