Glinda of Oz

Glinda of Oz is the fourteenth Land of Oz book written by children's author L. Frank Baum, published on July 10, 1920. It is the last book of the original Oz series, which was later continued by other authors. Like most of the Oz books, the plot features a journey through some of the remoter regions of Oz; though in this case the pattern is doubled: Dorothy and Ozma travel to stop a war between the Flatheads and Skeezers; then Glinda and a cohort of Dorothy's friends set out to rescue them. The book was dedicated to Baum's second son, Robert Stanton Baum.

The Magic of Oz

The Magic of Oz is the thirteenth Land of Oz book written by L. Frank Baum. Published on June 7, 1919, one month after the author's death, The Magic of Oz relates the unsuccessful attempt of the Munchkin boy Kiki Aru and former Nome King Ruggedo to conquer Oz.

     The novel was dedicated to "the Children of our Soldiers, the Americans and their Allies, with unmeasured Pride and Affection." The upsurge in sales that had greeted the previous Oz book, The Tin Woodman of Oz, in 1918 also affected The Magic of Oz, which sold 26,200 copies. The Oz books in total sold almost twice as many copies in 1919 as in 1918, and 1918 had been an exceptionally good year. The high sales were most likely influenced by the death of Baum earlier in 1919.

The Tin Woodman of Oz

The Tin Woodman of Oz is the twelfth Land of Oz book written by L. Frank Baum and was originally published on May 13, 1918. The Tin Woodman is reunited with his Munchkin sweetheart Nimmie Amee from the days when he was flesh and blood. This is a back-story from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The book is dedicated to the author's grandson Frank Alden Baum.

     The Tin Woodman of Oz provides backstory for Oz itself; it was not always a fairyland and became one by being enchanted by the Fairy Queen Lurline, who left a fairy behind to rule it. In Glinda of Oz Ozma says that she herself was that fairy, though in The Marvelous Land of Oz we are told of her restoration to a throne long held by her ancestors. In any event this novel marks a clear maturation of Ozma's character, now said to appear significantly older than Dorothy (in Ozma of Oz they appeared the same age) and a fairy working her own innate magic.

     Baum's Oz books had entered a trend of declining sales after 1910. The Tin Woodman of Oz reversed this trend; its first-year sales of 18,600 copies were enough to make it a “best-selling success.” Significantly, the sales of earlier Oz titles also rebounded from previous declines, many selling 3,000 copies that year, and two, The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904) and the previous year's The Lost Princess of Oz (1917), selling 4,000 copies. Even Baum's non-Oz-related early works were affected by the upsurge.

The Lost Princess of Oz

The Lost Princess of Oz is the eleventh canonical Oz book written by L. Frank Baum. Published on June 5, 1917, it begins with the disappearance of Princess Ozma, the ruler of Oz, and covers Dorothy and the Wizard's efforts to find her. The introduction to the book states its inspiration was a letter a young girl had written to Baum: "I suppose if Ozma ever got hurt or losted, everybody would be sorry." The book was dedicated to the author's newborn granddaughter, Ozma Baum, child of his youngest son, Kenneth Gage Baum. 

 

Rinkitink in Oz

Rinkitink in Oz is the tenth book in the Land of Oz series written by L. Frank Baum. It was published on June 20, 1916, with full-color and black-and-white illustrations by artist John R. Neill. It is notable that most of the action takes place outside of Oz, and no character from Oz appears in the book until its climax; this is due to Baum having originally written most of the book as a fantasy novel unrelated to his Oz books over ten years earlier in 1905.

    The book was dedicated to the author's newborn grandson Robert Alison Baum, the first child of the author's second son, Robert Stanton Baum. 

    The complete full title of the novel is: Rinkitink in Oz: Wherein is Recorded the Perilous Quest of Prince Inga of Pingaree and King Rinkitink in the Magical Isles that Lie Beyond the Borderland of Oz.

