More Dot and the Wiz

Dorothy and the Wizard was the first vintage Oz book I bought, when I was about 15, and it confused me to no end. I was not familiar with the printing history of the book at that time, and all I knew was the Rand McNally paperback that I owned. This book has a cover which was redrawn by Dick Martin for the 1960's Reilly & Lee versions (shown at right). This version also had a drawing on the rear cover, adapted from one of the original color plates, and Dick Martin adapted several of the watercolor plates into ink drawings for additional illustrations within the book. Confused yet?

The old copy that I bought (at left) had no Dorothy on the cover, the Wizard was painted rather than the ink drawing I knew, and inside the book there seemed to be pictures missing! I didn't know there had originally been color plates. Anyway, none of this stopped me searching for vintage Oz books - this just fueled my interest. I knew there had to be something out there with more artwork, and this intrigued me.