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The Oz books
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The Oz books form a book series that begins with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and that relates the "history" of the Land of Oz. Oz was originally created by author L. Frank Baum, who went on to write fourteen Oz books. Although most of the Oz books are strictly adventures, Baum—as well as many later Oz authors—styled themselves as "Royal Historians" of Oz to emphasize that Oz is a genuine place. Later authors wrote 26 other "official" books after Baum's death.
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Quotations
Oz books, The
Oz books, The
If any of us takes a rest,We'll be arrested sure,And get no restitution'Cause the rest we must endure.
Chapter 6, "The Journey"
Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer's wife.
Chapter 1, "The Cyclone", Opening words
I have nine lives, said the kitten, purring softly as it walked around in a circle and then came back to the roof; but I can't lose even one of them by falling in this country, because I really couldn't manage to fall if I wanted to.
Chapter 2, "The Glass City"
He told Dorothy he had brushed his shaggy hair and whiskers; but she thought he must have brushed them the wrong way, for they were quite as shaggy as before.
Chapter 4, "King Dox"
Oh indeed! exclaimed the King. Then he turned to his servants and said: Please take General Crinkle to the torture chamber. There you will kindly slice him into thin slices. Afterward you may feed him to the seven-headed dogs.
Chapter 4, "How The Nome King Planned Revenge"
Encyclopedia
The Oz books form a book series that begins with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and that relates the "history" of the Land of Oz. Oz was originally created by author L. Frank Baum, who went on to write fourteen Oz books. Although most of the Oz books are strictly adventures, Baum—as well as many later Oz authors—styled themselves as "Royal Historians" of Oz to emphasize that Oz is a genuine place. Later authors wrote 26 other "official" books after Baum's death. Many other authors have put their own twists on Oz, notably Gregory Maguire's revisionist Wicked. For more such books, please see List of published Oz Apocrypha.
Background
The first fourteen books by the original author, L. Frank Baum, another nineteen by Ruth Plumly Thompson, and another seven books by various other authors comprise the "Famous Forty", which is considered the classic original series by The International Wizard of Oz Club. (though many inconsistencies make it difficult to call it canonical). Most of the books in the "Famous Forty" were published by Reilly & Britton (later Reilly & Lee).
List of "canonical" Oz books ("The Famous Forty")
| The original books by L. Frank Baum | | Cover | Order | Title | Illustrator | Year | Publisher |
|---|
| 1 | The Wonderful Wizard of Oz | W. W. Denslow | 1900 | George M. Hill | | Dorothy gets swept into the Land of Oz by a cyclone. She meets a living Scarecrow, a man made entirely of tin, and a Cowardly Lion while trying to get to the Emerald City to see the great Wizard. Also reprinted by various publishers under the names The New Wizard of Oz and The Wizard of Oz with occasional minor changes in the text. | | 2 | The Marvelous Land of Oz | John R. Neill | 1904 | Reilly & Britton | | A little boy, Tip, escapes from his evil guardian, the witch Mombi, with the help of a walking wooden figure with a jack-o'-lantern head named Jack Pumpkinhead (brought to life with the magic Powder of Life Tip stole from Mombi), as well as a living Sawhorse (created from the same powder). Tip ends up on an adventure with the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman. Tip finally learns that he is really Princess Ozma, the true ruler of Oz, is changed back into a girl, and ascends the throne of Oz. Also reprinted as The Land of Oz. |
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Thompson's style was markedly different from Baum's. Her tales harkened back to more traditional fairytales. She often included a small kingdom, with a prince or princess who saves his or her kingdom and regains the throne or saves Oz from invasion. Thompson even respelled Baum's respelling "Nome" as the more traditional "Gnome". All in all Thompson wrote 19 Oz books, five more than Baum.
