No, there was never a real English lord raised by apes in the African jungle. Tarzan is a fictional character, born from the wild imagination of author Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1912.
Burroughs wrote the first story, Tarzan of the Apes, as a pulp magazine serial. He didn’t have a specific, real-life wild boy in mind—he just wanted to tell a roaringly good adventure tale.
So, if you were hoping to book a safari to visit the actual Tarzan’s treehouse, I’m sorry to be the one to break the vine. He isn’t real. But oh, the story behind the story is where it gets really fun!
Why This Myth Persists (And Why We Love It)
The idea of a “wild child” is absolutely real. Throughout history, there have been documented cases of feral children raised in isolation, sometimes even by animals. These stories fascinate us because they ask: What makes us human?
Burroughs took that kernel of reality—the human ability to survive against all odds—and wrapped it in a loincloth. He added a dose of Victorian nobility and a whole lot of jungle action.
The result? A character so iconic that he feels like he should have been real. That’s the magic of a good story, right? It makes you believe.
The Legend of Tarzan: The true story of author Edgar Rice Burroughs
