Friday, February 20, 2026

The Big Country (1958)

 


The Big Country is a 1958 American epic Western film directed by William Wyler, and starring Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, and Charles Bickford. The supporting cast features Burl Ives and Chuck Connors. Filmed in Technicolor and Technirama, the picture was based on the serialized magazine novel Ambush at Blanco Canyon by Donald Hamilton[3] and was co-produced by Wyler and Peck. The opening title sequence was created by Saul Bass. This was also the final film role for Alfonso Bedoya.

Ives won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for his performance, as well as the Golden Globe Award. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for the musical score, composed by Jerome Moross. The film is one of the few in which Heston plays a major supporting role rather than the lead.

Plot

Former sea captain James McKay travels to the American West to join his fiancée Patricia at the enormous ranch owned by her father, Henry "the Major" Terrill. After a meeting with Patricia's friend, schoolteacher Julie Maragon, McKay and Patricia are accosted by a group of drunks led by Buck Hannassey, the son of the Major's ardent and implacable enemy, Rufus Hannassey − with whom he has had a longstanding feud over water access for cattle. In spite of the harassment and mockery, McKay surprises Patricia by making light of the incident, and stating that he has experienced worse and the boys meant no harm; they were just drunk.

The next morning, McKay declines an invitation from the Major's foreman Steve Leech to ride an indomitable bronco stallion named "Old Thunder". McKay then brings a pair of dueling pistols once owned by his father to the Major as a gift. When the Major learns of Buck's pestering of his daughter and future son-in-law, he gathers his men and goes to raid the Hannassey ranch, despite McKay's attempts to defuse the situation. The Major's group of 20 men finds neither Rufus nor Buck, so they settle for terrorizing the Hannassey women and children, shooting holes in the Hannassey water reservoir. They find Buck's posse in town and proceed to beat and humiliate three of them. Meanwhile, McKay privately tames and rides Old Thunder after many unsuccessful attempts, and swears his only witness, the ranch hand Ramon, to secrecy.

A gala is held on the Terrill ranch in honor of Patricia's upcoming wedding. At the height of the festivities, an armed Rufus crashes the party and accuses the Major of the hypocrisy of pretending to be a gentleman when his actions speak otherwise. The next day, McKay secretly goes to Julie Maragon's abandoned ranch, known as the "Big Muddy", the property at the center of the Terrill-Hannassey dispute. With the only river nearby running through it, access is vital for both herds during times of drought. McKay persuades Julie Maragon to sell the ranch to him in the hopes of both securing a gift for Patricia and ending the conflict by continuing Maragon's policy of unrestricted access to the river. McKay shows up at the camp of the Terrill search party, led by Leech, sent out to find the presumed-lost McKay.

Upon returning to Ladder Ranch, Leech calls McKay a liar when McKay explains he was never lost or in danger. Again, McKay refuses to be goaded into a fight, which disappoints Patricia enough to make the pair reconsider their engagement. Before dawn and without an audience, McKay challenges Leech to an outdoor fistfight. The prolonged fight ends in a draw. In the morning, Maragon tells Patricia of McKay's purchase of the Big Muddy as a wedding gift for her, which initially convinces her to attempt to make amends with McKay. When she learns of McKay's plan to allow the Hannasseys equal access to the water, she leaves for good.

Wanting to lure the Major into an ambush in the canyon leading to his homestead, Rufus takes Maragon hostage. Although McKay personally promises Rufus equal access to the water, he finds himself in a clash with Buck, which is ultimately settled with a shootout using the old dueling pistols. Buck fires before the signal, his bullet grazing McKay's forehead − and leaving him open to be shot by McKay. Buck crawls under a wagon in a display of cowardice that convinces McKay to spare him. The frustrated Buck snatches another gun from a nearby cowboy, forcing Rufus to kill his own son. Rufus then goes to the canyon for a final confrontation with the Major and challenges him to a one-on-one showdown. Armed with rifles, the two old men advance and kill one another.

With that, the hostilities end, and McKay and Julie, clearly falling in love, ride off together with Ramon to start a new life together.