| By Ruth Plumly Thompson | | Order | Title | Illustrator | Year | Publisher |
|---|
| 15 | The Royal Book of Oz | John R. Neill | 1921 | Reilly & Lee | | The Scarecrow, going on a quest to find his family tree, slides down a magic bean-pole and discovers he is actually the Emperor of the mysterious underground Silver Islands. When Dorothy discovers him missing, she sets out to find him, meeting the knight, Sir Hokus of Pokes, along the way. Although Baum was credited as the author, it was written entirely by Thompson. | | 16 | Kabumpo in Oz | John R. Neill | 1922 | Reilly & Lee | | During Prince Pompadore of Pumperdink's birthday celebration a magic scroll is found inside his birthday cake. It warns him that if he doesn't wed a "proper princess" within seven days, his entire kingdom will disappear. The prince, along with the old, wise elephant Kabumpo, the Elegant Elephant, set off on an adventure to the Emerald City and along the way meet up with Peg Amy, a living wooden doll, and Wag, a giant rabbit. Meanwhile Ruggedo the Gnome King (Thompson "corrected" Baum's "Nome") turns himself into a giant while tunneling under the Emerald City, gets Ozma's palace stuck on his crown, and runs off with it. | | 17 | The Cowardly Lion of Oz | John R. Neill | 1923 | Reilly & Lee | | The Cowardly Lion is kidnapped by Mustafa of Mudge for Mustafa's large menagerie of lions. With the help of American circus clown Notta Bit More and orphan Bobbie Downs, or Bob Up, he is rescued from Mustafa as well as from petrifaction caused by the stone giant Crunch. | | 18 | Grampa in Oz | John R. Neill | 1924 | Reilly & Lee | | Prince Tatters of Ragbag and Grampa, a former soldier, set out to search for King Fumbo's lost head and a fortune to save the kingdom. Meanwhile, in Perhaps City in the Maybe Mountains the Princess Pretty Good disappears after the prophet Abrog foresees her marrying a monster if she does not marry in four days. | | 19 | The Lost King of Oz | John R. Neill | 1925 | Reilly & Lee | | Old Mombi (from The Land of Oz) is now a cook in the land of Kimbaloo, and one day comes across Pajuka, the former prime minister of Oz, whom she enchanted into a goose years before. She sets out to find Pastoria, the king of Oz, whom she had also enchanted. Meanwhile, Dorothy is accidentally transported to Hollywood, where she meets Humpy, a live stunt dummy, whom she brings back to Oz. | | 20 | The Hungry Tiger of Oz | John R. Neill | 1926 | Reilly & Lee | | The Hungry Tiger (first seen in Ozma of Oz) is transported to Rash, the Red Kingdom in Ev, where he is made guard of the prison, where he discovers Betsy Bobbin, Carter Green the Vegetable Man, and the Scarlet Prince Reddy of Rash as prisoners. They escape, and have many adventures on the way back to Oz. | | 21 | The Gnome King of Oz | John R. Neill | 1927 | Reilly & Lee | | Peter Brown, an American boy, finds his way to the Island of Ruggedo, the wicked Gnome King. The two escape to Oz, which the Gnome King plans to conquer. Meanwhile Scraps, the Patchwork Girl, is kidnapped by the Quilties and made their queen. | | 22 | The Giant Horse of Oz | John R. Neill | 1928 | Reilly & Lee | | Many years ago, before Dorothy came to Oz, the royal family of the Munchkins were kidnapped and imprisoned on the mysterious Ozure Islands by the witch Mombi. Quiberon, an evil monster created by Mombi, guards them, but now wants a mortal maiden. Prince Philador of the Ozure Islands sets out to save them, and meets Tattypoo, the Good Witch of the North (not seen since a cameo in The Road to Oz). | | 23 | Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz | John R. Neill | 1929 | Reilly & Lee | | Remembering his previous visit to Oz, Peter (from The Gnome King of Oz) finds himself in Jack Pumpkinhead's yard. The two set off for the Emerald City, but take a wrong turn and end up in the Quadling Country, where they meet products of Mogodore, Red Baron of Baffleburg's plot to conquer Oz and marry Ozma, including Belfaygor of Bourne, with his beard cursed to rapid growth, and Snif the Iffin, a griffin who has lost his "grr." | | 24 | The Yellow Knight of Oz | John R. Neill | 1930 | Reilly & Lee | | Sir Hokus of Pokes grows bored with life in the Emerald City, and he and the Comfortable Camel set out for some adventure. Meanwhile a boy