This novel is an example of how authors sometimes don't meticulously plan their subsequent novels like some fanatics and literary analysts like to believe. And sometimes the author really didn't intend the deep interpretations we apply to their writing. Baum simply was struggling for money and the demand for more Oz books basically forced him to rework this once independent novel into the series. So if you're still in school, and your teacher or your professor claims authors do not leave anything to chance, you may spout this pearl of information and explain that sometimes authors simply just need to make money and are gifted at telling stories, so maybe the rock on the porch is simply a rock. 

The Scarecrow of Oz

The Scarecrow of Oz is the ninth book set in the Land of Oz written by L. Frank Baum. Published on July 16, 1915, it was Baum's personal favorite of the Oz books and tells of Cap'n Bill and Trot journeying to Oz and, with the help of the Scarecrow, overthrowing the cruel King Krewl of Jinxland. Cap'n Bill and Trot (Mayre Griffiths) had previously appeared in two other novels by Baum, The Sea Fairies and Sky Island.

It seems to me, and more noticeable in this novel, that Baum began to attempt to appeal to a more adult audience for his novels, hence all the love story plots sprouting up in the series, which I believe led to the beginning of the end of the popularity for the novel series. Now, popularity never stopped me from reading or watching anything, because as I am sure you know, popularity does not equal quality and I still remain attached to these novels, despite the change in the narrative storytelling.

Tik-Tok of Oz

Tik-Tok of Oz is the eighth Land of Oz book written by L. Frank Baum, published on June 19, 1914. The book has little to do with Tik-Tok and is primarily the quest of the Shaggy Man (introduced in The Road to Oz) to rescue his brother, and his resulting conflict with the Nome King.

    The endpapers of the first edition held maps: one of Oz itself, and one of the continent on which Oz and its neighboring countries belonged. These were the first maps printed of Oz.

This is the first novel in this series where I noticed serious lapses in continuity from the Shaggy Man's Love Magnet to the timeline between characters meeting. Despite these errors, I still enjoyed living in Baum's world for a spell and made plans to read the next installment (mainly because I like to finish, actually, have to finish a series when I begin one, unless I am unaware the novel is in a series). Besides, these are the stories of Oz, and the stories of Oz are a part of us all.

The Patchwork Girl of Oz

The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum the seventh novel set in the Land of Oz. Characters include the Woozy, Ojo “the Unlucky,” Unc Nunkie, Dr. Pipt, Scraps (the patchwork girl), and others. The book was first published on July 1, 1913, with illustrations by John R. Neill. In 1914 Baum adapted the book to film through his "Oz Film Manufacturing Company.”

    In the previous Oz book, The Emerald City of Oz, magic was used to isolate Oz from all outside worlds. Baum did this to end the Oz series, but was forced to restart the series with this book due to financial hardships. In the prologue he explains how he managed to get another story about Oz, even though it is isolated from all other worlds. He explains a child suggested he make contact with Oz with wireless telegraphy. Glinda, using her book recording everything happening, is able to know someone is using a telegraph to contact Oz, so she erects a telegraph tower and has the Shaggy Man, who knows how to make a telegraph reply, tell the story contained in this book to Baum.

     The book was dedicated to Sumner Hamilton Britton, the young son of one of its publishers, Sumner Charles Britton of Reilly & Britton.

The Emerald City of Oz

The Emerald City of Oz is the sixth of L. Frank Baum’s fourteen Land of Oz books. It was also adapted into a Canadian animated film in 1987. Originally published on July 20, 1910, it is the story of Dorothy Gale and her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em coming to live in Oz permanently. While they are toured through the Quadling Country, the Nome King is assembling allies for an invasion of Oz. This is the first time in the Oz series Baum uses double plots for one of the books.

     Baum intended to cease writing Oz stories with this book, but financial pressures prompted him to write and publish The Patchwork Girl of Oz and seven other Oz books to follow.

     The book was dedicated to "Her Royal Highness Cynthia II of Syracuse,” actually the daughter (born in the previous year, 1909) of the author’s younger brother, Henry Clay “Harry” Baum.