Cast

Production

"The Big Country"
Duration: 39 seconds.
Main theme from the film by Jerome Moross.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Robert Wyler and Jessamyn West wrote the first screenplay for the film based on the Donald Hamilton story that had been serialized in The Saturday Evening Post. Leon Uris wrote a second screenplay, and Robert Wilder wrote another, with the final script by James R. Webb and Sy Bartlett. After arbitration, Webb, Bartlett, and Wilder received screenplay credit and Wyler and West received adaptation credit. Uris was not given credit, as his script deviated too much from the original story.[4]

Director William Wyler was known for shooting an excessive number of takes on his films, usually without explaining to the actors what to do differently except "[make it] better", and this one was no exception. Many of the actors, including Jean Simmons and Carroll Baker, were so traumatized by his directing style that they refused to speak about the experience for years. Simmons later said they constantly received rewrites for the script, making acting extremely difficult. Gregory Peck and Wyler, who were good friends, fought constantly on the set and had a falling out for three years, although they later reconciled. Wyler and Charles Bickford also clashed, as they had done 30 years previously on the production of his 1929 film Hell's Heroes. Burl Ives, however, claimed to have enjoyed making the film.

Before principal photography was complete, Wyler left for Rome to start work on Ben-Hur, delegating creation of the final scenes involving McKay and Maragon to his assistant Robert Swink, whose resulting scenes pleased Wyler so much that he wrote Swink a letter stating: "I can't begin to tell you how pleased I am with the new ending.... The shots you made are complete perfection."[5]

Locations

The Blanco Canyon scenes were filmed in California's Red Rock Canyon State Park in the Mojave Desert. The ranch and field scenes with greenery were filmed in the Sierra Nevada foothills near the town of Farmington in Central California.[6] The Snow Ranch was also used for the pilot of Little House on the Prairie (1974) as well as additional Little House episodes in the following years. Other movies filmed on the Snow Ranch include Sam Whiskey (1969 - Burt Reynolds); Coast to Coast (1980 - Robert Blake & Dyan Cannon)and Shout (1991 - John Travolta). Today, the Snow Ranch, a working cattle ranch in its 153rd year, is also used during the winter (lower fire risk) by a club of the National Association of Rocketry for launches of model and mid- and high-power amateur rockets.[6]

Release

Drive-in advertisement from 1958

The Big Country opened in Atlantic City, New Jersey on August 13, 1958,[1] with a California premiere following on August 22, 1958, at the Warner Beverly Hills Theater.[7]

Home media

MGM Home Entertainment released the film on DVD as part of their Western Legends line on March 20, 2001.[8] A Blu-ray edition followed on November 1, 2011.[9] Kino Lorber released newly-remastered DVD and Blu-ray editions on June 5, 2018, commemorating the film's 60th anniversary.[10]

Reception

Critical response

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote in a negative review, "for all this film's mighty pretensions, it does not get far beneath the skin of its conventional Western situation and its stock Western characters. It skims across standard complications and ends on a platitude. Peace is a pious precept, but fightin' is more excitin'. That's what it proves."[11] Variety called the film "one of the best photography jobs of the year", with a "serviceable, adult" storyline "which should find favor with audiences of all tastes."[12] Harrison's Reports declared it "a first-rate super-Western, beautifully photographed in the Technirama anamorphic process and Technicolor. It is a long picture, perhaps too long for what the story has to offer, but there is never a dull moment from start to finish and it holds one's interest tightly throughout."[13] Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post called it "super stuff. Franz Planer's photography of Texas is downright awe-inspiring, the characters are solid, the story line firm, the playing first-rate, the music more than dashing in this nearly three-hour tale which should delight everybody."[14]

