{"id":681,"date":"2015-03-16T16:04:58","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T22:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/recoverings.com\/blog\/?p=681"},"modified":"2015-03-16T16:04:58","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T22:04:58","slug":"the-return-of-tarzan-centenary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/recoverings.com\/blog\/the-return-of-tarzan-centenary\/","title":{"rendered":"The RETURN OF TARZAN Centenary"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"June<\/a>
The first magazine appearance of “The Return of Tarzan”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This month, March, 2015 marks the beginning of the centenary year of the book publication of The Return of Tarzan<\/strong> by A. C. McClurg & Co. of Chicago, and I’m making a special occasion of it with a limited offer which I’ll tell you about later.<\/p>\n

Ever since the publication of Tarzan of the Apes<\/strong> in The All-Story Weekly<\/em> in September 1912, readers had been bombarding the offices of the magazine for a better conclusion to the romance. One reader called the ending \u201cpunk\u201d and another was so angry about it that he refused to read another tale written by ERB. Thomas Newell Metcalf, editor of All-Story<\/em> had tried to encourage a sequel as soon as the letters started appearing, but Ed was not so sure, writing back to him, \u201c\u2026 although I have a really bully foundation in mind for one. These sequel things usually fall flat. I’ll be glad to think it over, however\u2026 .\u201d<\/p>\n

A month passed with no idea for a sequel though, and Metcalf, being his editor and often involved in helping to push Ed toward a story, suggested something in a letter of October 11, 1912, where Tarzan, after losing the girl, makes an attempt \u201c\u2026at being highly civilized in some effete metropolis, like London, Paris or New York\u2026\u201d and becoming disaffected with civilization, returns to the jungle where he becomes even more of a savage. On October 30 Ed submitted a rough outline. He had taken Metcalf’s idea of the \u201ceffete metropolis\u201d and set some of the action in Paris. He had even titled the story \u201cMonsieur Tarzan.\u201d But, in getting his characters back to Africa he had fallen back on shipwrecks and mutinies, devices he had used in \u201cApes\u201d and he had brought in an episode of cannibalism in the lifeboat that lands Jane and Clayton on the African shore. Metcalf aptly labeled the first idea \u201coverdone\u201d and to the second he wrote, \u201cReally now, that is going a bit too far.\u201d He wanted to see more jungle adventure, to reverse the \u201cmain thread\u201d of the first book and see it deal with Tarzan’s attempts to renounce his now-civilized nature.<\/p>\n

On his second try, on December 5, Ed sent Metcalf a detailed outline axing the first shipwreck and the mutiny, pushing Tarzan overboard, putting him on a secret mission for the Minister of War, and traveling to an ancient walled city in the heart of Africa where he finds a fortune.<\/p>\n

Through December and the first week of January, 1913, Ed worked hard on the book, finishing it on January 8 and mailing it off to Metcalf the next day. He had re-titled the book, \u201cThe Ape-man.\u201d By mid-January he still hadn’t heard back from his editor and he sent off a letter asking how he liked it. On January 23rd he found out. Metcalf wrote to say that he was doubtful about it and, \u201c\u2026What I feel more than anything else is a kind of lack of balance\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

For a beginning writer to labor over a story of this length through a number of editorial suggestions and still not make a sale, Metcalf’s response was tantamount to an unqualified rejection. ERB was disappointed, frustrated and disgusted. He wrote back that the writing game was too much of a gamble, he couldn’t be certain that, even if he did what the editor asked, he was writing what was wanted. He was ready to \u201cchuck\u201d it. However, the very same day he wrote a query letter to Street & Smith describing the great response that Tarzan of the Apes<\/strong> had generated and wondering if they would be interested in the sequel \u2014 and, by the way, \u201c\u2026I understand that your rates are higher than those paid by the All-Story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two weeks later, on February 8, Ed got a letter from A.L. Sessions, editor of Street & Smith’s New Story Magazine<\/em> with an offer of $1,000 \u2014 that’s about $23,600.00 in today’s dollars. Ed accepted two days later.<\/p>\n

Tune in tomorrow to find out about my special RETURN OF TARZAN CENTENARY REBATE OFFER.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month, March, 2015 marks the beginning of the centenary year of the book publication of The Return of Tarzan by A. C. McClurg & Co. of Chicago, and I’m making a special occasion of it with a limited offer which I’ll tell you about later. Ever since the publication of Tarzan of the Apes … Continue reading “The RETURN OF TARZAN Centenary”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-and-characters","category-book-publication"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3uw6J-aZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoverings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoverings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoverings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recoverings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recoverings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/recoverings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":684,"href":"https:\/\/recoverings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681\/revisions\/684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoverings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recoverings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recoverings.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}