The Lost Princess of Oz was the other L. Frank Baum book that I could not find as a kid. I was buying the Rand McNally paperback Oz series and this title, along with Rinkitink in Oz, was never published that way. It confused me for years! I finally did pick up a Reilly & Lee white cover copy, and eventually a first edition in dustjacket.
Some of John R. Neill's illustrations for this book have an interesting delicacy, particularly the color plates. I think this is partly due to the pastel color scheme used in the printing of these pages. The Oz books usually follow a certain color scheme in the plates - Tik-Tok and Scarecrow both used a lot of peach and lavender, Rinkitink added some strong jolts of red, Lost Princess has more yellow, pink and blue.
I also have a copy of a second printing that supposedly was in the family of Jack Snow, who would later write two Oz books as well as a Who's Who. I don't know if this is true - the name in the book is Lyndon Snow, written in a child's block lettering with an address of 60 First Ave. - no city or state. I doubt the story, but if anyone knows differently, I'd love to hear about it.
From what I've heard, it does sound very unlikely that my copy of Lost Princess (mentioned above) was connected with the family of Jack Snow - not too much of a surprise there, I think it was wishful thinking on someone's part!
ReplyDeleteBill,
ReplyDeleteMy Great grandmother was Martha Everts Holden, the author of Amber Glints. W.W. Denslow was married to Amber's daughter. I love your blog.
Cathy Turner Gamlen
Thanks! What fun to hear from a relative of the author.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that Denslow dedicated "Denslow's Mother Goose" to Ann Waters - Denslow's wife and Martha's daughter? Also L. Frank Baum included a verse about Annie Waters in "Father Goose, His Book", Baum & Denslow's first great success!