John McCarten of The New Yorker wrote, "Of those involved in this massive enterprise, Mr. Bickford and Mr. Ives are the most commendable as they whoop and snort about the sagebrush. But even they are hardly credible types, and as for the rest of the cast, they can be set down as a rather wooden lot."[15] Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times called the film "too self consciously 'epical' to be called great, but at its best, which is frequently, it's better than good."[16] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that the picture's attempts to convey a message were for the most part "superficial and pedestrian," and found that "the pivotal character of McKay, played on a monotonously self-righteous note by Gregory Peck, never comes alive. It is mainly due to the power of the climactic canyon battle, and Burl Ives' interesting playing as Rufus, that this remains a not unsympathetic film, decorated pleasantly by Jean Simmons and with spirit by Carroll Baker."[17]

The film was a big hit, being the second-most popular movie in Britain in 1959.[18] On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 100% based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10.[19]

President Dwight D. Eisenhower liked the movie so much, he screened it on four successive evenings in the White House during his second administration.[20]

Playmobil designed an entire cowboy line based on the architecture of the film.[citation needed]

In a poll of 500 films held by Empire, it was voted 187th-greatest movie of all time.[21]

Accolades

Ives won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor, as well as a Golden Globe Award. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for the musical score by Jerome Moross.[22]

Award Category Nominee(s) Result
Academy Awards Best Supporting Actor Burl Ives Won
Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture Jerome Moross Nominated
British Academy Film Awards Best Film from any Source Nominated
Directors Guild of America Awards Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures William Wyler Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Burl Ives Won
Kinema Junpo Awards Best Foreign Language Film William Wyler Won
Laurel Awards Top Action Drama Nominated
Top Score Jerome Moross Nominated

Preservation

The Academy Film Archive preserved The Big Country in 2006.[23]

Comic book

A comic-book adaptation of the novel and tie-in to the movie was first released in 1957.[citation needed]

Written by long-time Western comics writer Paul S. Newman, and drawn by Bob Correa, The Big Country was initially serialized in The Saturday Evening Post as "Ambush at Blanco Canyon" on February 2, 9, 16 and 23, 1957.

The story was collected for the first time in 1958, by Dell, as a Dell First Edition B115 paperback, and was reissued many times. In Aug. of 1958, the story was published by Dell Comics, as issue #946 of Dell's long-running showcase anthology Four Color Comics.[24][25]


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Harlow (1965)

 


Harlow is a 1965 American biographical drama film directed by Gordon Douglas about the life of film star Jean Harlow. It stars Carroll Baker in the title role and Raf Vallone, Red Buttons, Angela Lansbury, Peter Lawford, Mike Connors, Martin Balsam and Leslie Nielsen in supporting roles.

The film was produced by Joseph E. Levine, who announced the project in late 1964. Filming began in February 1965, concurrent with another Harlow biopic with the same title and subject, starring Carol Lynley and produced by Magna Corporation.[2]

Harlow was distributed by Paramount Pictures, opening in June 1965, shortly after the release of the Magna biopic. Although the film failed commercially, it was successful in launching the hit song "Girl Talk" by Neal Hefti. Critical reaction was mixed, though Baker's portrayal of Harlow received praise, as well as the production values, sets, and cinematography. For his performance, Red Buttons received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the 23rd Golden Globe Awards.

Plot

Jean Harlow is a struggling extra and bit actress supporting a greedy stepfather Marino and a loving but oblivious mother "Mama Jean". With the help of agent Arthur Landau, she secures a contract at the studio of the Howard Hughes-inspired Richard Manley. The reception to her first film is disappointing, and at Manley's studio her career is stalled.

When Manley attempts to add her to his list of seduced starlets, Harlow fights him off and tells him what she thinks of him. This scene turns out to be a ruse devised by her agent so that the now-furious Manley terminates her contract. Landau successfully pitches Harlow to Majestic Studios, and her career blossoms.

Despite studio encouragement to marry another contract star, Harlow marries the apparently gentle and cultured Paul Bern, who is revealed to be impotent. Soon after, Bern commits suicide. His death, combined with the stress of her career, leads Harlow on an odyssey of failed relationships and alcoholism, culminating in her death of pneumonia at the age of 26.

