Welcome to my blog, featuring various pieces from my collection of Oz books, artwork and memorabilia!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Scarecrow of Oz


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.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

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.

Bill Campbell said...

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.