named Speedy blasts his way to Oz in a homemade rocket ship, where he finds himself in the underground kingdom of Subterranea. Sir Hokus rescues the Princess Marygolden and finds a shift in his identity and learns that his memories of Merrie Olde England are false. | | 25 | Pirates in Oz | John R. Neill | 1931 | Reilly & Lee | | Peter returns to Oz for a third time, this time with pirates on the Nonestic Ocean (which surrounds the continent Oz is on). Meanwhile, Old Ruggedo, the Gnome King, is back. He had been hit with a Silence Stone at the end of The Gnome King of Oz, and decides to answer an advertisement for king of the Land of Menankypoo. He also encounters Pigasus the flying pig and Captain Samuel Salt and his band of pirates. | | 26 | The Purple Prince of Oz | John R. Neill | 1932 | Reilly & Lee | | While visiting the neighboring kingdom of Pumperdink, Prince Randy of the Purple Mountains criticizes the king's grapes, claiming they are sour. Randy is sentenced to be "dipped", but Kabumpo, the Elegant Elephant, makes him his attendant instead. Later, the royal family disappears and Randy and Kabumpo must save the day. | | 27 | Ojo in Oz | John R. Neill | 1933 | Reilly & Lee | | Ojo (from The Patchwork Girl of Oz) is captured by Gypsies and escapes with fellow captive Realbad, the leader of a group of bandits. Together they discover X-Pando, the flexible man, free Crystal City from the Blue Dragon, visit Unicorners where Unicorns come from, and visit Dicksey Land, as well as many other strange lands. | | 28 | Speedy in Oz | John R. Neill | 1934 | Reilly & Lee | | Speedy (from The Yellow Knight of Oz) returns for another adventure. While inspecting a dinosaur skeleton, Speedy is blown by a geyser into the air. The skeleton comes magically to life and becomes Terrybubble, a live (although fleshless) dinosaur. Terrybubble and Speedy land on Umbrella Island, a magic floating island, which has been captured by a giant. | | 29 | The Wishing Horse of Oz | John R. Neill | 1935 | Reilly & Lee | | This Oz mystery starts in Skampavia where King Skamperoo wishes for a horse using enchanted emerald necklaces. When Chalk, the Wishing Horse of Oz, falls from the sky, Skamperoo decides the emeralds must be from the Emerald City, and decides to conquer all of Oz. | | 30 | Captain Salt in Oz | John R. Neill | 1936 | Reilly & Lee | | Captain Salt (from Pirates in Oz) sails the Nonestic Ocean and discovers Ozamaland, a legendary land of flying animals, as well as the famous White City of Om and many other places. | | 31 | Handy Mandy in Oz | John R. Neill | 1937 | Reilly & Lee | | Mandy from Mt. Mern is a Mernite, a race of seven-handed people. One day, while Mandy is trying to gather her goats, the rock she is standing on is blown into the air and into Oz. She lands in Keretaria in the Munchkin Country and meets Nox the white Royal Ox. This is also the last appearance of Ruggedo, the Gnome King. | | 32 | The Silver Princess in Oz | John R. Neill | 1938 | Reilly & Lee | | King Randy of Regalia sets off for adventure with his old friend, the Elegant Elephant Kabumpo, to visit their friend Jinnicky the Red Jinn in Ev. Before long, they meet Planetty, the lovely Princess from Anuther Planet, and her fire-breathing Thundercolt, Thun, and set off on more adventures. | | 33 | Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz | John R. Neill | 1939 | Reilly & Lee | | The Wizard decides to create ozoplanes for his friends which can fly into the stratosphere. The Wizard, Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow take one ozoplane, called the Ozpril, and go to the Red Top Mountains. The other group: Tin Woodman, Jellia Jamb and the Soldier with the Green Whiskers take the Oztober to the sky city of Stratovania. The phrase "The Wizard of Oz" was included in the title to coincide with the 1939 release of the film The Wizard of Oz. | |
By other writers
When Thompson retired in 1939 longtime Oz illustrator John R. Neill took over the series and wrote three more of the "Famous Forty". Neill's vision of Oz is more manic than Thompson or Baum's. Houses often get up and do battle, and everything can be alive. His entries take Oz's color scheme (blue for Munchkin Country, red for Quadling Country, etc.) to an extreme, extending it to sky and skin colors.
