Early Thompson

Here are a couple early books by Ruth Plumly Thompson, who would take over the Oz series after the death of L. Frank Baum. The Perhappsy Chaps was published by Volland in 1918, and is a series of poems concerning the Perhappsies - little sprites who live in the town of Perhaps. The stories have the same humor and charm Thompson would bring to the Oz books. I believe these tales originally were published on her children's page in the Philadelphia Public Ledger with illustrations by Arthur Henderson, whose illustrations were also used in the book. I find it interesting to note how many connections to Philadelphia there are in the circle of Oz authors and artists!

This book would have originally had a matching box - my copy is rather worn, with a replaced spine. The Volland books were bound in paper boards with paper spines and tend to be very delicate, often showing up in various stages of heavy wear - although there are also very nice copies out there!

Old Doc Turtle was one of a set of four books by Thompson, illustrated by Charles Coll and printed in 1920 by Murray Publishing. This is a simple paper pamphlet containing two stories, the second one being Lucky Peter. I think this may also have originated from magazine or newspaper work Thompson was doing at the time. I know of a boxed jig-saw puzzle for at least one story from this series.