Tales of adventure engage young readers

am not much of a weeper. But a recent survey of American schoolchildren is testing my stoic disposition. Only 36% of 13-year-olds say they read for fun at least once a week. Back in 1984, the year I graduated high school, 70% did so.

I certainly fit that profile. Indeed, I was one of the third of American kids in the 1980s who reported they read for pleasure nearly every day. Today, that figure is just 14%.

Ugh.

As a teenager, I eagerly read newspapers and magazines. I perused books about history, geography, and science. And I devoured fiction — especially tales of adventure that fired my imagination.

More often than not, it was a book by the master of adventure himself, Edgar Rice Burroughs, born 150 years ago today (Sept. 1) in Chicago. Although best known for the character Tarzan, Burroughs also created such heroes as the swashbuckling John Carter of Mars; the inventive Carson Napier of Venus; and the determined David Innes of Pellucidar, the savage inner surface of a hollow Earth.

Never heard of these characters? I bet you have heard of the works they inspired. Filmmakers George Lucas and James Cameron are passionate Burroughs fans who freely admit the influence of his John Carter tales on “Star Wars” and “Avatar,” respectively. As for Burroughs’s Pellucidar and “Land That Time Forgot” series, they helped birth the human-and-dinosaur genre typified by “Jurassic Park” and “King Kong.”

Popular science-fiction authors such as Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke were Burroughs devotees, as were fantasy writers such as Robert E. Howard (Conan) and H.P. Lovecraft (Cthulhu), wild-west authors such as Patrick Dearen, and even the likes of Gore Vidal and Anne Rice.

Ray Bradbury — creator of “The Martian Chronicles,” “Fahrenheit 451,” “Dandelion Wine, and many other works of genius — once wrote that “by giving romance and adventure to a whole generation,” Edgar Rice Burroughs had “caused them to go out and decide to become special.”

“That’s what we have to do for everyone, give the gift of life with our books,” Bradbury continued. “Say to a girl or boy at age ten: Hey, life is fun! Grow tall! I’ve talked to more biochemists and more astronomers and technologists in various fields, who, when they were ten years old, fell in love with John Carter and Tarzan and decided to become something romantic. Burroughs put us on the moon. All the technologists read Burroughs.”

The precipitous decline in pleasure reading by young people has multiple causes. Streaming series, video games, social media, and other digital diversions can be, well, diverting. And from the 1980s until just a few years ago, many American schools employed “whole language” and “balanced literacy” techniques that, however unintentionally, kept many students from becoming proficient readers. (Fortunately, education policymakers in North Carolina and elsewhere now heed the science of reading and are implementing a phonics-based pedagogy.)

Another potential solution is to engage today’s readers with more compelling stories. That’s precisely what Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. is doing. Founded by the author more than a century ago to manage his various ventures, the company still publishes his classic works as well as authorized books, penned by others, that continue the adventures of Tarzan, John Carter, and other Burroughs characters — plus a new star, Victory Harben, a next-generation character whose exploits continue Burroughs’s pathbreaking crossovers of separate heroes into one fictional universe.

Also coming soon is “Trailblazer: The Autobiography of Tarzan’s Creator,” which includes not only Burroughs’ own narrative of his early life but also a collection of personal reflections, anecdotes, and biographical notes.

Edgar Rice Burroughs was an avid reader. His works produced many more. “I still write as I did thirty years ago,” Burroughs reflected in 1941, “stories which I feel would entertain me and give me mental relaxation, knowing that there are millions of people just like me who will like the same things that I like.”

Today’s writers should gratefully, joyfully follow his lead.

John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His books Mountain Folk, Forest Folk, and Water Folk combine epic fantasy and American history.