Bill Hillman's

Volume 65
 

Presents

Philip José Farmer


PJF's Links to ERB
Compiled by Bill Hillman


PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER
His Links to Edgar Rice Burroughs

"Reading Farmer is an experience in intellect and imagination. Even his least memorable books have educational aspects which entertain as well as inform.

"Farmer was unafraid of tackling taboo subjects. He was responsible for breaking the ground for alien sex in science fiction literature. He also acted as apologist for the literary mistakes or well-meaning fabrications of authors such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, L. Frank Baum, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by writing the true stories of their protagonists.

"For instance, his analytical study of Tarzan takes on both academic and whimsical dimensions. In The Lord of the Trees , Farmer sets the historical record straight about the jungle hero. In A Feast Unknown, Farmer presents both a more primordial and a truly science fictional perspective. Scholars take note."

Born in 1918. Graduated from Peoria Central High (I've lived in Peoria, Illinois for 20 years) and went a year to University of Missouri, where I met a bunch of characters. Quit for financial reasons and slaved several years as a groundsman or "grunt" for a line crew. Some more characters came my way.

In 1940 I went to Bradley Polytechnic for a year, met more characters, got a letter in track and a crippled foot in football. Also, because of my Cherokee blood, I was sent by the students to New York to present a chief's head-dress to Fred Waring, who had written a theme song for Bradley. I still remember the terrible stage fright I got on his program. However, remembering I was supposed to be an Indian, I let out a war whoop which brought down the house and broke the tension.

To clear any misapprehension about aboriginal corpuscles, I will state I am 1/4 English, 1/4 German, 1/4 Scotch-Irish, 1/8 Dutch, 1/8 Cherokee, and 1/16 brew. The brew comes from working nights while I was a student in one of the liquor-making establishments with which Peoria abounds. I didn't like the work. It's far easier to lift a stein than a barrel.

I went back to Old Mizzou. The war cut short my graduation hopes. Pearl Harbor found me an army aviation cadet at Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas. It was there I became aquatinted with the exasperating red tape of army life. I flew all right in primary but washed out at Randolph Field. Among a thousand other faults, so said the wash out board, I was inconsistent, i.e., all right one day, lousy the next. The lousy days outnumbered the others. As I recall it, life then was a series of fallings-in-and-out, Saturday saturnalias, Sunday hangovers, and one screaming face after another attached to various instructors. Again, I met a lot of characters. And I still retain my enthusiasm for flying. Whenever a plan goes overhead, I always look up. Provided I happen to be facing that way.

Armed with an honorable discharge I went home to await a draft call which never came. To while away the time I worked at a steel mill and laid the foundations of two children. As a boy and a girl constitute all the variety desirable in infants, I have ceased producing and turned my hand to rearing these two characters. All the above, you understand, with the superb cooperation of my wife, my favorite character, whom I met while we studented at Bradley.

I write in my spare time and hope in the near future to devote all my time and some energy to authoring.

A FEAST UNKNOWN
Tarzan and Doc Savage (Caliban) are being manipulated by a secret group called The Nine and do their best to kill each other. Every act of violence results in an erection and a kill results in an orgasm.

LORD OF THE TREES/THE MAD GOBLIN
The sequel to A FEAST UNKNOWN. Tarzan and Doc Savage set out to get their revenge. The two stories run
simultaneously, our two heroes separate at the beginning of the books and then reunite at the end, each story told from a different point of view. 

LORD TYGER

TIME'S LAST GIFT
"2780 A.D. held no secrets that did not exist in 12,000 B.C."
The time-travelling hero is John Gribardsun. There is a cross-over with Hadon of Ancient Opar where he is described as a grey-eyed god.

THE ADVENTURES OF THE PEERLESS PEER
Sherlock Holmes meets Tarzan.Sherlock to battle Germans in Africa during World War I PJF is editor as the book is written by "John H. Watson M.D."

MOTHER WAS A LOVELY BEAST
"A feral man anthology, fiction and fact about humans raised by animals." A look at Tarzan and some lesser-known children raised by animals. Two stories by PJF and seven by other authors.

HADON OF ANCIENT OPAR
Tarzan's  lost city of Opar 12,000 years ago it was a thriving city.There is a tie-in with Time's Last Gift.

FLIGHT TO OPAR
Hadon returns to claim his crown. The second and last of PJF's Opar stories.