

He married his childhood sweetheart, Emma Hulbert (1876–1944), in January 1900. He found work at his father's firm in 1899.

He drifted and worked on a ranch in Idaho.

Typescript letter, with Tarzana Ranch letterhead, from Burroughs to Ruthven Deane, explaining the design and significance of his bookplateĪfter his discharge, Burroughs worked a number of different jobs. īurroughs's bookplate, showing Tarzan holding the planet Mars, surrounded by other characters from his stories and symbols relating to his personal interests and career After being diagnosed with a heart problem and thus ineligible to serve, he was discharged in 1897. Cavalry in Fort Grant, Arizona Territory. Graduating in 1895, and failing the entrance exam for the United States Military Academy at West Point, he became an enlisted soldier with the 7th U.S. He then attended Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts, and then the Michigan Military Academy. īurroughs was educated at a number of local schools, and during the Chicago influenza epidemic in 1891, he spent half a year at his brother's ranch on theRaft River in Idaho. He had other ancestors who settled in Virginia during the colonial period, and he often emphasized his connection with that side of the family, seeing it as more romantic and warlike. Many of his ancestors fought in the American Revolution. He once remarked, "I can trace my ancestry back to Deacon Edmund Rice." The Burroughs side of the family was also of English origin and also emigrated to Massachusetts at around the same time.

Through his grandmother Mary Rice, he was descended from Edmund Rice, one of the English Puritans who moved to Massachusetts in the early colonial period. Burroughs was of almost entirely English ancestry, with a family line that had been in North America since the early colonial era. His middle name is from his paternal grandmother, Mary Rice Burroughs (1802–c.1870). Burroughs was born on September 1, 1875, in Chicago, Illinois (he later lived for many years in the suburb of Oak Park), the fourth son of Major George Tyler Burroughs (1833–1913), a businessman and Civil War veteran, and his wife, Mary Evaline (Zieger) Burroughs (1840–1920).
