GeoCities.us GeoCities.us » Heartland » Plains Get your FREE home page!

Mr. Baum's Fourteen
The Oz books L. Frank Baum wrote himself,
and the ones on my shelf

Most people only know the picture. But Lyman Frank Baum wrote fourteen books about Oz, and children in my mother's day waited for a new one every year the way children now wait for a new Nintendo game. My mother had three of them as a girl, and two of hers are on my shelf now, a little loose in the binding, with her name inside the cover in pencil.

The first book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, came out in Chicago in 1900. That means next year it turns one hundred. I intend to read it out loud to Robin, a chapter a night, starting on New Year's Day of 2000, if the lights are still on. (I worked for the telephone company too long to believe everything I hear about this Y2K.)

Mr. Baum was born in Chittenango, New York, in 1856 and died in Hollywood in May of 1919, so the last two books came out after he was gone. Ruth Plumly Thompson carried the series on for many years after that, and others after her, but these are his fourteen. W. W. Denslow drew the pictures for the first book; John R. Neill drew all the rest.

Books on my shelf are marked  ON MY SHELF . The others I am still hunting, at estate sales, church rummage sales and one dusty bookstore in Kansas City that I will not name, because I don't want any of you getting there first.
1. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
The one that started it all, with Mr. Denslow's pictures. Read it even if you think you know the story; the Tin Woodman's history alone is worth the price, and the Winkies are nothing like the picture's guards.
 ON MY SHELF 
2. The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904)
No Dorothy in this one. A boy named Tip, Jack Pumpkinhead and the Saw-Horse, and an army of girls who take over the Emerald City. The first one with Mr. Neill's drawings.
 ON MY SHELF 
3. Ozma of Oz (1907)
My favorite of all fourteen. Dorothy is washed overboard with a yellow hen named Billina, who has more sense than anybody in the book, and they meet Tik-Tok the clockwork man and the Nome King. This is one of my mother's copies.
 ON MY SHELF 
4. Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908)
An earthquake in California drops Dorothy underground with a boy named Zeb, Jim the cab-horse and Eureka the kitten. The darkest of the books, and the old Wizard comes back. My mother's other copy.
 ON MY SHELF 
5. The Road to Oz (1909)
The Shaggy Man, Button-Bright and Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter, all on the way to Ozma's birthday party. I read the library's copy to pieces as a girl.
still hunting
6. The Emerald City of Oz (1910)
Aunt Em and Uncle Henry lose the farm and move to Oz for good, which I think is the best thing that ever happened to a Kansas couple in a book. Mr. Baum meant this to be the last one and closed Oz off from the world at the end. The children of America would not let him.
 ON MY SHELF 
7. The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1913)
He came back to Oz after three years. Scraps the Patchwork Girl, made out of an old quilt, is the most cheerful creature ever put on paper. A boy named Ojo and a stuck-up Glass Cat round it out.
 ON MY SHELF 
8. Tik-Tok of Oz (1914)
Betsy Bobbin and Hank the mule, and the Queen of Oogaboo marching off to conquer Oz with an army made almost entirely of officers. I have only read it once, in 1947, borrowed.
still hunting
9. The Scarecrow of Oz (1915)
Trot and her old sailor friend Cap'n Bill, and the Scarecrow at his very best. Found this one at an estate sale in Lawrence for a quarter. The lady didn't know what she had, and I didn't tell her, and I have felt a little bad ever since.
 ON MY SHELF 
10. Rinkitink in Oz (1916)
Prince Inga, jolly King Rinkitink and a grumpy goat named Bilbil. Oz hardly appears until the end, and I don't care; the goat is worth it. This is the one I want most.
still hunting
11. The Lost Princess of Oz (1917)
Ozma disappears, and so do the best magic tools in Oz, and everybody sets out to look. A shoemaker named Ugu is behind it. A good mystery for a child who likes to guess.
 ON MY SHELF 
12. The Tin Woodman of Oz (1918)
The Tin Woodman goes looking for Nimmie Amee, the girl he was going to marry back when he was made of meat, with a boy called Woot the Wanderer. Stranger than you would expect.
still hunting
13. The Magic of Oz (1919)
Published after Mr. Baum died that spring. A boy named Kiki Aru learns a magic word for turning into anything he likes, and all of Oz is getting ready for Ozma's birthday. Bill gave me this one for our twenty-fifth anniversary.
 ON MY SHELF 
14. Glinda of Oz (1920)
The very last. Dorothy and Ozma try to stop a war between the Flatheads and the Skeezers, whose glass-domed city sinks under a lake. It is a little sad to read, knowing he never saw it in print.
still hunting

Nine on the shelf. Five to go.

If you have a copy of Rinkitink in Oz, The Road to Oz, Tik-Tok of Oz, The Tin Woodman of Oz or Glinda of Oz that needs a good home, please write. I am not a rich collector and I don't need a first printing. I need one I can hand to Robin without worrying about it.

And if you only ever read one, read the first one. It's short. Mr. Baum said in his introduction that he meant to write a new kind of fairy tale, one that kept the wonder and left out the frights, and mostly he did. (Mostly. Ask me about the Kalidahs.)

« Back down the road to the picture

[email protected]
Last updated Sunday, September 19, 1999