The Philadelphia North American

Newspaper pieces are an interesting area to collect, but also difficult - due to the rarity of surviving pieces, and the fragility of those that do survive. These need handling with care!

The Philadelphia North American newspaper has several ties to the Oz series. The biggest is the Queer Visitors from the Land of Oz comic page which was published and syndicated by the paper. This was written by L. Frank Baum, and drawn by Walt McDougall, one of the earliest comic page artists.

John R. Neill worked for the paper at various times, and his artwork appears for a variety of stories/articles, including a serialized version of L. Frank Baum's Fate of a Crown. Most notable is the Sunday comic The Little Journeys of Nip & Tuck, written by W. R. Bradford.

In 1909/10, when the North American was running the Little Journeys comic page, another person was working at the paper. Lawrence Semon provided a series of illustrated articles explaining magician's tricks, and also created a paper toy on the Sunday comic page for children to cut out and assemble. In 1925, as Larry Semon, he would play the Scarecrow and star in the silent film of The Wizard of Oz.

Another Cookbook

Here I have a copy of Home Cooking, published by Rand McNally in 1896 with a W. W. Denslow cover. I think this cover brings The Wonderful Wizard strongly to mind, with the steam from the pot resembling the cyclone. I've been a little confused over this title, as it is listed in the Hearn/Greene biography of Denslow as Tasty Cooking. I don't see Denslow's seahorse anywhere on this cover, so it could well be a later printing, and perhaps the name was changed? As always, it's hard to say.

Denslow did another cookbook cover, this one for The American Pure Food Cookbook, published by George M. Hill. I don't have a copy of this title - I saw one once, but it was in fairly rough shape so I didn't pick it up. Now that I realize how tricky these books can be to find, I wish I had!

Thompson Cookbooks

Ruth Plumly Thompson did a number of advertising booklets for various companies - Here I show four titles done in the 1920's for Royal Baking.


The Little Gingerbread Man, Billy in Bunbury, and The Comical Cruises of Captain Cookie are all for Royal Baking Powder, and The Prince of the Gelatin Isles for Royal Gelatin.

These books all have cute stories in rhyme and colorful illustrations, together with a number of recipes. Gingerbread Man was the first of these booklets, from 1923, and was illustrated by Charles Coll, who also did illustrations for some other early Thompson writings. I've tried some of the recipes from The Little Gingerbread Man, and they weren't bad - although they all rely very heavily on baking powder!

I also have a poster that was issued to advertise the Gingerbread Man booklet as a free give-away. I've often wondered if similar posters were ever done for any of the other booklets.

Del Rey Royal Book

In 1985, Del Rey began to publish the first paperback editions of the Oz books by Ruth Plumly Thompson. These titles had all been out of print since the 1960's. Once again, Michael Herring created new cover designs for the titles, which were released at the pace of a couple titles a year.

Herring took inspiration from John R. Neill's characters, but worked them into a scene Neill never illustrated. The Scarecrow is based on an image from The Scarecrow of Oz, while the Wogglebug is taken from an illustration in Royal Book.
Here we see Professor Wogglebug challenging the Scarecrow to prove his lineage and earn a place in the Royal Book of Oz.

These new printings of the Thompson books were larger than the Baum titles, and taller than standard trade paperbacks.

Baum Inscription

I have one inscribed book by L. Frank Baum - it is a first printing of Father Goose, His Book, inscribed to Carolyn Stone.

This is a restored copy. The inscription is on the front free endpaper, which has actually been removed from another first printing of this title, which I also have - that copy is in very rough shape, with much wear and actually was rebound at some point using the rear cover as the front cover! The inscription was tipped into a much nicer copy of the book, although still with a replaced spine and corners - this was all professionally done for a former owner. Consequently, the whole thing is a bit of a mish-mash, but I'm still thrilled to have any kind of an inscription!

