Customer Reviews

Tarzan Forever : The Life of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Creator of Tarzan

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I found Tarzan Forever well written, and often very entertaining and interesting, but very often just plain dead wrong - from badly and broadly misinterpreting texts, such as Lost on Venus (which Taliaferro just didn't get), to many specific mistakes.

Taliaferro regards Lost on Venus an example of Burroughs "climb[ing] on his favorite high horse, eugenics." (page 265) Specifically, Taliaferro refers to Burroughs' creation of Havatoo, a city-state in which eugenics has run amok, concluding that this nightmare city was an ERB utopia. But the depiction of Havatoo is Swiftian - gullible Carson can see only roses at first, but finds after many hair-raising adventures that the Havatoo are as spiritually dead as a race of zombies that occupy a city on the other side of the "River of Death" which separates the two cities. Utopia? Not even close!

And here's an example of a specific error: Taliaferro cites Carson's knowledge of aeronautics as the fact that persuaded the rulers of a kingdom on Venus to spare him. (page 266) But aeronautics came up much later. It was Carson's knowledge of astronomy that saved him. An unimportant detail, maybe, but Taliaferro's book is rife with such errors.

A mistake I found even more annoying - if not downright devious - was Taliaferro's claim that "on the final page" of Apache Devil, Shoz-Dijiji (the Apache Devil of the title) tells his sweetheart, Wichita Billings, "that he is white, nimbly sidestepping the unspeakable eventuality of miscegenation, a well-exercised Burroughs taboo." (page 224) This is as untrue as it is ridiculous! Shoz-Dijiji only tells Wichita he has a secret (i.e., that he is "white") to tell her later. But he never utters his secret to Wichita on the final page - or any other page of Burroughs' novel. In fact, Wichita professes her love for him despite his American Indian heritage. More to the point, as Taliaferro himself notes, Shoz-Dijiji's mother was "one quarter Cherokee." (page 216) Thus, Shoz-Dijiji, one of Burroughs' noblest heroes, not only is mistaken as to his racial heritage, he is also the product of the so-called "Burroughs taboo" against miscegenation! Here, we find a familiar Burroughs theme - individual honor and integrity are what matter, not the color of one's skin.

Those who have aired the tired old claim that Burroughs was a racist, and Taliaferro is solidly in this camp, have simply not been willing to recognize the subtleties of the Burroughs canon (yes, even adventure yarns can be morally ambiguous and complicated). Instead of reading Burroughs' works carefully, with an ear for the era in which they were written, Taliaferro and others skim the books and draw hasty, misinformed conclusions.

Anyone who believes Burroughs is a racist fails to understand the era in which he wrote. One must remember that by today's standards even fictional heros such as Buck Rogers and the more contempory James Bond could be considered racist and sexist. This book gives credit to Burroughts imagination and the fact that he estabished the basis for today's "super heros." His writing is crisp and his plots were very imaginative. This bio does him justice and is better than the one previous effort I am aware of. This is a keeper

John Taliaferro seriously needs to do his homework in the future if he ever decides to write another biography. Aside from Taliaferro's condescending, ubiquitous attempts to paint ERB as a Hitlerite bigot (a position not supported by a less bombastic analysis of ERB's life and work), he riddles the book with so many factual errors both about ERB's work and about his life it almost reads like a novel parodying the subject's life rather than an attempt at bringing a world-famous author to life. I highly recommend avoiding this error-riden piece of tripe and suggest anyone wanting to know what ERB was like in real life read Irwin Porges' Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Man Who Created Tarzan. Although that book is immense, it provides a much more balanced view of a seminal author's life and work and avoids all the errors and sometimes downright lies Taliaferro inflicts on readers in this vanity exercise.

I must admit that the only Edgar Rice Burrough's novel I truly enjoyed reading was "Tarzan of the Apes". One reviewer of this book called ERB a hack writer, and that is probably true, but the first Tarzan novel was definitely not a "hack novel", or else we wouldn't be reading it as a classic some 90 years later. On the contrary, "Tarzan of the Apes" is an important social commentary. The writing of Taliaferro's "Tarzan Forever" may be a little choppy for the first chapter or so, but once the author gets into it, it gets much smoother and is very readable. I didn't find Taliaferro at all apologetic for ERB's views on eugenics, or his racism either. I thought the author was very honest and upfront about this aspect of ERB's personality. I found "Tarzan Forever" a very engrossing biography and suggest it whole-heartedly.

Whatever you may think of the writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs--and I personally never thought that much of it--this is still a fascinating look at the life of the man who created one of the most famous characters in all of literary history. We see not just the life that Burroughs led, and the way his interests led him to write what he did. We also get an excellent sense of the times in which he lived and wrote. When ERB is ready to break into the pulps, we get a history of the pulps and what sort of business he was enterring. When ERB works into his tales things like racial purity and eugenics, the biographer goes into detail about the world's views on such things. When Tarzan is created, there is a wonderful discussion of the ape man concept, the feral child being raised in the wild--in reality and in literature. And the care given in describing the various Tarzan films is terrific. Taliaferro's research is excellent. The fact that Burroughs himself cared more about the cents per word payment he was getting than the actual quality of his stories does make him something of a problem child, but as far as a business man, some of his approaches to his work are interesting to say the least. For people who want to learn about the man, the character of Tarzan, the other characters ERB created (since they are not slighted despite the the fact that Tarzan is in the forefront), or the early days of pulp fiction and moviemaking, this is a great book.

A solid yet sympathetic look at Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan and other fantasy novels. The book delves into many details of Burroughs' life, and honestly tries to present the man, his views, and his works in his strengths and his weaknesses. Mostly for dedicated fans of Burroughs. Otherwise this read will probably not grab you, and you will find yourself skimming over many parts of the book. If your only exposure to Burroughs is the new Disney movie pass on this book and get the original novel, Tarzan of the Apes, instead!

I really enjoyed Mr. Taliaferro's incisive treatment of the author's life and unusual ideas.

One of the worst books that's ever been inflicted upon me. It's a poorly written book with an utter lack of irony and clarity that only an idiotic hack like Burroughs would have appreciated, a man whose plots were as monotonous and offensive as most of his life. Taliaferro half-heartedly apologieses for his racism and belief in eugenics, but, why? This is revisionist garbage of the worst sort. An excruciatingly boring read, too.