Cast

Production

Development

The concept of depicting Jean Harlow on film had originated in the 1950s. Many actresses were reported to have been cast as Harlow in different biopics, such as Cleo Moore for Columbia and Jayne Mansfield for Fox, but both of these projects fell through. In 1962, Fox announced that Marilyn Monroe would play Harlow in a lavish biopic under her new contract. However, after Monroe's death, the project was sold to Paramount, with Embassy Pictures producing and Carroll Baker starring in the title role.[3] Producer Joseph E. Levine formally announced the production at the Beverly Hills Hotel on August 31, 1964.[3]

Based in part on Irving Shulman's pulp biography Harlow: An Intimate Biography, Paramount's Harlow serves a melodramatic look at Harlow's life, focusing on her failed marriages. Levine had purchased the rights to the biography for $100,000.[4] Prior to making Harlow, Carroll Baker had played a fictionalized version of Harlow dubbed "Rina Marlowe" in the smash-hit film The Carpetbaggers starring George Peppard and Alan Ladd, which had also been produced by Joseph E. Levine and distributed by Paramount.[5]

Casting

Press photo for the film comparing Jean Harlow (left) and Carroll Baker

At the time of her casting, actress Carroll Baker had been in the midst of an embittered feud with producer Joseph E. Levine, who also served as her manager.[6] Baker had previously agreed to star in a Harlow biopic for Columbia Pictures, which enraged Levine, who had envisioned her for the role in his film.[6] Because Baker had only agreed to the Columbia project verbally for then-studio head Jack Karp, her agreement was ultimately rendered invalid after Karp parted ways with Columbia.[4] Additionally, Levine asserted that Baker's agreement with Columbia violated her contract with Paramount.[7] Following this, the Columbia biopic was ultimately scrapped.[8]

To appease Baker, Levine purchased her a platinum necklace with studded diamonds as a "peace offering" to convince her to take the role.[6] Baker later commented: "[I was] ashamed to admit that I did enjoy holding it to the light and marveling at the beauty of those brilliant sparkling gems. I also hated myself for being so dazzled by it; for trading my self-esteem for bauble; and, ultimately, for propagating the myth that a woman indeed could be bought."[6]

Filming

Principal photography of Harlow began on February 24, 1965, in Los Angeles.[9] Some scenes were also filmed in Malibu.[2] Director Gordon Douglas later said that during filming Baker "was very sick, physically and also mentally, I think. She was going through bad times. But she did a hell of a good job on the picture."[10] Baker worked seven-day work weeks filming in order to complete filming so Paramount could meet their planned release date in June 1965.[11]

Due to the time constraints, other actors in the film also committed extra time to expedite the production: Angela Lansbury regularly arrived on set two hours before she was scheduled to have her makeup applied, Red Buttons skipped daily lunch breaks, and Peter Lawford rehearsed with Baker late into the evenings for the follow day's scenes.[12]

Release

Marketing

Paramount devised a significant publicity campaign to promote the film at a cost of $150,000, which significantly distinguished it from the Magna film.[2] Levine embarked on an "Operation Harlow" tour leading up to its release, making personal appearances, holding screenings for exhibitors as well as sneak previews and audience contests in hopes of generating interest in the film.[2]

Harlow first premiered regionally on June 23, 1965.[2] It had its New York City premiere on July 21, 1965, followed by a Los Angeles release on August 11, 1965.[2]

Home media

On September 28, 2010, Olive Films released Harlow on Region 1 DVD in the United States. Olive reissued the film on Blu-ray on July 23, 2013.[13]

Reception

Box office

Harlow grossed $3.4 million in North American rentals between the United States and Canada.[1]

Critical response

Variety called the film "handsomely mounted" and deemed Carroll Baker "a fairly reasonable facsimile" of Jean Harlow, while also praising the performances of Angela Lansbury and Raf Vallone.[14] Dick Banks of The Charlotte Observer was critical of Peter Lawford's performance, though he compared it favorably against the Magna film and concluded that the film is "a credit to Carroll Baker as an actress."[15] The Birmingham Post-Herald also felt it was a better film than the "quickie" Magna film, describing it as a "sumptuous Technicolor package" and praised it for its period details and performances.[16]