The note reads:
For my good old chum Caroline Stone with sincere hopes that I shall be able to add another name in presenting my next book. L. Frank Baum Chicago Oct. 7 1899.
I would assume this means that Caroline Stone was due to be married in the near future, or at least was of an age where it would be possible.

Royal Book of Oz

The Royal Book of Oz is the first Oz title written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. I didn't read any Thompson books until I was an adult, as they were not available when I was reading the rest of the series as a kid. When I did start to read them, I found the difference in authors a bit of a jolt. I've heard this happens to a lot of people, but if you read the Thompson titles as a kid they blend more easily with the earlier stories. I'm very fond of the Thompson books, they just feel like Oz through a slightly distorting lens.

I have a little more of a problem with this particular book than with her other titles, because I'm not terribly fond of the whole premise of the story. It involves a rather far-flung explanation of why the Scarecrow originally came to life. Still, the series was successfully continued and Thompson became the new Royal Historian of Oz.

This book is credited to L. Frank Baum on the cover, and Thompson isn't mentioned at all - however, it was entirely her own work. Several of Thompson's cast of new Oz characters are introduced in this book.

More Daring Twins

In my posting for the Daring Twins series, I forgot to mention a collecting incident that happened to me - at least, I suppose you might call it that. It's one of many stories that come under the heading of "the ones that got away", a topic familiar to any collector of anything.

There is a local antiquarian book fair every summer, and for a few years it expanded to a smaller sale in the fall as well. At one of these fall sales, maybe ten years ago now, I arrived to find a certain amount of buzz going on among the dealers. As it turned out, a copy of The Daring Twins, signed by Baum and in its dust jacket, had been making its way around the floor from dealer to dealer. It was a copy in the secondary binding, (shown at right). I believe the original price had been a couple hundred dollars, and it had worked its way into thousands. I never did actually see the book, and all the buying and selling had happened before the show opened, strictly among the dealers. Whoever ended with the book had it packed away to try and sell out east.

As it happens, I did eventually see the book at a New York book fair. As of now, it still has not made its way into a collection - and is priced at a point that makes it impossible for an average collector to purchase. It's still sitting on a dealer's shelf!

Homesick Schooner

Back in March, I posted an image of a John R. Neill watercolor sketch, as an example of some of his seascapes and nautical work. I've recently found what that sketch was intended for, in a copy of Boys' Life magazine, from 1936.

I hadn't realized that a finished version of this image had been done, or even that it had been intended for publication. Several of the Neill drawings I have are unidentified, so it's exciting to actually find one in print - even in a different form, such as this.

As can be seen, the name of the story was The Homesick Schooner, by Edward M. Barrows. Neill did a fair amount of work for Boys' Life, including a couple of covers. Some of his work was reprinted in the Boy Scouts Year Book series, published by D. Appleton, which compiled selected articles from issues of the magazine. I don't know if this particular story made it into a Year Book, but I'll look into it.

Phil & Phoebe Daring

The Daring Twins series was the only series of teen novels L. Frank Baum published under his own name. Two titles, The Daring Twins and Phoebe Daring were published, but plans for a third were dropped due, I suppose, to lack of sales. I think the books are enjoyable mysteries, something along the line of Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys. After this series ended, Baum would continue to write mysteries with the Mary Louise series, under his pen name of Edith Van Dyne.

The Daring Twins went through two cover designs. The book was published in 1911 with the blue cover shown, and then the second cover which was much more in line with Phoebe Daring, published in 1912. Phoebe Daring also had a secondary binding of plain lettered cloth.

The blue cover has an insignia in the lower right corner that I haven't been able to decipher. It doesn't appear to be the initials of Pauline M. Batchelder, who illustrated the book, and it isn't the double D of the Decorative Designers. I have to assume it's someone else's signature. The other two covers are unsigned.

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.

Denslow Covers

Here are a pair of Rand McNally novels with similar cover themes, by W. W. Denslow.

