A “HEART-FILLING MARVEL… IN WHICH THE SCIENCE ADVENTURE NOVEL REACHES ITS FULL DIMENSIONS AS A WONDER TALE!”: FIRST EDITION OF BURROUGHS’ TARZAN AT THE EARTH’S CORE

BURROUGHS, Edgar Rice. Tarzan at the Earth’s Core. New York: Metropolitan, (1930). Octavo, original green cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition, first issue of Burroughs’ 14th Tarzan novel, “a favorite of many fans,” in original unrestored Metropolitan dust jacket, rarely found.

“A favorite of many fans… Tarzan at the Earth’s Core generally considered one of the better Tarzan novels” (Zeuschner 664). “In creating Earth’s Core… Burroughs borrowed freely from accounts of the so-called Symmes Hole, one of the greatest scientific fallacies of the 19th century, [which] posited that there were large openings at the Earth’s poles and that the Earth’s antipodes simply curved inward to a hollow interior.” Here Tarzan thus makes his way to the Earth’s core “via a vast aperture at the North Pole” (Taliafero, 235), traveling in “a great dirigible, the 0-220 named thus in honor of Burroughs’ real life telephone number… That splendid and frightening moment when, amidst the bitter whiteness of the arctic, the 0-220 noses over and emerges in the Inner World is a fleeting instant of heart-filling marvel, a moment in which the science adventure novel reaches its full dimensions as a wonder tale!” (Lupoff, 88-9). This was only the second Tarzan title published by Metropolitan. “Formed in June 1929, its sole author was Edgar Rice Burroughs… Like the newly forged relationship between author and publisher, Earth’s Core was one of a kind in that it is the only instance in which the hero of one Burroughs series (Tarzan) crossed over into the world of another (David Innes of Pellucidar) (Taliaferro, 235). First issue, in preferred Currey (A) binding, with original Metropolitan dust jacket, rarely found. Dust jacket and art by J. Allen St. John. With Foreword by Burroughs not included in the Blue Book Magazine serialization of Septermber 1929-March 1930. Currey, 93. Zeuschner 665-66. Clute & Grant, 153. Contemporary owner inscription.

Interior fresh with marginal dampstaining to two preliminary leaves, not affecting text, cloth fine; some chipping, closed tears, loss to rear upper corner of scarce good unrestored dust jacket.