After a brief survey of Burroughs's life prior to his literary career, the book discusses his writings in two broad sequences, the first devoted to his main body of work aside from that devoted to Tarzan, and the second specifically to the Tarzan books. Treatment in each sequence is broadly chronological, but with groups of related works treated topically. For instance, chapters 3, 5, and 9 are devoted to Burroughs's
Mars series, chapters 4 and 6 to his
Pellucidar series, chapter 7 to
The Land that Time Forgot and
The Moon Maid, which Lupoff considers some of Burroughs's masterworks, and chapter 10 to the
Venus series, with miscellaneous works covered primarily in chapters 4, 8, and 11. The Tarzan chapters cover the ape-man's early, middle, and late adventures (in chapters 12-14, 16, and 17, respectively), interspersed with material on the character's literary antecedents (chapter 15) and descendants (chapter 18). Two additional chapters round out the work by assembling a recommended reading list of essential Burroughs novels (chapter 19), notable for its placement of the relatively obscure Burroughs novels
The War Chief and
The Mucker at third and fourth place, respectively, and surveying works not published during Burroughs's lifetime (chapter 20), many of which remained unpublished at the time Lupoff initially wrote. (Almost all have since been printed). The book includes outlines for all of Burroughs's major novels, and covers several aspects of his body of work, including influences upon his work, works influenced by Burroughs, and later works by Burroughs that never came to fruition due to his service in
World War II as a war correspondent and declining health later in life. ==Table of Contents==