Edgar Rice Burroughs

Novelist

Birthday September 1, 1875

Birth Sign Virgo

Birthplace Chicago, IL

DEATH DATE Mar 19, 1950 (74)

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About

American writer who most famously created the Tarzan and Barsoom series. He was inducted into The Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2003.

Before Fame

He failed the U.S. Military Academy's entrance examination and began writing when his work in the pencil-sharpening and wholesale businesses could no longer financially support his family.

Trivia

His Barsoom series, set on a dying planet Mars, popularized the genre of the science fiction adventure novel.

Family Life

He married his childhood love, Emma Hulbert, in the winter of 1900. The couple's daughter, Joan, eventually married James Pierce, an actor who played the title role in the film version of Burroughs' Tarzan books.

Associated With

He is mentioned in author Harper Lee's only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.