24) Tarzan and the Castaways (1965)

The last Tarzan book fully authored by Edgar Rice Burroughs, comprising three different stories.

Story #1: Tarzan and the Castaways
Stranded on an uncharted Pacific island, Tarzan was forced to take command of an ill-sorted party—English aristocrats, a Dutch officer, a woman of doubtful reputation—to insure their safety from a band of mutineers led by a madman. A lost colony of Mayans, avid for potential victims for their barbarous human sacrifices, only added to the danger. But the Lord of the Jungle had unexpected allies...Cast away with his band was a shipment of African animals unknown to the island, striking terror in the hearts of Mayans and mutineers alike—but old friends and familiar antagonists to the man brought up among them...Tarzan of the Apes. (from Ballantine Books summary)

Story #2: Tarzan and the Champion
The heavyweight champion of the boxing world, a stupid mug (who was actually Joe Louis at time time) goes to Africa, shoots up a herd of zebra and elephants with a machine gun, gets punched-out by Tarzan, then captured with Tarzan by cannibals, and is finally rescued when Tarzan kills a lion in the middle of the village. The whole story is presented as a kind of “tongue-in-cheek” joke that really never comes off as being all that funny. One serious moment in this little piece of fluff is Tarzan’s lecture about suffering animals. The story is about as simple as my one sentence summary, but it is pure Burroughs from first to last. Rather than a short story, one might think of this piece as a vignette about Tarzan’s place in American life at the end of the 1930’s. As such, it is a rich period piece--like a 15-minute radio play. (from ERB Summary Project).

Story #3: Tarzan and the Jungle Murderers
As Tarzan walks along a forest trail, a note in Dango, the hyena's, voice causes him to investigate. He finds a crashed Italian airplane surrounded by hyenas. Tarzan quickly disperses the beasts and finds the pilot dead in the cockpit, killed by a bullet through the throat. Footprints around the plane reveal that passengers have left the scene. Further investigations show that the pilot was shot from above, so Tarzan concludes that he was shot by someone in another plane. Tarzan smells a glove and gets another clue. Footprints tell of two men who left two days ago. Tarzan follows the two men and finds a second plane wreck, this one shot down by a machine gun. A used parachute tell him that the pilot in plane #2 has survived. He is an Englishman, Lieutenant Cecil Giles-Burton. Tarzan decides to follow him. (from ERBzine)

Written in three installments::
Tarzan and the Champion, July 1939; Murder in the Jungle (Tarzan and the Jungle Murders), January 1939; The Quest of Tarzan (Tarzan and the Castaways), begun in November 1940.

The three stories appeared in pulp magazines as follows: 

Blue Book Magazine: April 1940, Tarzan and the Champion; L. R. Gustavson cover: numerous tinted and b/w interiors.
Thrilling Adventures: June 1940, Tarzan and the Jungle Murders; Rudolph Belarski: cover, C. A. Murphy: 12 b/w interiors.
Argosy Weekly: 1941: August 23, 30; September 6, The Quest of Tarzan; Virgil Finlay: first installment cover and one interior per issue.

First book edition: Canaveral Press: 1965 with bibliographic note by Richard Lupoff ; Frank Frazetta: DJ and six interiors.

We followed this 1965 first edition.

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