Bruce Dunning of the Tampa Bay Times was less enthusiastic about the film, citing "unbelievable liberties taken with the facts of Harlow's life to the saccharine ending" and deeming Baker's portrayal as "sexless."[17] Ben Kern of the Minnesota Star Tribune noted the film's simplifying elements of Harlow's life for dramatic effect, but conceded that "there is a technical excellence in [the] settings, properties, costumes and color."[18] He also praised Baker's performance, noting that she "brings to the role sympathy, sincerity and her own beauty" and "doesn't try to imitate."[18]

Accolades

Institution Year Category Recipient Result Ref.
Golden Globe Awards 1966 Best Supporting Actor Red Buttons Nominated [2]
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Thursday, February 19, 2026

The Dragon's Prophecy (2025)

 


The Dragon's Prophecy is a documentary film directed by Dinesh D’Souza, based on Jonathan Cahn's bestseller, exploring biblical mysteries related to the October 7 terror attacks in the Middle East. It examines the intersection of faith, history, and current events, suggesting a connection to end-times prophecy.

 

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Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950)

 


Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American writer, recognized for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best known for creating the characters Tarzan (who appeared in a series of twenty-four books by him) and John Carter (who was a recurring character in a series of eleven books), he also wrote the Pellucidar series, the Amtor series, and the Caspak trilogy.[2]

Tarzan was immediately popular, and Burroughs capitalized on it in every possible way, including a syndicated Tarzan comic strip, films, and merchandise. Tarzan remains one of the most successful fictional characters to this day and is a cultural icon. Burroughs's California ranch is now the center of the Tarzana neighborhood in Los Angeles, named after the character.[3] Burroughs was an explicit supporter of eugenics and scientific racism in both his fiction and nonfiction; Tarzan was meant to reflect these concepts.

Biography

Early life and family

Burroughs was born on September 1, 1875, in Chicago, Illinois,[a] the fourth son of Major George Tyler Burroughs, a businessman and Civil War veteran, and his wife, Mary Evaline (Zieger) Burroughs. Edgar's middle name is from his paternal grandmother, Mary Coleman Rice Burroughs.[4][5][6]

Burroughs was of English and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry, with a family line that had been in North America since the Colonial era.[7][8] Through his Rice grandmother, Burroughs was descended from settler Edmund Rice, one of the English Puritans who moved to Massachusetts Bay Colony in the early 17th century. He once remarked: "I can trace my ancestry back to Deacon Edmund Rice."[9] The Burroughs side of the family was also of English origin, having emigrated to Massachusetts around the same time. Many of his ancestors fought in the American Revolution. Some of his ancestors settled in Virginia during the colonial period, and Burroughs often emphasized his connection with that side of his family, seeing it as romantic and warlike.[6][8]

Burroughs was educated at a number of local schools then at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and then the Michigan Military Academy. He graduated in 1895, but he failed the entrance exam for the United States Military Academy at West Point, so instead he enlisted with the 7th U.S. Cavalry in Fort Grant, Arizona Territory. However, he was diagnosed with a heart problem and thus ineligible to serve, so he was discharged in 1897.[10]

Burroughs's bookplate, showing Tarzan holding the planet Mars, surrounded by other characters from his stories and symbols relating to his personal interests and career.
Typescript letter, with Tarzana Ranch letterhead, from Burroughs to Ruthven Deane, explaining the design and significance of his bookplate

After his discharge, Burroughs worked at a number of different jobs. During the Chicago influenza epidemic of 1891, he spent half a year at his brother's ranch on the Raft River in Idaho as a cowboy. He drifted afterward, then worked at his father's Chicago battery factory in 1899. He married his childhood sweetheart, Emma Hulbert (1876–1944), in January 1900.[11]

In 1903, Burroughs joined his brothers, Yale graduates George and Harry, who were by then prominent Pocatello area ranchers in southern Idaho and partners in the Sweetser-Burroughs Mining Company, where he took on managing their ill-fated Snake River gold dredge, a classic bucket-line dredge. The Burroughs brothers were also the sixth cousins once removed of famed miner Kate Rice who in 1914 became the first female prospector in the Canadian North. Journalist and publisher C. Allen Thorndike Rice was also his third cousin.[12]

