Burroughs’s Joke Pen Name

The man who created Tarzan and John Carter was so embarrassed about writing "crazy" Mars stories that he signed the first one "Normal Bean," meaning a sane head. The editor "corrected" it to "Norman Bean," then apologized in print, and Burroughs wrote back: "you sure did smear up the original."

The story as it is told

He was 35 years old and sold pencil sharpeners for a living, and in his spare time he read pulp magazines. The stories were rubbish, he decided, and he could write rubbish just as good. So he did. He wrote a story about Mars.

He sold it. And because he was a little embarrassed, he signed it with a joke: "Normal Bean," a wink at the reader. A printer, trying to help, "corrected" the joke, and the magazine went to press under another name. Tarzan followed the same year.

What we can confirm

The magazine record is clear. The February 1912 issue of Frank A. Munsey's The All-Story (vol. 22, no. 2) lists "Under The Moons Of Mars [Part 1 of 6] · Norman Bean" in its contents. A scan is on the Internet Archive marked Public Domain Mark 1.0. The serial ran six parts, February to July 1912.

The explanation comes from George T. McWhorter, curator of the Burroughs Memorial Collection at the University of Louisville. Writing in the library's newsletter The Owl in September 2012, he says Burroughs chose "Normal Bean" so readers would know he was not off his rocker, and the editors took it for a typo. McWhorter also notes that the magazine's editor retitled the story ("Under the Moons of Mars"). It became the 1917 book A Princess of Mars, published by A. C. McClurg, as the Internet Archive item description also notes.

The pseudonym didn't last. By October 1912, when The All-Story printed "Tarzan of the Apes" complete, the title page read "by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Norman Bean)," per McWhorter. The bridging byline shows the magazine moving its readers from the misprint to the real name. Book publishers were slower. McWhorter records that Tarzan was turned down by Rand-McNally, A. C. McClurg and Reilly & Britton, then serialized in newspapers (the New York Evening World and the Los Angeles Record). McClurg changed its mind and published the book on June 17, 1914.

The surviving copies now carry a price that would have startled the writer. The Internet Archive record for the February 1912 issue says a copy sold at auction on June 9, 2022 for $36,000. Burroughs was paid $400 for the serial rights, per his own Nov 6, 1911 acceptance letter (transcribed on ERBzine).

The paper trail of the mistake survives in the 1911-12 correspondence between Burroughs and All-Story managing editor Thomas Newell Metcalf, transcribed on ERBzine from the letters. On Nov 6, 1911, Burroughs accepted "$400.00 for serial rights to the story 'Dejah Thoris, Martian Princess'," and on Nov 20 Metcalf told him the story would be called "In the Moons of Mars" and would start in the February issue. On June 26, 1912, Metcalf wrote: "I realize that I made a big break when I changed that name from 'Normal Bean', to Norman." Readers, he said, were asking for more from "Mr. Bean." Burroughs replied on June 28 proposing the bridge bylines, "Norman Bean (Edgar Rice Burroughs)" and then "Edgar Rice Burroughs (Norman Bean)," "thereafter dropping the pen name entirely," adding that "you sure did smear up the original" and that it "would be unwise to attempt to revive Normal Bean now."

The magazine then confessed in print. Its "Table Talk" column, as transcribed by ERBzine from the fall 1912 issues, said the manuscript was signed "Normal (with an 'L') Bean" and that "we beefed it and called the author Norman Bean," adding that "his real name wasn't Bean anyway" and that from October readers would know the two were the same author [issue month EST: ERBzine groups the Sept to Nov 1912 columns; the text announces the October Tarzan issue, so it likely ran in September].

So the facts that can be shown are a misprinted byline in a 1912 magazine, a corrected byline eight months later, and three publisher rejections before Tarzan became a book. The misprint is documented by the editor himself. The reason for "Normal" (a sane head) rests on the curator's account and later tradition; none of the letters opened states it.

The facts

• February 1912 All-Story (v22 #2) contents list "Under The Moons Of Mars [Part 1 of 6] · Norman Bean." Item marked Public Domain Mark 1.0. A copy sold at auction June 9, 2022 for $36,000; A Princess of Mars was published by A. C. McClurg in 1917. Internet Archive, archive.org
• The six-part serial ran Feb to July 1912, and the editor retitled it. "Normal Bean" was meant to show he wasn't off his rocker, and editors thought it a typo. The Oct 1912 Tarzan byline read "Edgar Rice Burroughs (Norman Bean)." Rejections came from Rand-McNally, McClurg and Reilly & Britton, and the story was serialized in the New York Evening World and LA Record. McClurg published it June 17, 1914. George T. McWhorter, The Owl (University of Louisville Libraries), Sept 2012, owl.library.louisville.edu
• Nov 6, 1911: Burroughs accepts "$400.00 for serial rights" to "Dejah Thoris, Martian Princess." Nov 20, 1911: Metcalf retitles it "In the Moons of Mars," for the February issue. June 26, 1912: Metcalf, "I made a big break when I changed that name from 'Normal Bean', to Norman." June 28, 1912: Burroughs proposes "Norman Bean (Edgar Rice Burroughs)" then "Edgar Rice Burroughs (Norman Bean)," and writes "you sure did smear up the original." ERBzine 2833, erbzine.com
• All-Story "Table Talk," fall 1912: "the name signed was Normal (with an 'L') Bean... we beefed it and called the author Norman Bean." ERBzine 3389, erbzine.com
• JOHN CARTER, US Reg. 5281457, owner Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., registered Sep 5, 2017, LIVE (partial Sec. 8 accepted Nov 1, 2024; toys class cancelled). Covers films, "series of fiction books" and comic books, T-shirts and online entertainment information; first use Mar 9, 2012. Dynamite Characters, LLC opposed it (Opposition 91211051, instituted 2013, dismissed May 12, 2014). tsdr.uspto.gov

Related: What enters the public domain in 2027

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