# Spider Robinson's reluctant author **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 19, 2013, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-robinsons-reluctant-author/663977 "2013-07-19T20:41:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2013, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-robinsons-reluctant-author/663977/41 "2013-07-21T23:46:37Z")
Okay. If trying to steer the discussion to the fairly obvious answer (because it’s among some posters I have acquired a fondness for) by listing egregious logic and fact errors in the arguments while simultaneously trying not to breach a confidence that \*\*confirmed \*\*the answer (because my obligations there are much stronger) is “being coy” and “playing games,” I plead guilty. If summing up my exasperation at having my comments ignored (go look; no one even replied to my first two clues or noticed that I went to the source for my confirmation) with an old punchline is an insult, I apologize. By all means, pick up the debate wherever my coyness distracted you. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-robinsons-reluctant-author/663977/42 "2013-07-22T00:25:29Z")
As lisiate notes, all the clues point to Edgar Rice Burroughs. He wrote 25 Tarzan books and his estate is notoriously litigious. He even described the birth of his career in an 1929 interview: > [@](#): > > …if people were paid for writing rot such as I read in some of those magazines, that I could write stories just as rotten. As a matter of fact, although I had never written a story, I knew absolutely that I could write stories just as entertaining and probably a whole lot more so than any I chanced to read in those magazines. But it’s hogwash. We know a great deal about his early career. He desperately wanted to be published and make money. His first story was a John Carter tale and it was of exactly the same quality. He conducted long battles with editors over the poor crafting of his early works, not because he was writing down to his audience but because he was writing up to his limited abilities. He liked Tarzan from the start. There was no bet with another writer: Burroughs may not have known any other other fiction writers. If this claptrap were even remotely true, the anecdote would be all over the literature. It wouldn’t be a story talked about at conventions; it would be in print. It’s not. I read these books - I’m working through Lee Servers’ The Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers now, in fact, a treasure trove of info about some otherwise very little known writers - and nobody else ever mentions it. But the start of Burroughs career was well-known even in 1977. Sam Moskowitz details it story by story in “A History of ‘The Scientific Romance’ in the Munsey Magazines, 1912-1920,” the nonfiction section of his pulp anthology _Under the Moons of Mars_, published in 1970. If there is another writer who fits these details, that would be a remarkable coincidence. Robinson may have sincerely believed it was Burroughs, may believe it to this day. People buy into urban legends. We’ve diverged into two separate questions. 1) Who was Robinson referring to? and 2) Can the story be believed about any particular author? 2) is easy. There is no author in the known genre universe that that story is believable about. 1) seems to be ERB and Tarzan. Here’s my challenge, though. Provide one iota of evidence that Burroughs - or any other writer - ever acted in a manner that fits the story. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-robinsons-reluctant-author/663977/43 "2013-07-22T00:25:54Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Okay. > > If trying to steer the discussion to the fairly obvious answer (because it’s among some posters I have acquired a fondness for) by listing egregious logic and fact errors in the arguments while simultaneously trying not to breach a confidence that \*\*confirmed \*\*the answer (because my obligations there are much stronger) is “being coy” and “playing games,” I plead guilty. > > If summing up my exasperation at having my comments ignored (go look; no one even replied to my first two clues or noticed that I went to the source for my confirmation) with an old punchline is an insult, I apologize. > > By all means, pick up the debate wherever my coyness distracted you. > [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > _Erm erm erm_… “Keep guessing” is all I can pass along. Sooner or later you’ll kick it to the kerb, 0 K? > [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Set selection: null. Oh, it’s like a treasure hunt! I thought the 0° Kelvin and null were both supposed to be clues. But maybe more clever lads than me can make something of them. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-robinsons-reluctant-author/663977/44 "2013-07-22T00:31:47Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Okay. > > If trying to steer the discussion to the fairly obvious answer (because it’s among some posters I have acquired a fondness for) by listing egregious logic and fact errors in the arguments while simultaneously trying not to breach a confidence that \*\*confirmed \*\*the answer (because my obligations there are much stronger) is “being coy” and “playing games,” I plead guilty. > > If summing up my exasperation at having my comments ignored (go look; no one even replied to my first two clues or noticed that I went to the source for my confirmation) with an old punchline is an insult, I apologize. > > By all means, pick up the debate wherever my coyness distracted you. No, we;'re calling you “coy” and saying that “you’re playing games” because, well, you’re being coy and playing games. There’s no other way to describe that “fifth word” “last two words” and “bipartite word” nonsense. “It’s the Greatest thing in the world for a man to look as if he has a great secret in him” (Ishmael in _Moby Dick_). Right now, that guy is you. ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-robinsons-reluctant-author/663977/45 "2013-07-22T02:12:12Z")
Whatever you do, don’t stop. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-robinsons-reluctant-author/663977/46 "2013-07-22T02:15:19Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > Whatever you do, don’t stop. Unless you’re a serial killer. In that case, stopping is preferable. ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-robinsons-reluctant-author/663977/47 "2013-07-22T23:02:21Z")
I meant this argument thread. It’s delightful. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-robinsons-reluctant-author/663977.md?page=2)