History of the Burroughs Bibliophiles & Bulletin

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Title:	History of the Burroughs Bibliophiles & Bulletin
Creator:	George T. McWhorter
Date(s):	1998
Medium:	print and digital
Fandom:	Edgar Rice Burroughs
Topic:	The Burroughs Bibliophiles and The Burroughs Bulletin
External Links:	https://www.erbzine.com/mag1/0148.html
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History of the Burroughs Bibliophiles & Bulletin is a history of the ERB fan club The Burroughs Bibliophiles and fanzine The Burroughs Bulletin by long-time member George T. McWhorter.

Excerpts

In the bylaws of the Burroughs Bibliophiles the organization is identified as “a non-profit literary society dedicated to stimulating interest in and preserving the works of the great American author, Edgar Rice Burroughs.” As a splinter group of the World Science Fiction Convention held in Pittsburgh in 1960, thirty charter members met and elected officers of the new society. Clarence “Bob” Hyde became president (he remains president emeritus and chairman of the board in 1998), and plans were made to adopt or initiate official publications such as the Burroughs Bulletin and the Gridley Wave as well as to hold annual conventions. As with many new societies, the Burroughs Bibliophiles learned by doing, and interest in Edgar Rice Burroughs grew as his international popularity with a new generation increased and new members were recruited.

The Burroughs Bibliophiles have done more than honor famous people at conventions and publish magazines and newsletters. Their first major project was to collect short stories that had been published only in pulp magazines and to republish them with the permission of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., a family corporation that Burroughs founded in 1923 to protect his enterprises in book publishing, motion pictures and radio and television shows, syndicated newspaper Tarzan strips and comic books, and trademark merchandising of everything from Tarzan ice cream to glue, wristwatches, knives, belts, and Tinkertoys. For many years the Burroughs Bibliophile reprints of The Girl from Farris’s, The Efficiency Expert, The Scientists Revolt, Beware!, The Red Star of Tarzan, and The Illustrated Tarzan Books, No. 1 were the only editions available of these works.

The Burroughs Bibliophiles is an international organization with headquarters at the Burroughs Memorial Collection in Louisville, Kentucky, where the magazine and newsletter are published and where the board of directors makes plans. Active regional chapters have been established in Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; Chicago; Atlanta; Cleveland; and Baltimore – as well as in the states of Michigan, Florida, and Arizona and in countries such as Holland, France, Germany, and Australia. Some of the chapters publish regional newsletters, such as The Panthan Newsletter of the Washington, D.C., National Capital “Panthans.” During the last fifty years more than two hundred Burroughs fan magazines have appeared, also with titles incorporating recognizable Burroughs-inspired nomenclature such as Amtorian, Barsoomian, Jasoomian, Oparian, Erbania, Tarzine, Burroughs Newsbeat, and Erbivore. Some, such as the Barsoomian Blade and ERBzin-e, have appeared on the Internet.