“An Axe in the Hands of a Burly Negro Cleft the Captain from Forehead to Chin”

Since the initial publication of Tarzan of the Apes in serial format in 1912, it has been examined in the context of Western imperialism. Featuring a protagonist whose aristocratic father is sent to the “Dark Continent” by the British Colonial Office to investigate the mistreatment of native inhabitants by another European power, the text is routinely viewed as a meditation on foreign sociopolitical issues rather than domestic ones. Even a cursory examination of past and present criticism reveals that the novel’s exploration of issues like race, class and social hierarchy are filtered through the lens of colonialism and especially the British Empire. As Marianna Torgovnick and John Taliaferro have noted, the strong Anglophile nature of Tarzan of the Apes has caused many critics to assume that both the narrative and its author are British (see Torgovnick 42; Taliaferro 15). ¹ However, Edgar Rice Burroughs was a native-born American who had never visited England, or any other foreign country. Moreover, he wrote Tarzan of the Apes while living in the seemingly incongruous locale of Chicago.