Tarzan, Jungle King of Popular Culture

Starred review from December 15, 2016
If you're looking for a well-researched and well-written history of Edgar Rice Burroughs' best-known fictional creation (John Carter of Mars runs perhaps a close second), you needn't look any further. Tarzan, the English lord who was raised by apes, made his literary debut in 1912. By 1916, he had his own official fan club; by 1918, he made his first appearance on the movie screen. There was a newspaper comic strip in 1929, a radio serial in 1932, a coloring book in 1933, a pop-up book in 1935. The point is: Tarzan leaped into the public eye early and in a very big way. He was an immediate hit, an incredibly lucrative property for his creatora character so popular he inspired unauthorized movies and books (in countries such as Israel, Syria, India, and Portugal) and literary spin-offs (Philip Jose Farmer's masterful fictional biography, 1972's Tarzan Alive, being but one of many reimaginings of Burroughs' character). Burroughs, who died in 1950, found that his biggest challenges were satisfying the enormous public demand for more Tarzan stories and keeping the character fresh, a challenge still tackled, with varying degrees of success, by his literary estate. Tarzan fans will devour this book, but it's not just for them: it's also for readers with an interest in the journey a fictional character takes from the page to popular culture.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)