WORDS AND WAGES
David Bruce Bozarth
Copyright © 1999
Edgar Rice Burroughs was a prolific writer by any standards. Though his novels seem undersized in comparison to today's fiction authors, each contains just enough words to tell a fabulous story! The WORDS column in the chart below contains word counts (estimates) which may be ERB's or Heins'. The second word count is obtained from the Project Gutenberg etexts and arrived at using the word count function incorporated in WordPerfect 8. Checking the accuracy of WordPerfect with Microsoft Word 97 resulted in a discrepancy of less than 1%. The PENCE column contains estimated word counts submitted by Todd Pence. In years past I came up with similar numbers (average words per line times number of lines). Porges notes that ERB used that method for calculating his output when submitting it to editors. He was rather precise in those calculations using fractional averages per line (11.44, for example). The remaining column, PAID, reflects the first magazine amount paid to Ed Burroughs. These dollar amounts were obtained from a quick read through of Porges' biography. The amounts may not reflect the ultimate payment for the complete work. The Cave Girl, for example, was a two parter as was The Mad King. There are dollar amounts reported for other Tarzan texts, but the serial titles are not the same as the books. As soon as I have identified the correct title to credit, I will add these amounts later.
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WORD COUNTS FOR ERB NOVELS |
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| BOOK TITLE | YEAR | HEINS | PG | PENCE | PAID |
Tarzan |
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| Tarzan of the Apes | 1914 | 98000 | 85719 | 92787 | $700.00 |
| Return of Tarzan | 1915 | 86000 | 89571 | 90251 | $1,000.00 |
| Beasts of Tarzan | 1916 | 70000 | 63640 | 65414 | $2,500.00 |
| Son of Tarzan | 1917 | 101000 | 94024 | 93462 | |
| Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar | 1918 | 60000 | 66068 | 63440 | $2,500.00 |
| Jungle Tales of Tarzan | 1919 | 60000 | 74346 | 72789 | $4,200.00 |
| Tarzan the Untamed | 1920 | 110000 | 109808 | 106821 | |
| Tarzan the Terrible | 1921 | 94000 | 93816 | 88422 | $3,000.00 |
| Tarzan and the Golden Lion | 1923 | 80000 | 80538 | 78630 | $4,000.00 |
| Tarzan and the Ant Men | 1924 | 86000 | 77873 | 80316 | |
| Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins | 1927 | 21000 | 41750 | ||
| Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle | 1928 | 70000 | 69951 | 71893 | $5,000.00 |
| Tarzan and the Lost Empire | 1929 | 66000 | 65236 | 65047 | |
| Tarzan at the Earth's Core | 1930 | 79000 | 78684 | 79700 | |
| Tarzan the Invincible | 1931 | 80000 | 72343 | 72850 | |
| Tarzan Triumphant | 1932 | 74000 | 75876 | 76436 | |
| Tarzan and the City of Gold | 1933 | 65000 | 66433 | 66687 | |
| Tarzan and the Lion Man | 1934 | 70000 | 72202 | 75874 | $10,000.00 |
| Tarzan and the Leopard Men | 1935 | 80000 | 70627 | 71097 | $6,000.00 |
| Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins with Jad-Bal-ja, the Golden Lion | 1936 | 23000 | |||
| Tarzan's Quest | 1936 | 72000 | 77234 | 81529 | |
| Tarzan and the Forbidden City | 1938 | 67000 | 65731 | 68083 | $3,000.00 |
| Tarzan the Magnificent | 1939 | 83000 | 73652 | 73606 | |
| Tarzan and the Foreign Legion | 1947 | 80000 | 71062 | 73345 | |
| Tarzan and the Madman | 1964 | 60000 | 55561 | 55230 | |
| Tarzan and the Castaways | 1964 | 64000 | 36635 | 55175 | $300.00 |
BARSOOM | |||||
