In a few e-mail exchanges with Edgar Rice Burroughs scholar Robert R. Barrett, a couple of speculations about the art for Tarzan at the Earth’s Core have arisen. One is about the status of the original painting, the fact being that none of the original art for any of the Metropolitan Books has ever shown up on the collector’s market. This seems to confirm that these pieces are “lost” in that they do not exist in the artist’s or author’s estates or in acknowledged collections. J. Allen St. John sold all of his Burroughs-related art in the 1950s and this painting was not seen at that time. The piece may have been given away to a Metropolitan employee, or it might have “disappeared” after the color separations were made.
The other speculation is that, unlike most of the paintings St. John did for the A.C. McClurg & Co. editions, the lettering for this painting was probably done separately, “on paper” and added during the printing process. This idea is based on the fact that the artist only charged $250 (!) for the whole package which was less than the $300 he usually charged McClurg for a frontispiece and wraparound jacket job on which he did the titling directly on the painting. It was easier for him to do the lettering separately, money was scarce after the 1929 Crash, and he probably had to negotiate with Metropolitan since they were used to using their own in-house artists.
It may be that this painting still exists in the attic of some private home somewhere. We can only dream. . .
Dear Phil. It’s all incredibly fascinating, what you are doing. I love the Burroughs dust jackets for the Pellucidar series. I’ve been scouring the internet trying to find out what the cover blurb says on the front and back inner flaps of the first edition dj. Can you help?
Hi britanniamatt. The front flap for PELLUCIDAR has two promotional blurbs: one for “The Lake Mystery” by Marvin Dana and the other for “The Baron of Diamond Tail” by G.W. Ogden. The back flap has an ad for “Tyrrel of the Cow Country” by Robert Ames Bennet. Thanks for stopping by.
Interesting information regarding the whereabouts of the original TARZAN AT THE EARTH’S CORE painting. I recall seeing a program about collectors and their collections, I believe on cable, at least five to ten years ago. I remember one collector who had what I thought was described as the original St John painting for TARZAN AT THE EARTH’S CORE. Alas, I don’t remember the specific program name or who the collector was. I think he was a major collector, but not necessarily a name well known in Burroughs fandom, as I think I would have remembered his name in that case. Maybe someone else saw that show and remembers what show it was. I guess I should have paid more atention at the time. Anyone’s memory jogged?
Hello Christopher, thanks for your comment. It would be great to know who that was, though a lot of art collectors are pretty quiet about their collections. Probably for good reason. But maybe someone will remember that show and the collector’s name. Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. used The Kingsport Press of Kingsport, Tennessee as their printer and there is some evidence to suggest that they got the idea from Metropolitan Books who published TARZAN AT THE EARTH’S CORE. There is a City of Kingsport Archive that has a lot of documents from the press and there might be some clues in it, but I don’t know that anyone has gone down to research the ERB connection.