The Book I'm Reading to Joe: Apache Devil by Edgar Rice Burroughs

I had been reading Edgar Rice Burroughs books for 9 1/2 years when I pulled Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder off of my bookshelf and commenced to tear through it (even though it was more than a few yards away from good). And for some reason, this set me off on an ERB jag, and even though Joe and I had not yet finished the Carson of Venus Pentalogy, I finished off all of the other ERB books we hadn't yet read (about 40) on my own...and even read the last Carson of Venus story (The Wizard of Venus) ahead of reading it with Joe. (And had no problem re-reading it venisoon after. I really liked that series.) 

Of all the ERB books that I've read, though, the two Apache novels--The War Chief and Apache Devil--stand out as truly excellent. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I think they qualify as Must Read books. So I was more than happy to re-read The War Chief with Joe, and my admiration for the book only increased as we read. It took us almost two months...which is a little more that it usually takes us, so it might be a bit longer than the usual Burroughs book. But it is worth it. The sensitivity Burroughs shows for the plight of the Native Americans...and the understanding he displays of their culture...are not just impressive, they're astounding for an American White Man of 1927.   And ERB had honed his sarcastic tone to a razor's edge by this time, so there were many slashes at the pride White European culture had for its "superior status."

When I'd gone on my ERB binge, I got quite a few of the novels via Kindle packages which were cheap...and rife with typographical errors. (Some of them had over a hundred errors. And yes, I did count, as a matter of fact.) And Joe and I had read some ERBs via Kindle previously...the hard to acquire Tarzan Twins novels, for instance...but it hadn't been as enjoyable for either of us as reading an actual book, so when we neared the end of The War Chief 1, I decided to buy a paper copy of Apache Devil, which I had read in the The Edgar Rice Burroughs Western MEGAPACK ®. And Better World Books (one of my two favorite online bookstores 2) was happy to supply me with the copy pictured above...a lovely former library copy which had been published in 1978 (so not a first edition, obviously)...for a mere $6.49 + tax.

Former library books tend to be a bit haggard, and they have lots of annoying stamps and stickers and all of that, but sometimes, if they're of a certain age, they have one thing which more than makes up for those defects: a Due Date Slips...or, if you're REALLY lucky, a Pocket and a Checkout Card. In this case, there was a pocket, but no card, but there were two Slips.

And this made me very happy, because, as you can see, this book had been checked out more than a few times. So there were some folks in Nevada who appreciated this largely forgotten Burroughs book, at least. And the book wasn't in great shape, so it's possible that it was pulled out of circulation because of its condition rather than because nobody wanted it anymore. Evidence of this:

Yep. There's still an Apache Devil out there in Reno. (Alas, the same thing can't be said of Louisville, which has no Apache Devils at all.)

So...we're off you know. And here's just one of those scathing wit phrases from ERB for you...which, hopefully, will make you want more:

"...how can one expect overworked Christian congressman to neglect their electorate in the interests of benighted savages who have no votes?" (page 36)

1  I'm excited to add that the copy I read to Joe was 93 years old...and a First Edition (though not in good enough shape to be worth The Big Bucks.) And in case you were wondering, here are the "FIRST EDITION IDENTIFIERS," courtesy of http://erbfirsts.com/Other-html/o11.asp: "A.C. McClurg & Co. published the first edition of this book on Sep. 15, 1927. They did not reprint this title so any book with their name on the spine is a first edition. The only illustration is to the title page. The artist of the illustration is unknown. The illustration on the dust jacket is identical to the magazine cover art which was done by Paul Stahr. A total of 6,000 copies were printed."

2  The second being Thrift Books. Both it and Better World Books have great selections, low prices, free or low-cost shipping, and don't fuck people over the way Amazon does. I saw an interview with the Better World Books guy who said that he has to list his books with Amazon, since they control so much of the market, but that his share of a sale is $1 there, whereas it would be $4 on his own site. And the kicker here is that Better World isn't just a cute name--they actually do lots of things to try to make the world better via literacy programs. So I choose them. (I don't know much about Thrift Books, but Wikipedia says that they do partner with libraries to acquire unsorted books, and share the profits from selling those books with said libraries.)