Biography Written by Becca L., Fantasy Editor
When he was fifteen, Edgar spent six months working on a cattle ranch run by two of his brothers, George and Henry. After that, his father sent him to the Phillips Academy in Andover, MA. When that didn't work out, he went to the Michigan Military Academy. He graduated in 1895 and signed up with the US Army. He was assigned to the Seventh US Calvary and was stationed in Fort Grant, Arizona Territory. He was discharged in 1897 af ter the post doctor determined during a routine medical exam that he had a heart murmur.
He returned to his brothers' ranch in Idaho, but not for long. Following that he went back to Chicago in 1899 and married his childhood sweetheart, Emma Centennia Hulbert in 1900. By 1911, he and Emma had two children, Joan and Hulbert. Edgar held several short-lived jobs during this time, but could not keep any one job for very long.
It was during his time as a pencil sharpener wholesaler in 1911 that Edgar was reading magazines and decided to write a novel. He had written short stories before, for the entertainment of his children, nieces and nephews. One of those stories, Minidoka, 937th Earl of One Mile Series M, has been printed by Dark Horse Comics.
In 1911, Edgar wrote a story he called Dejah Thoris, Martian Princess and sent it to the editor of All-Story magazine, a man named Thomas Metcalf. Metcalf liked the story and, after it was renamed Under the Moons of Mars, it was serialized in the magazine from February to July 1912. The story was eventually published in book form with it's final title A Princess of Mars. Edgar sent a second story to Metcalf, called The Outlaw of Torn, which was rejected, but his third story, Tarzan of the Apes, was accepted and Edgar was a full-time writer.
Over the next several years, Edgar wrote many different stories, but none of them would give him the great success that Tarzan did.
In 1913, Edgar and Emma welcomed their third child, John Coleman, to their family, and in the following year, Tarzan of the Apes was published in book form.
In 1919, Edgar and his family settled in California, after Edgar bought a large ranch north of Los Angeles. They named it Tarzana, and the town surrounding the ranch was eventually given the same name in 1928. In 1923, Edgar founded Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. and began publishing his own books.
Edgar and Emma were divorced in 1934. Edgar married Florence Dearholt the following year and in 1940, they moved to Hawaii. He became a war correspondant during the Second World War. He and Florence were divorced in 1942, and when the war was over Edgar moved back to Tarzana, where he devoted his final years to his children. He died on March 19, 1950.
(books are listed in no particular order)