Lucky Bucky in Oz had a British edition published in 1945, by Hutchinson Books. I think an attempt was being made to profit from the MGM film, which was re-released in England in 1944, by issuing the most recent Oz title. No matter how you look at it, it was an odd title to choose when most of the series had never been published in Britain.This volume is larger than the American Oz books, but considerably thinner due to a new layout for the story and the omission of a few illustrations. A new cover was painted for the dust jacket, based on John R. Neill's original design. I prefer Neill's original, with the stylized stripes of waves, rather than the more realistic ocean.
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4 comments:
Wow! I've never seen the UK version in a dust jacket! I agree with you that overall I prefer the original Neill cover art, but this alternative is fascinating for me to see. Is there anything on the back?
As usual, enjoy your blog! Actually, there are several issues of 'Wizard', which I'm sure you know, and 'The Marvelous Land of Oz", which is extremely rare. My copy of "Lucky Bucky" in DJ was bought from Australia...yours is also one of the few with the DJ I've ever seen. Non states "Oz" is really uncommon!
My copy was purchased in London about 12 years ago when I was visiting my sister, who was living there at the time with her family. I ran across it in a bookshop, much to my surprise - I knew it existed, but didn't really expect to find a copy. The back of the jacket lists a few other titles published by Hutchinson, nothing Oz related.
I've seen pictures of the British first of "Wizard", and of "Marvelous Land" - two other Baum titles I know of with early British editions are "Mother Goose in Prose" and "Queen Zixi of Ix".
The Mother Goose actually sold better in England than in the States...I did not know of a British Zixi. I have the Copp Clark "Zixi", but British Baum , and, other than the 1926 Hutchinson "Wizard", and later issues, are pretty much ignored.
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