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Edgar Rice Burroughs Stamp Marks Tarzan Anniversary

The stamp features a 1934 photograph of Burroughs reading a hardcover copy of "Tarzan and the Lion Man."

A commemorative forever stamp depicting author Edgar Rice Burroughs was issued today in Tarzana, marking the 100th anniversary of the publication of his first Tarzan story. Several of Burroughs' descendants were joined by U.S. Postal Service officials and elected officials at the first-day-of-issue ceremony at the Tarzana Community and Cultural Center.

The stamp is based on a 1934 photograph of Burroughs reading a hardcover copy of ``Tarzan and the Lion Man'' taken by his son Hulbert. It also includes Tarzan clinging to a tree by a vine in his left hand and wielding a weapon in his right. As a forever stamp, it will always be equal to the one-ounce, first- class rate.

``At the Postal Service, we're proud to honor wonderful writers like Mr. Burroughs,'' said Giselle Valera, the Postal Service's vice president and managing director of global business. ``These creative geniuses make lasting contributions to our cultural heritage and we want more Americans to learn about them.''

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Born in Chicago on Sept. 1, 1875, Burroughs worked in a variety of fields until becoming a pencil sharpener wholesaler in 1911. One day he was checking the placement of ads for his pencil sharpeners in a various all- fiction pulp magazines, then started reading the stories. He then determined, ``if people were paid for writing rot such as I read in some of those magazines, that I could write stories just as rotten.''

Although his writing experience mainly consisted of fairy tales and poems he created for his children, nieces and nephews, Burroughs said he ``knew absolutely that I could write stories just as entertaining and probably a whole lots more so than any I chanced to read in those magazines.''

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Burroughs submitted a manuscript for an exotic novel, ``Dejah Thoris, Martian Princess,'' to The All-Story magazine. Editor Thomas Metcalf changed the title to ``Under the Moons of Mars'' publishing it on a serialized basis from February to July 1912 and paying Burroughs $400, the equivalent of nearly $9,300 today.

Burroughs completed two more novels by the time the final installment of ``Under the Moons of Mars'' was published -- ``The Outlaw of Torn,'' which Metcalf rejected, and ``Tarzan of the Apes'' for which Burroughs would write 25 sequels.

The tale of a British child raised by apes in Africa would also inspire a slew of films, most recently an animated version from Disney released in 1999, a comic strip, two radio series, a 1966-68 live-action series on NBC and several animated television series.

Burroughs bought a large ranch in the San Fernando Valley in 1919 and named it Tarzana, which became the name of the community in 1928. Burroughs' writing career encompassed far more than Tarzan. He wrote more than 70 books, including historical fiction and several popular series of science fiction works, and was a correspondent in the Pacific theater during World War II. He died on March 19, 1950, in Encino at the age of 74.

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