Two articles appear below:
1   Tarzan: How True is Tarzan?
2   Tarzan and Chimpanzees

INTRODUCTION

Jungle hero Tarzan was born in 1888 but is, if we believe Philip Jose Farmer, still alive, 131 years old this year, 2019. Tarzan's wife, Jane, and other family members likewise have indefinite youth with health. So does the lion "Jad-bal-ja" who is both family pet and Tarzan's ally against bad guys.

Philip Jose Farmer in Tarzan Alive (1974) claims to provide a biography that separates fact from fiction and presents the true life-story of Tarzan.

Farmer gives Tarzan’s pedigree, identifying him as John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, of the British nobility and related to Sherlock Holmes. Yes, Sherlock Holmes is historical too, not merely a literary invention of Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930).

In 1968 Farmer even met Tarzan:


Is it true? Did Tarzan exist, still lives, and has eternal youth?






Tarzan's creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875 – 1950) was an American fiction writer in the adventure and science-fiction genres. His most notable creations are:

Burroughs was born in Chicago. He enlisted in the 7th U.S. Cavalry in Arizona in 1895 after which he worked for a Chicago battery factory, a mining company, a railroad, and finally a pencil-sharpener wholesaler, after which he turned to writing. He married his childhood sweetheart, Emma Hulbert, in 1900,

Burroughs' first story Under the Moons of Mars was serialized in 1912 and published as a book titled A Princess of Mars (1917). This began his Barsoom (his name for Mars) series, numbering 11 books. His Tarzan series (24 books) began in 1912. There is also Burroughs' Pellucidar series (7 books), Venus series (5 books), Moon series (3 books), Jungle adventure novels (5 books), Western novels (4 books), and others.

In 1923 Burroughs set up Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., to print his books. He also purchased a ranch near Los Angeles, which he named "Tarzana", around which a community sprang up which adopted the same name in 1927.

Burroughs divorced Emma in 1934 and married former actress Florence Dearholt whom he divorced in 1942 and became a war correspondent. After WWII Burroughs moved back to California and is buried at Tarzana. Royalties from 27 Tarzan movies got him $2 million!



Burroughs' "Tarzan canon" consisted of 24 adventure novels published between1912 and 1965.

The publishing sequence and story sequence do not fully align chronologically i.e. several later books have their setting earlier in Tarzan's life. The following is the publishing sequence:

1 Tarzan of the Apes (1912)
John Clayton II and Alice Clayton II, Lord and Lady Greystoke of England, are marooned in western Africa in 1888. Their son John Clayton III is born and adopted after his parents' death by a tribe of talking apes called "Mangani". As a boy he discovers his parents' cabin and teaches himself from their books. Later a fight to the death with Kerchak the ape leader makes Tarzan king of the apes. When he is 18 another group is marooned on the coast, including 19 year old Jane Porter. This leads Tarzan to civilization and discovering his identity as Earl of Greystoke.

2 The Return of Tarzan (1913)
Tarzan returns to Africa and is adopted into the Waziri tribe and becomes their chief. Around 1910 he goes to the lost treasure city of Opar deep in the jungle, finds Opar's hidden treasure, is captured by a race of short-legged, long-armed, hairy, gnarly-faced men with ape-like jaws, and condemned to be sacrificed to their Flaming God (the Sun). High priestess La, about 20 years old, white-skinned and incredibly beautiful, fancies Tarzan and helps him escape. Meanwhile Jane survives the sinking of a yacht off West Africa and gets kidnapped by Oparian ape-men. Tarzan saves Jane from being sacrificed. La offers herself to Tarzan who spurns her and marries Jane. They return to civilization with some of Opar's treasure.

3 The Beasts of Tarzan (1914)
Tarzan has established an estate on Waziri lands and now has a baby son named Jack. Enemies kidnap Jack, Tarzan and Jane. They exile Tarzan to a jungle island, informing him that Jack will be raised by cannibals. Aided by a panther, a tribe of apes led by Akut (an intelligent ape), and Mugambi, a native warrior, Tarzan reaches the mainland and defeats the kidnappers. Mugambi relocates to live at Tarzan's Waziri estate.

