Jack first appeared in the original Tarzan novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. He was introduced as an infant in the non-Tarzan novel The Eternal Lover (later retitled The Eternal Savage), in which the Ape Man and his family played supporting roles. His next appearance (still as an infant) was in The Beasts of Tarzan, the third Tarzan novel, in which he was kidnapped and taken to Africa. The story of his youth and growth to manhood was told in the fourth novel, The Son of Tarzan, in which he returned to Africa and lived in the jungle, taking for the first time the name Korak ("Killer" in the language of the Great Apes). Most references to him were as "Korak the Killer."