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Edgar Rice Burroughs' nephew, Studley Oldham Burroughs, designed for him an ex libris bookplate showing Tarzan holding the planet Mars, but I would like to know if Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote something about Tarzan on Mars.

Tarzan holding Mars

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No, Edgar Rice Burroughs did not write any stories about Tarzan on Mars. The appearance of that book plate his nephew designed is strictly allegorical, providing a visual collage of elements from the author's best known works. These obviously include Tarzan (who is shown holding a planetary globe, something he obviously never literally accomplishes in any story), as well as stories in the "planetary romance" genre. The latter group arguably includes The Moon Maid, and it definitely includes Burroughs' Barsoom series taking place on a fantastical version of the planet Mars.

The Wikipedia link for the Barsoom stories does a pretty good job of describing the series as I remember it. And nowhere in the series does young Lord Greystoke make his way to Barsoom. In fact, the lack of any official crossover between Edgar Rice Burroughs' two best-known series made Tarzan visiting Mars a popular topic for fan fiction writers. Tarzan's unofficial adventures on the Red Planet were published frequently in the amateur press, and they were sometimes even released as full novels, such as Tarzan on Mars by John Bloodstone (Stuart Byrne).

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  • There is also now a comic book mini series "Warlords of Mars" where Tarzan and JC team up, but obviously that way postdates ERB.
    – JohnP
    Commented Oct 16, 2019 at 19:56
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    It's just worth mentioning that the 13th book in the Tarzan series was also the 4th book in the Pellucidar series. (Tarzan at the Earth's Core.) I believe that was the only time ERB had Tarzan "cross over" by visiting the distinctive setting of one of ERB's other series of adventure stories.
    – Lorendiac
    Commented Oct 16, 2019 at 20:16
  • The 1957 unpublished novel "Tarzan on Mars" by Stuart J. Byrne (under the pen name John Bloodstone) can be found now at erbzine.com/mag19/1967a.html erbzine.com/mag19/novel/Tarzan_On_Mars.pdf
    – Bingo
    Commented Sep 17, 2023 at 1:53
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There is letter about the exlibris that was wrote by Edgar Rice Burroughs:

exlibris letter

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    This is all interesting, but doesn't actually answer the question.
    – JohnP
    Commented Oct 16, 2019 at 19:55
  • "my days as a cowpuncher?"
    – Rogue Jedi
    Commented Feb 9, 2022 at 5:45
  • @RogueJedi - Cowpuncher means cowpoke, cowboy. According to Wikipedia, in his early life, ERB worked a number of different jobs spending half a year at his brother's ranch on the Raft River in Idaho, as a cowboy circa 1891.
    – Bingo
    Commented Feb 9, 2022 at 14:47

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