# Is there an Edgar Rice Burroughs in the building? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 1, 2001, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-edgar-rice-burroughs-in-the-building/74413 "2001-08-01T00:31:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-edgar-rice-burroughs-in-the-building/74413/1 "2001-08-01T00:31:03Z")
Because I really need an answer to this burning question. (Placed in this forum as I thought it was rather a frivolous query.) It has been bugging me for decades, well… years anyway. Why didn’t Tarzan ever have a beard? Now, I’ve never read the books but in all the movies and tv shows, even the animated version, he is always clean shaven. But who taught him to do that if he was raised by the apes? I would appreciate it mightily if some kindly soul could help me strike this one from my gargantuan list of Unanswered Questions[sup]®[/sup]. Thank you for your patience. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-edgar-rice-burroughs-in-the-building/74413/2 "2001-08-01T00:38:33Z")
Some of those vine swings brought his face awfully close to the bark of nearby trees… ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-edgar-rice-burroughs-in-the-building/74413/3 "2001-08-01T02:43:07Z")
As I recall, he started to shave as a part of his realisation that he wasn’t like the other apes. Not long after his first encounter with another human being, he began emulating their appearance (started wearing a loincloth, shaving, etc.) in recognition that he was human. Apes had hair on their faces. Men did not. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-edgar-rice-burroughs-in-the-building/74413/4 "2001-08-01T02:52:48Z")
To expand on **Dijon’s** answer, in the book “Tarzan of the Apes” the young tarzan saw a picture book, found in the wreckage of his birth parent’s cabin, showing pictures of humans, all without hairy faces. He wanted to look like them, not like the apes who raised him. So he shaved. ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-edgar-rice-burroughs-in-the-building/74413/5 "2001-08-01T03:24:18Z")
Ah, that’s right. Forgot about that. “Unk, Tantor! As fast as you can!” ---
**Author:** ![Fyodor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/958977/32.png) [@Fyodor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fyodor)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-edgar-rice-burroughs-in-the-building/74413/6 "2001-08-01T04:05:20Z")
“The young Lord Greystoke was indeed a strange and warlike figure, his mass of black hair falling to his shoulders behind and cut with his hunting knife to a rude bang upon his forhead, that it might not fall before his eyes.” “His straight and perfect figure, muscled as the best of the ancient Roman gladiators must have been muscled, yet with the soft and sinuous curves of a Greek god, told at a glance the wondrous combination of enormous strength and suppleness and speed.” Get to the point Al. OK, OK… “Was not hair commencing to grow upon his face? All the apes had hair upon theirs, but the black men were entirely hairless with very few exceptions. True, he had seen pictures in his books of men with great masses of hair upon lip and cheek and chin, but, nevertheless, Tarzan was afraid. Almost daily he whetted his keen knife and scraped and whittled at his young beard to eradicate this degrading emblem of apehood.” ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-edgar-rice-burroughs-in-the-building/74413/7 "2001-08-01T05:06:16Z")
Woo-hoo! Score one for this unshorn tarmangani. Tarzan was soooo long ago for me. Have to go dig through my library, now… ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-edgar-rice-burroughs-in-the-building/74413/8 "2001-08-01T05:45:18Z")
I knew I shoulda read the book. Thanks all, it makes a lot more sense now. I do wonder though, having seen my brother’s attempts to shave his head with a safety razor, how Tarzan avoided some nasty scars. Exquisite control I guess. Al, I **really** appreciated your added bonus description. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-edgar-rice-burroughs-in-the-building/74413/9 "2001-08-01T13:17:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dwyr \* > \*\* > > Why didn’t Tarzan ever have a beard? > > \*\* It’s damned un-English! ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-edgar-rice-burroughs-in-the-building/74413/10 "2001-08-01T14:41:45Z")
Yes, but why didn’t Green Martians like me have a beard? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-edgar-rice-burroughs-in-the-building/74413/11 "2001-08-01T15:19:20Z")
Green Martians are completely hairless, you big, six-limbed APE! Jeez! Don’t SCARE me like that! The Green Martians are some of the coolest aliens EVER! ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-edgar-rice-burroughs-in-the-building/74413/12 "2001-08-01T15:43:23Z")
Good grief, **Tars Tarkas** , you’ve already got four arms and TUSKS! Now you want a beard, too? Cheez-it, there’s no pleasing some people! (And just for the record, when I picture the various Barsoomian peoples/creatures, I’m picturing them as Michael Whelan painted them on the covers of the Del Rey editions.) Aaaand, to head off the “where’d he get the knife” questions, Tarzan found it among his parents’ belongings, which they’d salvaged from the shipwreck before they themselves died. The knife was Tarzan’s great equalizer for life among the powerful apes. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2001, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-edgar-rice-burroughs-in-the-building/74413/13 "2001-08-01T17:36:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Al Zheimers \* > True, he had seen pictures in his books of men with great masses of hair upon lip and cheek and chin, but, nevertheless, Tarzan was afraid. Almost daily he whetted his keen knife and scraped and whittled at his young beard to eradicate this degrading emblem of apehood." Well, I knew there was a book involved in it somewhere!