About the Author Robert Zeuschner is a classical guitarist and an aspiring lutenist, who also loves to listen to and play the acoustic blues of the 1930s. He earns his living as a professor of philosophy, and has taught at the University of Southern California, and at the Universities of California at Santa Barbara and Riverside. He started out as a mathematician and computer programmer, and later earned his Ph.D. degree in comparative philosophy. The Zeuschner family lived in Hawaii for many years, and presently makes its home in the foothills near Pasadena, California. Dr. Zeuschner has travelled the Carribean, purchased chess pieces in Greece, and spent time in Japan studying Japanese garden design and practicing Zen meditation. In addition to his extensive collection of books and magazines by and about Edgar Rice Burroughs, he has accumulated Burroughs-related art, old-time-radio programs, Japanese and Chinese black-ink landscapes and calligraphy, the films of Laurel and Hardy, the music of J. S. Bach; he owns one Renaissance lute, three classical and five acoustic blues guitars, and at one time his house had seven computers in it. Dr. Zeuschner reads many other authors including Thorne Smith, Earl Der Biggers, George Barr McCutcheon, Edgar Wallace, Sax Rohmer, Isaac Asimov, J. P. Donleavy, Philip José Farmer, Gary Snyder, Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu. It has long been his wish to have enough bookcases to hold his library. He has published translations from the Chinese and Japanese, written on Buddhist philosophy, and published a college textbook on comparative ethics. In addition to his wife Lindy, and children, David, Danae, Jennifer and Scott, the Zeuschner household belongs to a dog named Abu, a cat named Spot and two noisy love-birds called Stan and Ollie. Bob begged me by phone to delete this excerpt. It appears most of the animals have departed this mortal coil and he thought the article was too cute. I thought it was cute enough to include at this web site. Sue me, O Tardos Mors, for publishing this embarrassment to the Internet. :)