When the new mine proved unsuccessful, the brothers secured for Burroughs a position with the Oregon Short Line Railroad in Salt Lake City.[13] Burroughs resigned from the railroad in October 1904.[14]

Later life

By 1911, around age 36, after seven years of low wages as a pencil-sharpener wholesaler, Burroughs began to write fiction. By this time, Emma and he had two children, Joan (1908–1972), and Hulbert (1909–1991).[15] During this period, he had copious spare time and began reading pulp-fiction magazines. In 1929, he recalled thinking that:

"[...] if people were paid for writing rot such as I read in some of those magazines, that I could write stories just as rotten. As a matter of fact, although I had never written a story, I knew absolutely that I could write stories just as entertaining and probably a whole lot more so than any I chanced to read in those magazines."[16]

In 1913, Burroughs and Emma had their third and last child, John Coleman Burroughs (1913–1979), later known for his illustrations of his father's books.[17]

In the 1920s, Burroughs became a pilot, purchased a Security Airster S-1, and encouraged his family to learn to fly.[18][19]

His daughter Joan married Tarzan film actor James Pierce. She starred with her husband as the voice of Jane during 1932–1934 for the Tarzan radio series.

Burroughs divorced Emma in 1934 and in 1935 married the former actress Florence Gilbert Dearholt, who was the former wife of his friend Ashton Dearholt, with whom he had co-founded Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises while filming The New Adventures of Tarzan. Burroughs adopted the Dearholts' two children. He and Florence divorced in 1942.[20]

Burroughs was in his late 60s and was in Honolulu at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.[21] Despite his age, he applied for and received permission to become a war correspondent, becoming one of the oldest U.S. war correspondents during World War II. This period of his life is mentioned in William Brinkley's bestselling novel Don't Go Near the Water.[22]

Death

After the war ended, Burroughs moved back to Encino, California, where after many health problems, he died of a heart attack on March 19, 1950, having written almost 80 novels. He is buried in Tarzana, California, US.[23]

At the time of his death he was believed to have been the writer who had made the most from films, earning over US$2 million in royalties from 27 Tarzan pictures.[24]

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted Burroughs in 2003.[25][26]

Literary career

Aiming his work at the pulps—under the name "Norman Bean" to protect his reputation—Burroughs had his first story, Under the Moons of Mars, serialized by Frank Munsey in the February to July 1912 issues of The All-Story.[27][28][29][b] Under the Moons of Mars inaugurated the Barsoom series, introduced John Carter, and earned Burroughs US$400 ($11,922 today). It was first published as a book by A. C. McClurg of Chicago in 1917, entitled A Princess of Mars, after three Barsoom sequels had appeared as serials and McClurg had published the first four serial Tarzan novels as books.[27]

Burroughs soon took up writing full-time, and by the time the run of Under the Moons of Mars had finished, he had completed two novels, including Tarzan of the Apes, published from October 1912 and one of his most successful series.[citation needed]

Burroughs also wrote popular science fiction and fantasy stories involving adventurers from Earth transported to various planets (notably Barsoom, Burroughs's fictional name for Mars, and Amtor, his fictional name for Venus), lost islands (Caspak), and into the interior of the Hollow Earth in his Pellucidar stories. He also wrote Westerns and historical romances. Besides those published in All-Story, many of his stories were published in The Argosy magazine.[citation needed]

Tarzan was a cultural sensation when introduced. Burroughs was determined to capitalize on Tarzan's popularity in every way possible. He planned to exploit Tarzan through several different media including a syndicated Tarzan comic strip, movies, and merchandise. Experts in the field advised against this course of action, stating that the different media would just end up competing against each other. Burroughs went ahead, however, and proved the experts wrong – the public wanted Tarzan in whatever fashion he was offered. Tarzan remains one of the most successful fictional characters to this day and is a cultural icon.[citation needed]

