The sons of Edgar Rice Burroughs must have felt some inkling of pressure from the public to continue in their father’s footsteps. Successful children of famous authors recently include Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son) and Richard Christian Matheson (Richard Matheson’s son). I recall long before there was Alexandre Dumas Jr. and Jules Verne’s son, Michel, taking up their father’s business (though not as successfully). It’s been happening for a long time. It still happens today. (Right, Brian Herbert?)
In 1939, ERB’s two boys, Hulbert (aged 30) and John Coleman (aged 26) must have thought about writing as a possible career. John Coleman was a painter, and had begun to illustrate his father’s book covers beginning in 1937. In 1940 he would write and draw a Pellucidar comic and in 1941, a John Carter newspaper comic strip.
As for dear old dad during this period of 1939-1941, he was into his second marriage to Florence Dearholt. The couple would divorce in 1941. ERB would flee to Hawaii to avoid legal pressure from his ex-wives. (This was ERB’s last period of production, giving us the Pulp stories.) His properties such as Tarzan and John Carter, were controlled by his corporation, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., controlled by his ex-wife, Emma. She could easily have allowed “the boys” to write new Tarzan novels if they had wanted to. Instead, they chose to try their hand at their own brand of Science Fiction.
The first of these was “The Man Without a World” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1939) by John Coleman and Hulbert Burroughs, has a space ark called the Arkadia looking for Terra Nova. The hero of the piece is named Mal Mandark.
They followed that up with a sequel, “The Lightning Men” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, February 1940) about how the Arkians get on after finding Terra Nova. Mandark and his gal, Noovia, finally get together.
The next outing was a Shudder Pulp called “Hybrid of Horror” (Thrilling Mystery, July 1940) by John Coleman and his wife, Jane Ralston Burroughs. Pretty typical stuff. Mason, an artist, is brought in to fix a “cannibalistic statue” belonging to the creepy Gribold family.
“John Carter and the Giant of Mars” (Amazing Stories, January 1941) needs a mention here. This story was written by John Coleman Burroughs. The story caused some controversy when readers could detect a difference in style. (Once believed to be a collaboration between JCB and ERB, the “Giant of Mars” is now believed the work of the son only. (Thanks to Robert!) The story has some inaccuracies (like how many legs does a Martian rat have?) and a more juvenile tone. It lead to a rumor that ERB was ghosting his books.
The brothers finished their run with a lead novel, “The Bottom of the World” (Startling Stories, September 1941) John Coleman did the interior illustrations for the story. This short novel has surface people being kidnapped by ocean-dwelling baddies. Dan Norris and his team have to go into the depths to defeat Ola the Mighty and his fishy slavers.
John Coleman Burroughs wrote one more novel, on his own this time, called The Treasure of the Black Falcon (Ballantine Books, 1967). Like “The Bottom of the World” the novel is set in the ocean. This time the submariners make contact with aliens. He dedicated it to his brother: “To my brother Hulbert who found the treasure”. Oddly, JCB did not get to paint the cover for his own novel. That was done by Michael Aviano.
In 1955, Ray A. Palmer would down-play the work by the sons of Edgar Rice Burroughs. “No one, it seemed, could take up where the great Edgar Rice Burroughs left off. John Coleman Burroughs, his son, tried it. With all respect to a great man’s son, it just didn’t jell.” (“Tarzan Never Dies”, Other Worlds, November 1955). Palmer had an agenda though. He wanted to control the pastiching of ERB characters into the future. He lost his bid to do so. His feelings about the Burroughs boys’ work is not unbiased criticism. Read them for yourself and decide: how good were the sons of Edgar Rice Burroughs? Should we be sad they didn’t plunge into a full-time writing career?
John Coleman Burroughs wrote “The Giant of Mars” by himself. I have John Coleman Burroughs letters to his father to prove it!
Tell me more…
JCB signed a contract with Whitman to write a John Carter of Mars Big Little Book. Rothmund, ERB’s general mgr. suggested that JCB expand the BLB story and submit it to Ray Palmer. ERB, in Hawaii, after JCB wrote to him, agreed. So JCB did as suggested. JVB wrote the BLB and then expanded his manuscript, submitting it to Palmer who published it as written by ERB. For years readers questioned whether it was actually written by ERB until I discovered the letter in ERB, Inc. correspondence files and set the record straight by passing the information on to Henry Heins, who wrote it up.
Thanks for this. It is nice to clean out those old misconceptions from my brain.
GW
Your welcome. When the new edition of JOHN CARTER OF MARS was reprinted this year, it reprinted my article on “John Carter and the Giant of Mars” on the true author from THE BURROUGHS BULLETIN.