High in Jungle Treetops Swings Young Bentley―His Human Brain Imprisoned in a Mighty Ape

Arthur J. Burks was born on September 13th, 1898 in Waterville, Washington.

He served in the United States Marine Corps in World War I.

Arthur married Blanche Fidelia Lane on March 23rd, 1918 in Sacramento, California and was the father of four children.

In 1920 he began his writing career after being stationed in the Caribbean. Inspired by native voodoo rituals he used his experience to write stories of the supernatural that he then sold to the magazine Weird Tales.

In 1928 he resigned from the Marine Corps and began writing full-time. He quickly became one of the “million-word-a-year” men in the pulps by virtue of his prodigious output. Over his career he wrote some 800 stories for the pulp magazines. A favourite trick was being able to take any household object that someone would suggest and to instantly create a plot based upon it.

Burks wrote primarily on aviation, detective, adventure and weird menace. On several occasions these became entire series such as with the Kid Friel boxing stories in Gangster Stories, and the Dorus Noel undercover-detective stories for All Detective Magazine, set in Manhattan's Chinatown.

However the constant need to produce so much fiction caused him to throttle back by the late-1930s. With the United States entering the Second World War he returned to active duty, eventually retiring with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

In 1948 Burks moved to Paradise in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania where he continued to write.

Throughout the '60s, he wrote many works on metaphysics and the paranormal. In his later years, he lectured on paranormal activities.

Arthur J. Burks died on May 13th, 1974.

Index of Contents

Chapter I — Castaway

Chapter II — Into the Jungle

Chapter III — A Night of Horror

Chapter IV — Grim Awakening

Chapter V — Fumbling Hands

Chapter VI — Puppets of Barter

Chapter VII — Lord of the Jungle

Chapter VIII — Struggle for Mastery

Chapter IX — Fate Decides

Chapter X — Written in Dust

Chapter XI — Barter Acts

Chapter XII — Jungle Justice

Chapter XIII — The Horror Passes

Manape the Mighty