4 The Son of Tarzan (1915)
Alexis Paulvitch, who escaped Tarzan's vengeance in the previous novel, is taken onboard a European ship. There he meets the ape Akut and takes him to London to display him.
Jack knows nothing of his father's past but finds out after seeing Akut and Tarzan converse in ape-talk. Jack and Paulvitch decide to return Akut to Africa. In Africa Paulvitch attacks Jack who kills him and flees with Akut into the jungle. Jack learns survival skills and meets the Mangani, the talking apes who raised his father. Their language is the same as Akut's, and they call Jack "Korak".  At age 13 Jack meets Meriem, several years younger, and teaches her survival skills. Meanwhile Tarzan and Jane return to their Waziri estate and after six years reunite with Korak.

5 Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar (1916)
Tarzan heads for Opar to get more gold but is injured in an earthquake and loses his memory, even forgetting Jane. La still fancies Tarzan and tries to win him over while ugly priests prepare to sacrifice him.

6 Jungle Tales of Tarzan (1919)
A collection of 12 short stories set in the two years before teenage Tarzan met Jane.

7 Tarzan the Untamed (1920)
In 1914 German troops from Tanganyika destroy Tarzan's plantation. Tarzan finds burned corpses including, apparently, Jane. Seeking revenge he captures a lion which he unleashes in the trenches killing many Germans. He also faces challenges from Bertha Kircher whom he believes to be a German spy. The rest of the novel is a mishmash of fights, escapes and chance meetings involving Mangani apes, Bertha Kircher, German army deserters, a British aviator whose airplane has crashed, a tribe of cannibals, another lion who fights for Tarzan, warriors of the lost city Xuja, and finally a search party from the aviator's unit.

8 Tarzan the Terrible (1921)
Tarzan searches for Jane who has again been kidnapped and discovers a hidden valley called Pal-ul-Don, the home of huge dinosaurs and two adversarial races of humans with tails, one race hairless, white and city-dwelling, the other hairy, black and hill-dwelling. After many fights and escapes Tarzan finds Jane after which both of them are saved by Korak.

9 Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1922)
Tarzan trains an orphaned lion cub who becomes Jad-bal-ja the Golden Lion. Flora Hawkes, a housemaid of the Claytons, assisted by a Tarzan look-alike leads an expedition to the treasure city of Opar. Tarzan also heads for Opar but is captured again by the Oparians. Queen La, still in love with Tarzan, escapes with him. Assisted by Jad-bal-ja Tarzan restores La to power.

10 Tarzan and the Ant Men (1924)
Tarzan enters a remote land named Minuni inhabited by18-inches-tall midgets who live in magnificent cities which wage war with each other. Tarzan is taken prisoner during a battle, reduced to midget size by a scientist, and enslaved.

11 Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1927)
Tarzan finds an outpost of European knights and crusaders in a hidden,  forbidden valley.

12 Tarzan and the Lost Empire (1928)
Tarzan finds a lost remnant of the Roman Empire in the mountains of Africa. This novel introduces Tarzan's monkey companion Nkima.

13 Tarzan at the Earth's Core (1929)
Tarzan and his Waziri warriors join an expedition to Pellucidar, a world inside the Earth's core, accessed via an opening at the South Pole. They get scattered and struggle against inner Earth pirates and prehistoric monsters.

14 Tarzan the Invincible (1930)
Tarzan, his monkey friend Nkima, and Chief Muviro and his Waziri warriors, thwart Russian communists from looting Opar.

15 Tarzan Triumphant (1931)
With his faithful Waziri warriors Tarzan battles Soviet agents, and also a lost and horrid tribe descended from early Christians.

16 Tarzan and the City of Gold (1932)
Tarzan finds the lost city of Athne, capital of the land of Thenar. Captured by insane Queen Nemone of rival city Cathne, the City of Gold, Tarzan is forced to fight her pet hunting lion, Belthar. Fortunately Jad-bal-ja arrives, kills Belthar, saving Tarzan.

17 Tarzan and the Lion Man (1933)
Tarzan discovers a mad scientist and a city of talking gorillas. Meanwhile a Hollywood film crew shoots a Tarzan movie in Africa, employing an actor who looks exactly like Tarzan. Mayhem ensues as various personas interact.

