Zauberlinda the Wise Witch was published in 1901, and is frequently mentioned as being one of the more blatant imitations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This is true in terms of appearance - the illustration style is very Denslow-like, and the layout of the book mimics the Wizard - but the story really doesn't seem to take that much inspiration from the L. Frank Baum book.
In fact, I find it interesting that in Zauberlinda we meet the King of the Gnomes, who lives underground where he rules a great kingdom of metalworkers. Annie and her cat Silvertoes are threatened with remaining in the Kingdom of the Gnomes forever, but manage to escape, taking along the King's most powerful magical object. I don't really think that this inspired Baum's writing, but the similarities to 1907's Ozma of Oz are striking! Other aspects of the book bring to
mind the Twinkle and Chubbins stories, with the concept of "nature fairyland".
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4 comments:
I picked up a copy of this myself a couple months ago after hearing that it was a "Wonderful Wizard" clone. Any similar Oz knockoffs from the time that you'd recommend?
Zauberlinda is the only title I've read that's generally acknowledged to be imitating Baum's book, and as I said, I think that's more on a visual level than anything else. I know I've seen a list somewhere of other likely titles, but can't think where at the moment - possibly in an older Baum Bugle?
Interesting. Thanks for the tip. I'll have to check the Oz club's back listings for "Baum Bugles."
And though I've said it before I'll say it again, really enjoying reading this blog! You have some beautiful pieces and I'm really grateful that you're willing to share them with us. :-)
I'm glad you're enjoying it - there are certainly better collections out there, and I've got quite a few gaps in mine, but I'm enjoying sharing it.
If I run across the list of titles I'm thinking of, I'll mention it here - another title that I've seen listed, which I do have a very rough copy of, is The Golden Goblin, by Curtis Dunham and George Kerr. George Kerr provided illustrations for the 1908 printing of Baum's American Fairy tales.
I'm not completely clear on what qualifies a book as being an Oz imitation - it seems to be more of a visual thing than story-oriented.
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