Edgar Rice Burroughs

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-09-06

Edgar Rice Burroughs was born September 1, 1875, in Chicago, Illinois, to Major George Tyler Burroughs and Mary Evaline Burroughs, descending from English and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry with roots in colonial America, including the Puritan settler Edmund Rice and ancestors who fought in the American Revolution. He attended local schools, Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and Michigan Military Academy, graduating in 1895, but failed the entrance exam for West Point. He then enlisted with the 7th U.S. Cavalry but was discharged in 1897 due to a heart condition, afterward working various jobs including as a cowboy in Idaho and at his father's battery factory. He married childhood sweetheart Emma Hulbert in January 1900. Around age 36, in 1911, Burroughs began writing fiction after reading pulp magazines, famously believing he "could write stories just as entertaining" as those he read. His breakthrough came with Under the Moons of Mars (1912), introducing John Carter and the Barsoom series, followed the same year by Tarzan of the Apes, his most successful creation. He wrote approximately eighty novels spanning adventure, science fiction, fantasy, and westerns, including the Pellucidar and Venus series. Burroughs died March 19, 1950, in Encino, California, from a heart attack, aged 74.