18 Tarzan and the Leopard Men (1935)
Tarzan, suffering amnesia again, is taken captive along with Nkima by an African warrior. Conflict ensues with a secret society of murderous Leopard Men.

19 Tarzan's Quest (1935)
Jane finds a bloodthirsty lost tribe and witchdoctor who possess eternal-youth-pills. Also in the story are Tarzan, Nkima, Chief Muviro of the Waziri warriors, and Muviro's lost daughter. Nkima becomes a recipient, along with the humans, of the age-beating "Kavuru pills".

20 Tarzan and the Forbidden City (1938)
Tarzan guides an expedition to the lost city Ashair to rescue adventurer Brian Gregory and find the world's biggest diamond. Along with a rival expedition everyone arrives at Ashair as prisoners destined to die horrible deaths.

21 Tarzan the Magnificent (1939)
Tarzan supported by Chief Muviro and the Waziri warriors revisits the lost cities of Cathne and Athne.

22 Tarzan and the Foreign Legion (1947)
Tarzan, serving in the R.A.F. under his civilian name John Clayton during World War II, is shot down over Japanese-occupied Sumatra.

23 Tarzan and the Madman (1964) Written by Burroughs in 1940 but not published. Tarzan tracks down another impostor who resembles him.

24 Tarzan and the Castaways (1965)
A collection of three short stories written in 1940-1941

Additional Tarzan books were authorized by Burroughs estate and authored by other writers after Burroughs' death.



Philip Jose Farmer authored 70 books, mainly science fiction.

He lived mainly in Illinois and grew up on adventure stories and Greek mythology. He studied journalism at the University of Missouri.

In 1952 Farmer broke into science fiction with "The Lovers" published in Startling Stories about a man who has sex with an insect-like alien. His first book, The Green Odyssey (1957), dealt with an escape from an alien planet. He gained acclaim with The Maker of Universes (1965), the first of five novels set in parallel universes.

Jesus on Mars (1979) displayed Farmer's enduring interest in religion. The Adventure of the Peerless Peer (1974) featured Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan. In 1999 he published his first Tarzan novel.



In Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke (hardcover1972; paperback 1974) Farmer alleges Tarzan is a real person.

He examines the psychological make up of John Clayton (Tarzan's real name) and Tarzan's peers, based on close readings of Burroughs books, broadly accepts Burroughs' stories as factual, but rejects as fiction whatever is too outlandish or obviously unscientific.

Farmer claims that since the apes described by Burroughs spoke language they must have been "pithecanthropoids" i.e. "rare hominids now extinct" and not ordinary apes.

Tarzan Alive links the characters from Burroughs' Tarzan books to many other fictitious literary characters, claiming all were real. Farmer proposes that a radioactive meteorite crashed in Yorkshire (England) in the 18th century and endowed descendants of local people with extraordinary powers giving rise to Tarzan, Doc Savage, Sherlock Holmes, Bulldog Drummond, Jack the Ripper, James Bond, and others.



Burroughs' Opar was a colony of Atlantis located in central Africa, stockpiled with jewels and gold, and practiced human sacrifice. The population due to human cross-breeding with apes and selective infanticide consisted of physically normal women but monstrous males.

Beautiful La, Opar's high priestess and queen, meets Tarzan in Book 2 (The Return of Tarzan, 1913). They are able to communicate because both speak the same ape language. It's La's duty to sacrifice Tarzan to the Flaming God but she fancies him and helps him escape. A posse of Oparian ape-men go in pursuit but instead capture Jane whom La is happy to sacrifice as substitute. But Tarzan comes to the rescue, chooses Jane over La, leaving La heart-broken.

La's love re-ignites every time Tarzan returns which he does in Books 5, 9 and 14. In book 5, set in 1914, La treats Tarzan, who is helplessly tied down ready to be sacrificed, to "burning caresses and kisses and the frenzy of her passion" all night long. (Farmer, p. 162)

In Book 14, set in 1929 when La is 39 Tarzan meets her for the last time. Her destiny was to breed with a brutish, ape-look-alike — a fate which, after falling for handsome Tarzan, she detested — but Burroughs never conveys what happened.