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 sprang up around the ranch voted to adopt that name when their community, Tarzana, California, was formed in 1927.[30] Also, the unincorporated community of Tarzan, Texas, was formally named in 1927 when the US Postal Service accepted the name,[31] reputedly coming from the popularity of the first (silent) Tarzan of the Apes film, starring Elmo Lincoln, and an early "Tarzan" comic strip.[citation needed]

In 1923, Burroughs set up his own company, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., and began printing his own books through the 1930s.[32]

Reception

Because of the part Burroughs's science fiction played in inspiring real exploration of Mars, an impact crater on Mars was named in his honor after his death.[33] In a Paris Review interview, Ray Bradbury said of Burroughs:

"Edgar Rice Burroughs never would have looked upon himself as a social mover and shaker with social obligations. But as it turns out – and I love to say it because it upsets everyone terribly – Burroughs is probably the most influential writer in the entire history of the world. By giving romance and adventure to a whole generation of boys, Burroughs caused them to go out and decide to become special."[34]

In Something of Myself (published posthumously in 1937) Rudyard Kipling wrote: "My Jungle Books begat Zoos of [imitators]. But the genius of all the genii was one who wrote a series called Tarzan of the Apes. I read it, but regret I never saw it on the films, where it rages most successfully. He had 'jazzed' the motif of the Jungle Books and, I imagine, had thoroughly enjoyed himself. He was reported to have said that he wanted to find out how bad a book he could write and 'get away with', which is a legitimate ambition."[35]

By 1963, Floyd C. Gale of Galaxy Science Fiction wrote when discussing reprints of several Burroughs novels by Ace Books, "an entire generation has grown up inexplicably Burroughs-less". He stated that most of the author's books had been out of print for years and that only the "occasional laughable Tarzan film" reminded the public of his fiction.[36] Gale reported his surprise that after two decades his books were again available, with Canaveral Press, Dover Publications, and Ballantine Books also reprinting them.[37]

Few critical books have been written about Burroughs. From an academic standpoint, the most helpful are Erling Holtsmark's two books: Tarzan and Tradition[38] and Edgar Rice Burroughs;[39] Stan Galloway's The Teenage Tarzan: A Literary Analysis of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Jungle Tales of Tarzan;[40] and Richard Lupoff's two books: Master of Adventure: Edgar Rice Burroughs[41] and Barsoom: Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Martian Vision.[42] Galloway was identified by James Edwin Gunn as "one of the half-dozen finest Burroughs scholars in the world";[43] Galloway called Holtsmark his "most important predecessor".[44]

Burroughs strongly supported eugenics and scientific racism. His views held that English nobles made up a particular heritable elite among Anglo-Saxons. Tarzan was meant to reflect this, with him being born to English nobles and then adopted by talking apes (the Mangani). They express eugenicist views themselves, but Tarzan is permitted to live despite being deemed "unfit" in comparison and grows up to surpass not only them but black Africans, whom Burroughs clearly presents as inherently inferior. In one Tarzan story, he finds an ancient civilization where eugenics has been practiced for over 2,000 years, with the result that it is free of all crime. Criminal behavior is held to be entirely hereditary, with the solution having been to kill not only criminals but also their families. Lost on Venus, a later novel, presents a similar utopia where forced sterilization is practiced and the "unfit" are killed. Burroughs explicitly supported such ideas in his unpublished nonfiction essay I See A New Race. Additionally, his Pirate Blood, which is not speculative fiction and remained unpublished after his death, portrayed the characters as victims of their hereditary criminal traits (one a descendant of the corsair Jean Lafitte, another from the Jukes family).[45] These views have been compared with Nazi eugenics (though noting that they were popular and common at the time), with his Lost on Venus being released the same year the Nazis took power (in 1933).[46]

In 2003, Burroughs was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.[47]

As of 2025, there exists a significant special collection of Edgar Rice Burroughs' various works at the Oak Park Public Library. Consisting of many rare books of his Tarzan, Mucker, Barsoom, Pellucidar, Venus, Caspak, and Moon series, the collection was developed due to Burroughs' own connection to the city, being where he wrote several of his first works, those being the Tarzan and Martian stories. Beyond the rare editions, the collection also holds a number of newspaper clippings, ephemera, correspondence between Burroughs and others, as well as various old Tarzan films. Much of the initial collection was gathered during a block party held in 1975 by a group called CHEETAH (Citizens Holding Exercises Extolling Tarzan's Anniversary Here) and compiled by Florence Moyer.[48]