| A Princess of Mars | 1917 | 72000 | 65968 | 67552 | $400.00 |
| The Gods of mars | 1918 | 86000 | 82848 | 82037 | $800.00 |
| The Warlord of Mars | 1919 | 60000 | 57266 | 57052 | $1,141.00 |
| Thuvia, Maid of Mars | 1920 | 45000 | 45604 | 48677 | |
| The Chessmen of Mars | 1922 | 93000 | 88355 | 88034 | $3,500.00 |
| The Master Mind of Mars | 1928 | 51000 | 54317 | 53543 | |
| A Fighting Man of Mars | 1931 | 83000 | 85491 | 84169 | $8,000.00 |
| Swords of Mars | 1936 | 78000 | 80177 | 81282 | $5,500.00 |
| Synthetic Men of Mars | 1940 | 70000 | 65577 | 64080 | $1,200.00 |
| Llana of Gathol | 1948 | 82000 | 81999 | 84042 | $400.60 |
| John Carter of Mars | 1964 | 42000 | 43470 | 42725 | $400.00 |
VENUS | |||||
| Pirates of Venus | 1934 | 57000 | 60786 | ||
| Lost on Venus | 1935 | 63000 | 66825 | ||
| Carson of Venus | 1939 | 68000 | 68645 | $3,000.00 | |
| Escape on Venus | 1946 | 86000 | 83800 | $1,318.48 | |
| The Wizard of Venus | 1964 | 20000 | 18640 | ||
PELLUCIDAR |
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| At The Earth's Core | 1922 | 37000 | 49633 | 47109 | $420.00 |
| Pellucidar | 1923 | 61000 | 57297 | 56020 | |
| Tanar of Pellucidar | 1930 | 78000 | 76417 | 75057 | $7,500.00 |
| Tarzan at the Earth's Core | 1930 | ||||
| Back to the Stone Age | 1937 | 80000 | 76826 | 76459 | $1,500.00 |
| Land of Terror | 1944 | 60000 | 57052 | 56138 | |
| Savage Pellucidar | 1963 | 83000 | 77803 | 77656 | |
WESTERNS |
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| Bandit of Hell's Bend | 1925 | 81000 | 73053 | ||
| The War Chief | 1927 | 79000 | 77472 | ||
| Apache Devil | 1933 | 73000 | 68139 | $4,400.00 | |
| Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County | 1940 | 56000 | 53978 | ||
UNRELATED |
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| The Mucker | 1921 | 138000 | 123218 | 125381 | $1,450.00 |
| The Girl from Hollywood | 1923 | 67000 | 66760 | ||
| The Land That Time Forgot | 1924 | 117000 | 111609 | 105290 | |
| The Cave Girl | 1925 | 71000 | 69448 | 71819 | $600.00 |
| The Eternal Lover (Savage) | 1925 | 68000 | 68894 | ||
| The Moon Maid | 1926 | 140000 | 141001 | 133498 | $2,150.00 |
| The Mad King | 1926 | 93000 | 94217 | $1,325.00 | |
| The Outlaw of Torn | 1927 | 65000 | 66083 | $500.00 | |
| The Monster Men | 1929 | 59000 | 57857 | $1,165.00 | |
| Jungle Girl (Land of Hidden Men) | 1932 | 67000 | 68728 | $7,000.00 | |
| Oakdale Affair | 1937 | 42000 | 41998 | $600.00 | |
| The Rider | 1937 | 38000 | 33481 | $800.00 | |
| The Lad and the Lion | 1938 | 40000 | 55379 | ||
| The Lost Continent | 1957 | 40000 | 37947 | 37751 | |
| The Man-Eater | 1957 | 37000 | 33943 | ||
| Tales of Three Planets | 1964 | 45500 | 49102 | $650.00 | |
| The Girl From Farris's | 1965 | 45000 | 39883 | ||
| The Efficiency Expert | 1966 | 47000 | 45359 | ||
| I Am A Barbarian | 1967 | 66000 | 63301 | ||
| Pirate Blood | 1970 | 40000 | 40498 | ||
| The Scientists Revolt | 1974 | 22000 | 22738 | $245.00 | |
| ESTIMATED WORD TOTAL | 4990500 | 4877262 | 3434255 | $98,165.08 | |
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Note: TAEC is included only once. 3Tales does not include Wizard. Beware! is substituted for Scientists Revolt (as estimate). Tarzan Twins with JBJGL is included in Tarzan Twins. Updated 2017 |
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Sources: Irwin Porges, Henry Heins, Flem Chapman, David Bruce Bozarth, Todd Pence, Project Gutenberg, Newsgroups, and ERB's Novels.
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