Farmer describes Tarzan's final visit to Opar in 1946. He finds the city deserted and, with his Waziri warriors, dismantles it and diverts a river over the ruins.



Tarzan of the Apes (1912) was wildly successful. But subsequent Tarzan books got cooler receptions, criticized as too derivative, coincidences too many, dialogue too wooden, adventures too contrived, and characters two-dimensional.

The Tarzan novels don't display zoological knowledge beyond what high school students might know, and about botany virtually nothing.

In Book 1 Tarzan carries Jane off by swinging from vines, but vine-swinging is not mentioned in Burroughs' other books. In the movies vines hang at an angle and are fixed at the top and loose at the bottom which, although necessary for swinging, doesn't make botanical sense. Farmer says it's an invention of the movie-makers, although "Burroughs does exaggerate, at times, the ability of Tarzan to travel through the trees." (p. 197) Farmer implies Tarzan actually moved by scampering along large branches and swinging from smaller ones.

I don't recall Tarzan ever fighting a chimpanzee — perhaps because chimps look like wimps compared to lions, and on television appear meek.

In Stamford, Connecticut, in 2009, a 13-year-old, pet chimp ripped 55-year-old Charla Nash's face and hands off. Five years of reconstructive surgery included a face transplant, glass eyes and new teeth. (Bucktin 2014)

Chimps can switch instantly from docile to beserk. Adult chimps can be stronger than weight-lifters, more flexible than gymnasts, faster than Olympic sprinters and their feet are as flexible as their hands. In the wild they are vicious predators. They can rip muscles off, smash bones, and bite off body parts.

Leavenworth (2006) reports that in Sierra Leone, chimps killed one man, bit part of another's hand off, and punched through a taxicab's window to attack the driver. In Uganda chimps mutilated or killed 15 children in seven years. In 2005, in a California sanctuary, a man had his genitals mutilated and lost all his fingers, an eye, and parts of his nose, cheeks and buttocks when attacked by two chimps.

Burroughs introduced many lost cities and civilizations. Besides Opar these include:

Farmer says, "It is doubtful that the real Tarzan ever found more than two lost cities…" (p. 14) However, none are reported in archaeology journals; all vanished when Africa opened to thorough exploration!

The 18-inch-tall Minunian people Farmer calls "science fiction" but also suggests they descended from a Dutch midget. (p. 193) Pellucidar, a dinosaur-filled world inside Earth's core (#13) is so weird that even Farmer concedes "it is all fiction." (p. 203) Of the "Mangani" Farmer says: "It is no wonder that, with their rarity, they had not been discovered by science." (pp 50 & 186) The "Great Thorn Forest" near the SW coast of Lake Victoria and 100 miles from Tarzan's plantation: "does not exist now, having fallen to the flame thrower and the axe…" (p. 192)

Similarly, everything else peculiar to Burroughs' novels but potentially checkable has disappeared! Tarzan in the 1920s worked on the "Mangani grammar and dictionary". (p. 196) But there's nothing — linguists can't get copies.

Farmer writes "Opar is somewhere in the mountains of central Africa…" on a plateau surrounded by mountain ranges. (p.125) He adds that Burroughs gave "many purposely misleading descriptions" and Opar might be in Gabon, the Eastern Congo, or East Africa or somewhere else.

That's Farmer's standard ploy: Inconsistencies, empirical errors and claims subject to disproof occur because Burroughs altered details to thwart investigators.

Conflicts in chronology are explained by, "Burroughs often purposely collapsed or expanded time…" (p. 179) But La's birth-year is inconsistent without any need to thwart potential explorers. In Book 14, set in 1929, she's 39 (Farmer, pp 207; 209) therefore born in1890. But in 1946 Farmer says she would be, "if still living, fifty nine…" (pp 238-240; 337) i.e. born in 1887.

The immortality pills that Tarzan obtained from a witchdoctor, he shared with family members, various allies, and Nkima the monkey and Jad-bal-ja the lion besides getting them analyzed and synthesized. (Farmer, p. 214) It's strange that their African inventor didn't share them with Africans and that modern science has nothing similar.

