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Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote books in a number of different settings:

  • Tarzan (jungles of Africa)
  • John Carter of Mars
  • Carson of Venus
  • At the Earth's Core -- Pellucidar (inside the Earth)
  • The Moon Series
  • The Caspak Series
  • The Mucker Series

Along with some westerns, historical novels, and more.

I know that Tarzan, John Carter, and the Pellucidar series are all in the same universe, since Tarzan has visited Pellucidar, and Jason Gridley, from the Pellucidar books, is able to contact Barsoom with Gridley waves.

Are all of his different worlds and series in the same overall universe, or were some of them in a separate universe?

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  • In P.J. Farmers "Tarzan alive" biography, "Tarzan at the Earths core" was considered to be a fictional Tarzan tale.
    – Major Stackings
    Commented Jun 9, 2012 at 1:55

3 Answers 3

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Burroughs' Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, Pellucidar and Carson of Venus series were all in the same universe. There are characters/settings/items that appear between them, thus connecting the stories. Burroughs' "The Mad King" and "The Eternal Lover" are also set in that same universe. The Moon series is possibly a future of that universe. The Mucker and Caspak series are not directly connected and thus open to interpretation.

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Not really an answer, and it has been multiple decades, but I recall that the book "Tarzan alive" had a geneology chart that showed Tarzan's relationship to other characters. I'm not sure if it included characters from the other series (but I do remember that Sherlock Holmes was on the chart). It might be worth researching, just to see if the characters were related in some fashion.

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    Tarzan Alive and the whole World Newton Family idea was essentially fanfiction written by Philip José Farmer (as mentioned by Major Stackings in another comment). This doesn't address whether Burroughs put them all in the same universe or not.
    – phantom42
    Commented Nov 8, 2012 at 21:14
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The Barsoom/Mars, Amtor/Venus, Pellucidar/earth's core, and Tarzan stories clearly are all in the same universe as there is crossover between characters and concepts.

Philip Jose Farmer has no standing as he neither created the characters nor wrote the stories. His "Tarzan biography" has no bearing on anything any more than his "Wold Newton" imaginings do.

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  • Hi, welcome to SF&F. Note that the question acknowledges that John Carter, Tarzan and Pellucidar are all in the same universe; the question is about other works like the Moon, Caspak, and Mucker series. This question doesn't add anything to the existing answers, and you should only post a new answer when you have something substantial that hasn't already been covered.
    – DavidW
    Commented Sep 12, 2023 at 3:09
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    Essentially a duplicate of the accepted answer.
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Sep 12, 2023 at 3:09
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    @OrganicMarble Except for the rant in the second paragraph. :)
    – DavidW
    Commented Sep 12, 2023 at 3:20

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