So this is why I wrote so much about Tarzan...

June 3, 2008 12:22 PM

Help me find this short story about Edgar Rice Burroughs in hell.

I think that I read the story in the mid 90s, so it would have been published at that time or before. The main thrust of the story is Edgar Rice Burroughs gradually realizing that he is sexually attracted to men (there's a small chance that the main character was some other famous early speculative fiction writer). The hell of the setting contains numerous historical warlords, who are constantly fighting one another; if one dies they simply reawaken the next morning in their bed. Anyone else read this?

posted by overglow to writing & language (4 comments total)

Wow. I haven't heard of this, but it wouldn't be one of Philip Jose Farmer's tales, would it? Smacks of Riverworld.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 1:00 PM on June 3

Could it be set in Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld?
posted by zamboni at 1:07 PM on June 3

The Heroes in Hell series of books, perhaps? I've only ever read the first one, and that was 22 years ago, so I can't confirm the ERB storyline.

And thanks, I hadn't thought about these in years.
posted by JaredSeth at 1:36 PM on June 3

Hmm, from looking into the Heroes in Hell series it sounds like it could be "Gilgamesh in the Outback" by Robert Silverberg, which features both H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard (the creator of Conan)... but nothing about it online mentions the queer aspect... Anyone happen to have access to the story who wants to check?
posted by overglow at 12:56 AM on June 4