Collection context
Summary
- Abstract:
- This collection documents the activities and political opinions of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Burroughs was a California-based science fiction and fantasy author. An outspoken political conservative, he created iconic characters like Tarzan and John Carter. He was also the oldest US wartime correspondent in World War II, and advocated for Japanese Americans near the end of the war. The collection spans from 1875 to 1950, and chronicles Burroughs' time in California, Hawaii, and the greater South Pacific.
- Extent:
- 12.6 linear feet (9 record cartons, 4 document boxes, 2 flat storage boxes, 1 shoebox)
- Language:
- Materials are in English.
- Preferred citation:
-
Edgar Rice Burroughs Papers (Collection 2263). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Background
- Scope and content:
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This collection documents the activities and political opinions of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the California-based science fiction and fantasy author whose iconic characters include John Carter and Tarzan.
The collection spans from 1875 to 1950, with the bulk of materials coming from the 1920s-1940s, and is in chronological order. It chronicles Burroughs' time in California, Hawaii, and the broader South Pacific. In addition to professional materials, including correspondence, press clippings, unpublished manuscripts, and reporting notebooks, the collection contains a large quantity of personal material, such as letters to and from Burroughs, correspondence among his children, and reflections on his time as a war correspondent during World War II.
Some of the significant topics represented in these files are: publishing concerns; innovations in media and advertising; the Great Depression; the New Deal; local police; World War II; foreign relations; wartime journalism; the internment of Japanese Americans; wartime rationing; the growth of the science fiction and fantasy genres; and censorship. The collection documents Burroughs' success as an author and businessman; his political conservatism; his advocacy for Japanese American rights; and his wartime reporting; as well as his observational humor, close bond with his children, and thoughts on the entertainment industry.
Materials are largely textual, comprising correspondence, financial and legal material, clippings, publications, and related printed matter. Among other formats are photographs, negatives, and a small number of artifacts such as a video cassette, nine audio cassettes, and ephemera.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Edgar Rice Burroughs was born in Chicago, Illinois on September 1, 1875 to Civil War veteran Major George Tyler Burroughs and Mary Evaline (Zieger) Burroughs. He graduated from the Michigan Military Academy in 1895, but failed the entrance exam for the United States Military Academy (West Point). He became an enlisted soldier with the 7th US Cavalry in Fort Grant, Arizona Territory. In 1897, he was diagnosed with a heart problem and honorably discharged. Burroughs married Emma Hulbert in January 1900. They had three children: Joan (b. 1908), Hulbert (b. 1909), and John (b. 1913).
Burroughs began to write fiction in 1911. His first story, "Under the Moons of Mars," was serialized in the February to July 1912 issues of The All-Story, under the pseudonym Norman Bean. Tarzan of the Apes was published in October 1912, and quickly became a cultural sensation. Burroughs exploited the Tarzan brand through a comic strip, movies, radio programs, and merchandise, to great success. In either 1915 or 1919, Burroughs purchased a large ranch north of Los Angeles, California, which he named "Tarzana." The citizens of the community that formed around the ranch adopted the town name Tarzana in 1927. In 1923, he set up his own company, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. and began printing his own books through the 1930s. He also began Burroughs-Tarzan Productions, an independent film studio.
Edgar Rice Burroughs divorced Emma Hulbert in 1934. In 1935 he married former actress Florence Gilbert Dearholt, the ex-wife of his friend, Ashton Dearholt. Burroughs adopted the Dearholts' two children. The couple divorced in 1942.
Burroughs was in Honolulu at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He applied for a reporting post, and became one of the oldest U.S. war correspondents during World War II. Burroughs was a political conservative, suspicious of Japanese Americans, and a strong critic of Roosevelt's New Deal politics. Despite this, he advocated against the internment and deportation of Japanese Americans during and after the war, arguing such actions went against the "Americanism" that made the nation great.
After the war ended, Burroughs moved back to California, and died of a heart attack on March 19, 1950. He wrote almost 80 novels, including the Tarzan series, the Barsoom series, and the Pellucidar series. He is buried in Tarzana, Los Angeles County. He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2003.
- Acquisition information:
- Purchase, 2014.
- Processing information:
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Processed by Melanie Jones in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), supervised by Jillian Cuellar, 2015. Many of the materials are in their original folders, and retain their original folder titles and organization.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Problematic Content and Description in UCLA's Library Collections and Archives.
- Arrangement:
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The records are arranged in four series. The contents of each series are arranged either chronologically or by type.
This collection has been arranged in the following series:
- Series 1: Binders 1893-1950
- Series 2: Photographs and Other Media 1875-1950
- Series 3: Manuscripts and Notes 1908-1947
- Series 4: Books 1875-1964
- Physical / technical requirements:
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CONTAINS AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: This collection contains processed audiovisual materials. All requests to access digital materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Some of the correspondence in Series 1 and 3 is torn or frayed on the edges. The audio cassettes and video cassette in Series 2 are of unknown quality and have not been digitally copied.
- Physical location:
- Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
Access and use
- Restrictions:
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Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Terms of access:
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Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
-
Edgar Rice Burroughs Papers (Collection 2263). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Location of this collection:
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A1713 Charles E. Young Research LibraryBox 951575Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-4988