Adam Butcher portrays Burroughs (known in the show as "Norman Bean") in episode 3 of season 16 "The Write Stuff" (September 26, 2022) of the Canadian television period detective series Murdoch Mysteries.[49][50]

Selected works

Main article: Edgar Rice Burroughs bibliography

Barsoom series (aka Martian series)

Main article: Barsoom
  1. A Princess of Mars (1912)
  2. The Gods of Mars (1913)
  3. The Warlord of Mars (1914)
  4. Thuvia, Maid of Mars (1916)
  5. The Chessmen of Mars (1922)
  6. The Master Mind of Mars (1927)
  7. A Fighting Man of Mars (1930)
  8. Swords of Mars (1934)
  9. Synthetic Men of Mars (1939)
  10. Llana of Gathol (1941)
  11. John Carter of Mars (1964, two stories from 1940 and 1943)

Tarzan series

Main article: Tarzan
  1. Tarzan of the Apes (1912)
  2. The Return of Tarzan (1913)
  3. The Beasts of Tarzan (1914)
  4. The Son of Tarzan (1915)
  5. Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar (1916)
  6. Jungle Tales of Tarzan (stories 1916–1917)
  7. Tarzan the Untamed (1919)
  8. Tarzan the Terrible (1921)
  9. Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1922)
  10. Tarzan and the Ant Men (1924)
  11. Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1927)
  12. Tarzan and the Lost Empire (1928)
  13. Tarzan at the Earth's Core (1929)
  14. Tarzan the Invincible (1930)
  15. Tarzan Triumphant (1931)
  16. Tarzan and the City of Gold (1932)
  17. Tarzan and the Lion Man (1933)
  18. Tarzan and the Leopard Men (1932)
  19. Tarzan's Quest (1935)
  20. Tarzan the Magnificent (1936)
  21. Tarzan and the Forbidden City (1938)
  22. Tarzan and the Foreign Legion (1947, written in 1944)
  23. Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins (1963, collects 1927 and 1936 children's books)
  24. Tarzan and the Madman (1964, written in 1940)
  25. Tarzan and the Castaways (1965, stories from 1940 to 1941)
  26. Tarzan: The Lost Adventure (1995, rewritten version of 1946 fragment, completed by Joe R. Lansdale)

Pellucidar series

Main article: Pellucidar
  1. At the Earth's Core (1914)
  2. Pellucidar (1915)
  3. Tanar of Pellucidar (1929)
  4. Tarzan at the Earth's Core (1929)
  5. Back to the Stone Age (1937)
  6. Land of Terror (1944, written in 1939)
  7. Savage Pellucidar (1963, stories from 1942)

Venus series

Main article: Venus series
  1. Pirates of Venus (1932)
  2. Lost on Venus (1933)
  3. Carson of Venus (1938)
  4. Escape on Venus (1946, stories from 1941 to 1942)
  5. The Wizard of Venus (1970, written in 1941)

Caspak series

  1. The Land That Time Forgot (1918)
  2. The People That Time Forgot (1918)
  3. Out of Time's Abyss (1918)

Moon series

  • Part I: The Moon Maid (1923, serialized in Argosy, May 5 – June 2, 1923)
  • Part II: The Moon Men (1925, serialized in Argosy, February 21 – March 14, 1925)
  • Part III: The Red Hawk (1925 serialized in Argosy, September 5–19, 1925)

These three texts have been published by various houses in one or two volumes. Adding to the confusion, some editions have the original (significantly longer) introduction to Part I from the first publication as a magazine serial, and others have the shorter version from the first book publication, which included all three parts under the title The Moon Maid.[51]

Mucker series

Other science fiction

Jungle adventure novels

Western novels

Historical novels

Other works


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