Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Final Four

Joe and I started reading Edgar Rice Burroughs books in 2009... beginning with A Princess of Mars (which was a good place to start, since it was ERB's first published book), continuing through all of the Barsoom novels (11 total), and then on through the Tarzans (25, 2 children's books, and a Guide to the Tarzan Clans of America). That alone put us at the 46% through the oeuvre mark. We continued through Pellucidar (6), Amtor (5), Caspak (3), The Moon (3), The Mucker (3), The Cave Girl (2), Barney Custer (2), and The Apache (2), which put us over the three quarters mark (65 books), and finished off all of the ERB series. Then we started in on the 19 standalone works *.  As of this writing (3/13/23), we only have 4 of these left to read:

1. Marcia of the Doorstep **

2. You Lucky Girl! 

3. The Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County

4. Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder (This one lists for between $175 and $500 online, btw.)

I have all but one of them (**) in-hand. The one in-bush book is available via the Louisville Free Public Library, though, so The End, like Bill, is nigh.

An interesting thing: Joe has been choosing which book to read next since we finished A Princess of Mars 14 years ago, and even though he doesn't know anything about ERB's publishing history, 3 of our remaining books (1, 2, and 4 above) were the last ERB books published (1999, 1999, and 2001)...and all three were published in very limited editions. Sorry to say that none of them are very good, either, but that's probably why they weren't published until 50 years after Burroughs died. (Just sayin', sir.)

It takes us a couple of months to read a book, since we only do about five pages a night, four nights a week--but I'm thinking that we might be able to finish off The Final Four before the end of 2023.

And then? Well, I DO have those two omnibus editions of Lucky Starr, Space Ranger....

* The 19 stand alone works are:

1. Minidoka: 937th Earl of One Mile Series M

2.  The Outlaw of Torn

3.  The Monster Men

4. The Bandit of Hell’s Bend

5. Beyond the Farthest Star

6. The Girl From Hollywood

7. The Rider

8. The Lad and the Lion

9. I Am a Barbarian

10. Beyond Thirty / The Lost Continent

11. The Girl from Farris's

12. The Jungle Girl / The Land of Hidden Men

13. Beware! / The Scientists Revolt

14. The Efficiency Expert

15. The Man-Eater

16. The Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County

17. Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder

18. You Lucky Girl!

19. Marcia of the Doorstep

UPDATE: 4/17/23--Finished reading The Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County. 

UPDATE: 6/9/23--Finished reading Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder.  A truly terrible book. The only story worth your time was "Elmer," which is the original version of "The Resurrection of Jimber Jaw."

UPDATE: 6/24/23--Finished reading You Lucky Girl! Which, I'm sorry to say, was not a good book...but it wasn't terrible. And it was probably our fastest ERB read ever. 

Final Update: 10/7/23--Finished reading Marcia of the Doorstep. It was a long one...ERB's longest work...and I'm sorry to say that it's not very good at all. If you want to do a Complete Burroughs Trek as Joe and I have just finished doing, I'd suggest you read our last three books much earlier, so you can finish on something that leaves a good taste in your mouth. Just sayin', sir.