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

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Snuggle/Oz-Man Tales


The Snuggle Tales were a series of six short books by L. Frank Baum, published by Reilly & Britton, almost a sort of precursor to Little Golden Books. In actuality, the books consisted of the material from Baum's Own Book split into four volumes, along with two additional abridgements.




The Oz-Man Tales were a reprint of the same series by Reilly & Lee. This is one - maybe the only - case where the later printing is a little bit better than the original. The Oz-Man Tales include four color plates, while the Snuggle Tales only have one!

The sixth title in the set is The Gingerbread Man, which I'm missing. I don't have a complete set of either series, but the two Oz-Man Tales that I have are interesting. They're in rough shape, but they came from the Neill family and both contain John R. Neill's personal bookplate. This was designed in 1905 by his friend Joseph Clement Coll, another great ink illustrator of the period. Unfortunately, Coll died in 1921 of appendicitis.

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