Amber Glints is a compilation of writings by Martha Everts Holden, who wrote special features for the Chicago Herald under the name of Amber. According to the Greene/Hearn biography of Denslow, she hosted the Bohemian Club, an informal gathering of artists on Tuesday nights in Chicago. She was also Denslow's future mother-in-law, as he married her daughter Ann Waters. Unfortunately, Amber died before the marriage and this book was published after her death. A second volume which I showed in an earlier post, Rosemary and Rue, was also published.

I haven't read Told in the Rockies yet, so I really don't have a clue to the story - other than I suppose it takes place in the Rockies! But the silhouette of the girl on the rock is similar to the woman in the tree of Amber Glints. Both are simple covers, and don't reveal much of the content of either book.

What's Going On?

I've been surprised to find that some of my blog posts and photos are being lifted and appearing on another Oz blog, without permission or credit as to their origin. While I realize that posting material on the web might make it more or less fair game, common politeness would dictate that permission be asked and some acknowledgment be made concerning ownership. I would like to be able to continue posting photos from my collection without resorting to watermarks, but if necessary I will start to apply labels. I'd appreciate some courtesy in this matter.

Woman with Necklace

Here is a very charming graphite drawing by John R. Neill of a woman wearing a delicate necklace, and dressed in an almost Ozian style. I'll always think of Neill as a pen & ink artist, but the various illustrations being offered by his descendants show what a variety of mediums he had mastered. I've tried to gather a collection of pieces that show his different styles and talents.

This drawing has the caption "Hilden 42nd & Madison" I'm not sure if that is a title, or a note of an address! Apparently this was published in an issue of Elks Magazine, but I've never seen a copy - I'm working on tracking it down.

I'm very fond of the book Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and for some reason I always think of this as a drawing of Arabella Strange. Completely un-Oz related, but there it is!

Glinda of Oz

Glinda of Oz was the last Oz book by L. Frank Baum. It was published in 1920, and contained a note from the publishers telling of Baum's death (which had occurred the previous year), and stating that notes had been left behind for another Oz story. This last part doesn't seem to have been true - at least, the next book in the series was not based on any notes left by Baum.

I always liked this book, but it felt very different to me than the other Baum titles in the series. I never could decide why, since it does feature many familiar elements. It might simply have been the fact that Ozma and Dorothy are off on an adventure of their own, something that had not happened in any of the previous books.

The map of Oz that had been used as endpapers in Tik-Tok of Oz was distributed with the Oz books of 1920. There was one change to the map - the compass points for east and west, which had been reversed on the original map, are now in their customary positions. This firmly places the Munchkins in the west, and the Winkies in the east - all very confusing! On the reverse side was the flag of Oz - there was an interesting article in the Baum Bugle years ago about Oz flags - there are quite a few different ones described in the books.

Music

There is quite a bit of pre-1920 sheet music related to the Oz stories. The 1902 musical extravaganza of The Wizard of Oz had many songs, some with lyrics by L. Frank Baum, others that were interpolated into the plot during the show's lengthy run on Broadway. The Wogglebug (1905) failed as a show, but sheet music was produced. The Tik-Tok Man of Oz (1913)was a moderate hit, and also produced a number of song sheets.

I have a few examples from Tik-Tok, and hope to eventually get a few pieces from the other shows as well.

In the photo below, there are also some examples of music inspired by Father Goose, His Book. The copy of The Songs of Father Goose is a reprint from approximately 1920 of a book originally published in 1901 - a different cover by W. W. Denslow was used on this edition. There are also two 1901 newspaper supplements with songs from the book.

Early Thompson

Here are a couple early books by Ruth Plumly Thompson, who would take over the Oz series after the death of L. Frank Baum. The Perhappsy Chaps was published by Volland in 1918, and is a series of poems concerning the Perhappsies - little sprites who live in the town of Perhaps. The stories have the same humor and charm Thompson would bring to the Oz books. I believe these tales originally were published on her children's page in the Philadelphia Public Ledger with illustrations by Arthur Henderson, whose illustrations were also used in the book. I find it interesting to note how many connections to Philadelphia there are in the circle of Oz authors and artists!