Truly weird is that Farmer links Tarzan's pedigree to numerous fiction heroes, especially crime fighters, claiming they were historical, including Sherlock Holmes, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Doc Savage, the Shadow, Bulldog Drummond, etc. (Farmer 258; 289) A Google check confirms they're all fictitious and tells about the novelists who invented them.
 
Farmer refers to Burke's Peerage claiming, "I have identified Tarzan, the real 'Lord Greystoke,' through research in Burke's Peerage and other works and have met him." (Farmer 337) Burke's Peerage was originally published in 1839 as The Peerage and Baronetage of Great Britain and Ireland (John Burke, 1839) and gives the family connections of Britain's upper class including lords and dukes going back centuries.

Farmer supplies a tree-chart of Tarzan's family (pp 6-7) showing how Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes and 90 others are related, and Addendum 3 titled The Greystoke Lineage discusses supposed relationships of hundreds of names. But none of this confirms Tarzan as historical:




Philip Jose Farmer claims to have uncovered the hidden facts which Burroughs had combined with fiction to obscure them.

Everything in Burroughs' Tarzan novels that can't be confirmed or is plainly wrong Farmer claims:


Farmer makes even his meeting with Tarzan dubious, "I did not have any proof that he was really 'Lord Greystoke'; it is possible, I suppose, that I was the victim of a hoax." (p. 11)

Farmer ultimately offers nothing verifiable to support his claim that Burroughs' Tarzan is based on fact.



Farmer, P.J. 1974 Tarzan Alive, Panther Books

http://brdofthelesserboulevards.yolasite.com/blog/the-tarzan-novels-in-chronological-order

http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Tarzan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Rice_Burroughs.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_(Tarzan)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan_(book_series)

www.elegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/4939303/Philip-Jos-Farmer.html

Chimpanee attacks

Bucktin, C. https://ww.facebook.com/DailyMirror

Jesse Leavenworth, The Attacks Of The Killer Chimpanzees, Hartford [CT] Courant, May 1, 2006

Wairagala, W. 'Drunk and Disorderly' Chimps Attacking Ugandan Children, East African, 9 February 2004

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Under the subheading "Assessment" in the article "How True is Tarzan"(#189) I assessed the scientific accuracy of Burroughs' Tarzan novels.

I commented there on the strength and potential viciousness of chimpanzees, even tame ones sometimes going berserk. The reason for those comments may not have been clear.

The point was that a lifetime of living with animals and plants should have made Tarzan an expert able to correct biologists where they are wrong as well as faulty impressions held by the public. But Burroughs never seems to do that. In the novels Tarzan displays no scientific insights on any plants, and only schoolboy knowledge about animals.

Twentieth-century movies often portrayed chimps as meek, playful and friendly, including the first Tarzan movie in 1918 and Cheeta in the Weissmuller movies. After Burroughs' death there was "Bonzo" in Bedtime for Bonzo (1951), which starred Ronald Reagan the future president, and Bonzo Goes to College (1952), and in the 1960s several TV sitcoms.

Burroughs' novels only mention chimps twice and only incidentally. Tarzan in the novels encountered lots of talking apes and all sorts of bad guys but never chimpanzees. His monkey friend, Nkima, makes his first appearance in Volume 12, Tarzan and the Lost Empire (1928), but is only called a "monkey", not a chimpanzee, and often behaves human-like.

Burroughs, therefore, not only failed to convey anything biologically profound but didn't even correct a potentially dangerous public assumption.

The writer "Anonymous" has argued that the Bible mentions that lions kill prey by strangling (throttling) and that crocodiles have a tongue — these points being unknown to most commentators until the 20th century. Tarzan, despite frequent encounters with lions and crocodiles in the novels, appears like everyone else to not have noticed.

Incidentally, about 20 different chimps, both male and female, played Tarzan's sidekick, Cheeta, in the movies. The real name of the longest-lived was Cheetah-Mike who supposedly died aged 80 in 2011.


References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheeta
http://freeread.com.au/@RGLibrary/ERBurroughs/Tarzan/Tarzan.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2079272/Tarzan-chimp-Cheetah-dies-aged-80-But-real-star-old.html