Burroughs, Edgar Rice (1875-1950)

US novelist. He wrote Tarzan of the Apes (1914; filmed 1918), the story of an aristocratic child lost in the jungle and reared by apes, and followed it with over 20 more books about the Tarzan character. He also wrote a series of novels about life on Mars, including A Princess of Mars (1917) and Synthetic Men of Mars (1940).

He was born in Chicago and educated at Michigan Military Academy. He enlisted in the army but was discharged as under age. He then followed various occupations for 15 years, including drover, gold dredger, and railway detective, before beginning his writing career.