This book would have originally had a matching box - my copy is rather worn, with a replaced spine. The Volland books were bound in paper boards with paper spines and tend to be very delicate, often showing up in various stages of heavy wear - although there are also very nice copies out there!

Old Doc Turtle was one of a set of four books by Thompson, illustrated by Charles Coll and printed in 1920 by Murray Publishing. This is a simple paper pamphlet containing two stories, the second one being Lucky Peter. I think this may also have originated from magazine or newspaper work Thompson was doing at the time. I know of a boxed jig-saw puzzle for at least one story from this series.

Schoenhut Clowns

This may be stretching my topic a bit, but something else I collect are toy clowns from the Schoenhut Circus. The Schoenhut company was based in Philadelphia, and made many toys and dolls, but the circus is one of their best known products.

My reason for mentioning this is that the clowns really make me think of W. W. Denslow's clowns in Dot & Tot of Merryland. The book was published in 1901, and Schoenhut began making the circus toys in 1903. I don't really think that one influenced the other, but who knows - it's always a possibility!

The clowns tend to be found in various states of decrepitude - I usually call them the evil clowns, because they tend to look pretty scary. But they are great toys, and very fun to play with!

Dot & Tot

Dot and Tot of Merryland, from 1901, was L. Frank Baum and W. W. Denslow's follow up to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This was the last book the pair did together - all in all it's a cute book, but not nearly as memorable as Wonderful Wizard. Denslow did nice work in the illustrations, and the use of color throughout the book adds richness. There are no full color plates, which I do miss, but otherwise the overall look is very handsome.

I've always found the Queen's scepter on the cover a bit jarring - it looks like a grinning skull on a stick! I think it's meant to be a jester or clown, but still... I suppose if you really made an effort the whole book could be interpreted as a near death experience with the Queen of Merryland as some sort of Grim Reaper figure... but I'm not even going to go there.


The book went through several printings. On the right I'm showing a first edition, together with a Donohue reprint in dust jacket, and a 1920's Bobbs Merrill edition with a new cover featuring one of Denslow's great clowns.

Baum Bugle

I recently received the latest issue of The Baum Bugle, from The International Wizard of Oz Club. It's a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Bugle, with quite a bit of reminiscing by former editors.

It's fascinating to me to be reminded what an important part the Bugle played in Oz collecting. Before old Oz books were particularly sought after, before anyone knew what constituted a first edition/printing/state of a title, the Baum Bugle was working to help collectors. For many people today it may be a simple matter of searching online to find copies of a title you're seeking, but it certainly wasn't that easy 50 years ago! I've been fortunate in living in areas with good used book stores, but the Bugle was a huge part of making rare books available to collectors who didn't have local resources to turn to. It's still a very valuable tool for learning about the many aspects of Oz.

I'm assuming most people who bother to read my blog are familiar with the Oz Club, but for those who aren't, the website can be found at www.ozclub.org. If you're a budding collector, or simply an Oz fan, you owe it to yourself to check out this site.

Del Rey Magic

The cover of the Del Rey edition of The Magic of Oz is one of the most colorful and dramatic in the series. The painting is large, 2 feet by 3 feet, and definitely draws a lot of attention! For this painting Michael Herring chose to work on a masonite panel, which makes this a very solid and heavy painting.

The subject has again been taken from a John R. Neill drawing, although it has gained a certain presence that the original drawing lacks. Here the Wizard has grown into quite the showman, a far cry from the humbug that he was in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.











The photo I'm showing is a little misleading, as the wizard's coat does not appear quite as blue in person. On the other hand, the picture I have of the printed cover of the book makes the coat look black - just picture it somewhere in-between!