The Road to Oz

The Road to Oz: In Which Is Related How Dorothy Gale of Kansas, The Shaggy Man, Button Bright, and Polychrome the Rainbow’s Daughter Met on an Enchanted Road and Followed it All the Way to the Marvelous Land of Oz. is the fifth of L. Frank Baum’s Land of Oz books. It was originally published on July 10, 1909, and documents the adventures of Dorothy Gale’s fourth visit to the Land of Oz.

    The book was dedicated to Joslyn Stanton Baum, the author’s first grandson, the child of Baum’s eldest son Frank Joslyn Baum.

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz is the fourth book set in the Land of Oz written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by John R. Neill. It was published on June 18, 1908, and reunites Dorothy with the humbug Wizard from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). This is one of only two of the original fourteen Oz books (the other being The Emerald City of Oz (1910) illustrated with watercolor paintings.

    Baum, having resigned himself to writing a series of Oz books, prepped elements of this book in the prior Ozma of Oz (1907). He was not entirely pleased with this, as the introduction to Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz opens with the announcement he knows many tales of many lands, and hoped children would permit him to tell them those tales.

    Written shortly after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and around the time Baum moved to California, the book starts with an earthquake in California. Dorothy and others are swallowed up by cracks in the earth and fall into an underground cavern where they begin their adventures.

   Very little of the story, six of the twenty chapters, actually takes place in Oz. As in Ozma of Oz before it, and in some of the books after, Oz is not the land where the adventures take place, but the land the characters are seeking as a refuge from adventure.

Ozma of Oz

Ozma of Oz: A Record of Her Adventures with Dorothy Gale of Kansas, Billina the Yellow Hen, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, Tik-Tok, the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger; Besides Other Good People too Numerous to Mention Faithfully Recorded Herein published on July 30, 1907, was the third book of L. Frank Baum’s Oz series, the first in which Baum clearly established a series of Oz books.

    It is the first Oz book where the majority of the action takes place outside of the Land of Oz; only the final two chapters take place in Oz itself. This reflects a subtle change in theme: in the first book, Oz is the dangerous land through which Dorothy must win her way back to Kansas; in the third, Oz is the end and aim of the book. Dorothy’s desire to return home is not as desperate as in the first book, and it is her uncle’s need for her rather than hers for him which makes her return. Illustrated throughout in color by artist John R. Neill, the book bore the following dedication: “To all the boys and girls who read my stories—and especially to the Dorothys—this book is lovingly dedicated.”

The Marvelous Land of Oz

The Marvelous Land of Oz: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, commonly shortened to The Land of Oz, published on July 5, 1904, is the second of L. Frank Baum’s books set in the Land of Oz, and the sequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). The book was made into an episode of The Shirley Temple Show in 1960 and into a Canadian animated feature film of the same name in 1987. It was also adapted in comic book form by Marvel Comics with the first issue being released in November 2009. Plot elements from The Marvelous Land of Oz are included in the 1985 Disney feature film Return to Oz.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is an American novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W.W. Denslow, originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900. It has since been reprinted on numerous occasions, most often under the title The Wizard of Oz, which is the title of the popular 1902 Broadway musical as well as the iconic 1939 musical film adaptation.

    The story chronicles the adventures of a young farm girl named Dorothy in the magical Land of Oz, after she and her pet dog Toto are swept away from their Kansas home by a cyclone. The novel is one of the best-known stories in American literature and has been widely translated. The Library of Congress has declared it “America’s greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale.” Its groundbreaking success and the success of the Broadway musical adapted from the novel led Baum to write thirteen additional Oz books serving as official sequels to the first story.

    Baum dedicated the book “to my good friend and comrade, my wife,” Maud Gage Baum. In January 1901 George M. Hill Company completed printing the first edition, a total of 10,000 copies, which quickly sold out. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz sold three million copies by the time it entered the public domain in 1956.