The Scarecrow of Oz, from 1915, settled the format of the Oz books for the next 20 years or so - color plate cover, matching dustjacket, 12 interior color plates, black & white endpapers. This book, like The Patchwork Girl, was also promoted with a cut-out advertising card. The back of the card has a publishers blurb, and lists the Oz books up to this title. Along with the card, there was a Scarecrow pinback button, bearing the same image. So far I haven't managed to acquire a button, but I know they're out there!
This book brought the main characters from The Sea Fairies and Sky Island to Oz, helping to pull L. Frank Baum's fantasy world together into a whole.
The story was based on a film plot Baum had written for the Oz Film Manufacturing Co, another theatrical enterprise he was involved in that was not successful.
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2 comments:
Nice blog! I have the card Scarecrow advertising piece...it was bought from a Canadian book dealer who said he had bought 2 from the estate of a Copp Clark executive...is yours from Canada??? If so, that answers my question...I always thought Willard bought the second piece. I was a little disappointed originally, when the piece arrived, I thought it would read "Copp Clark", but instead was R&B.
Thanks! That's really interesting, this one did come from a Canadian dealer quite some time ago - so I'll bet it was the same one. I also had wondered if it would advertise Copp-Clark rather than Reilly & Britton - I wonder if any were actually printed that way.
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