Tarzan (book series)

=== Unauthorized works in Israel and the Arab world ===

In Israel in the 1950s and early 1960s there was a thriving industry of locally produced Tarzan adventures published weekly in 24-page brochures by several competing publishing houses, none of which bothered to get any authorization from the Burroughs estate. The stories featured Tarzan in contemporary Africa, a popular theme being his fighting against the [[Mau Mau rebellion|Mau Mau]] in 1950s [[Kenya]] and single-handedly crushing their revolt several times over. He also fought a great variety of monsters, [[vampires]] and invaders from outer space infesting the African jungles, and discovered several more lost cities and cultures in addition to the ones depicted in the Burroughs canon. Some brochures had him meet with Israelis and take Israel's side against her [[Arab]] enemies, especially [[Gamal Abdel Nasser|Nasser]]'s [[Egypt]]. None of the brochures ever bore a writer's name, and the various publishers—"Elephant Publishing" ({{lang-he|הוצאת הפיל}}), "Rhino Publishing" ({{lang-he|הוצאת הקרנף|link=no}}) and several similar names—provided no more of an address than POB numbers in [[Tel Aviv]] and [[Jerusalem]]. These Tarzan brochures were extremely popular among Israeli youths of the time, successfully competing with the numerous Hebrew translations of the original Tarzan novels. The Tarzan brochures faded out by the middle 1960s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.erbzine.com/mag9/0991.html|title=ERBzine 0991: Tarzan in the Holy Land II|last=Hillman|first=Bill and Sue-On|website=www.erbzine.com|access-date=2018-09-06}}</ref>

The popularity of Tarzan in Israel had some effect on the spoken Hebrew language. As it happens, "tarzan" ({{lang-he|טרזן|link=no}}) is a long-established Hebrew word, translatable as "dandy, fop, coxcomb" (according to R. Alcalay's ''Complete Hebrew-English Dictionary'' of 1990). However, a word could not survive with that meaning while being identical with the name of a popular fictional character usually depicted as wearing a loincloth and jumping from tree to tree in the jungle. Since the 1950s the word in its original meaning has completely disappeared from the spoken language, and is virtually unknown to Hebrew speakers at present—though still duly appearing in dictionaries.<ref>[http://www.violetbooks.com/tarzan-israel.html Violet Books: Tarzan in Israel<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140206010919/http://www.violetbooks.com/tarzan-israel.html |date=February 6, 2014 }}.</ref>

In the 1950s new Tarzan stories were also published in [[Syria]] and [[Lebanon]]. Tarzan in these versions was a staunch supporter of the Arab cause and helped his Arab friends foil various fiendish Israeli plots.<ref>James R. Nesteby,'Tarzan of Arabia', in the [[Journal of Popular Culture]], volume 15, number 1, 1981.</ref>