Tarzan (
John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an
archetypal feral child raised in the
African jungles by the
Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer. Created by
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan first appeared in the
novel Tarzan of the Apes (magazine publication
1912, book publication
1914), and subsequently in twenty-five sequels, several authorized books by other authors, and innumerable works in other media, both authorized and unauthorized.