Jack Snow was a Baum scholar, and even offered to take over the series at age twelve when Baum died. Snow's books lack any characters created by Thompson or Neill, although he did create his own.
| By John R. Neill | | Order | Title | Illustrator | Year | Publisher |
|---|
| 34 | The Wonder City of Oz | John R. Neill | 1940 | Reilly & Lee | | Jenny Jump captures a leprechaun and forces him to make her into a fairy, but he only does half the job before escaping. Jenny then jumps to Oz using her half-fairy gifts. She soon sets up a fashionable Style Shop with a magic turnstyle which will give anyone high style and challenges Ozma to an ozlection to become ruler of the Land of Oz. | | 35 | The Scalawagons of Oz | John R. Neill | 1941 | Reilly & Lee | | The Wizard creates Scalawagons, intelligent cars that can also fly. He makes Tik-Tok superintendent of the Scalawagons Factory, but the mechanical man runs down. Bell Snickle, a mysterious creature, takes advantage of Tik-Tok's condition by filling the scalawagons with "flabber-gas" and the Wizard nearly loses his scalawagons. | | 36 | Lucky Bucky in Oz | John R. Neill | 1942 | Reilly & Lee | | Bucky is aboard a tugboat in New York Harbor when the boiler blows up. He is soon blown into the Nonestic Ocean where he meets Davy Jones, a wooden whale. The pair take an undersea route to the Emerald City, and have many adventures along the way. | | By Jack Snow | | 37 | The Magical Mimics in Oz | Frank Kramer | 1946 | Reilly & Lee | | Ozma and Glinda go to meet with the Fairy Queen Lurline in the Forest of Burzee and leave Dorothy in charge of Oz. During Ozma's absence, the evil Mimics escape their imprisonment on Mount Illuso and use their magic to take the form of others and attempt to conquer Oz. | | 38 | The Shaggy Man of Oz | Frank Kramer | 1949 | Reilly & Lee | | It is discovered that the love magnet, which was owned by the Shaggy Man (from The Road to Oz), has broken, and only its creator, the evil Conjo, can fix it. Meanwhile, Twink and Tom are pulled through their television to the Isle of Conjo in the Nonestic Ocean along with the wooden clown Twiffle. Soon the Shaggy Man arrives and saves them from Conjo. | | By Rachel R. Cosgrove | | 39 | The Hidden Valley of Oz | Dirk Gringhuis | 1951 | Reilly & Lee | | Jam, a boy from Ohio, builds a kite and attaches it to a crate and sets off to Oz with his two guinea pigs, Pinny and Gig, and a lab rat named Percy. Once in Oz, Jam realizes his pets can talk. He lands in the Hidden Valley and becomes a prisoner, but they escape and set out on adventures with the Tin Woodman. | | By Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren Lynn McGraw | | 40 | Merry Go Round in Oz | Dick Martin | 1963 | Reilly & Lee | | Robin Brown from the USA rides a magic merry-go-round horse named Merry Go Round to Oz. Upon landing, Robin must help find the missing magic Circlets of Halidom. | |
Non-canonical Oz works by "Royal Historians"
Each of the "Royal Historians" wrote Oz-related works not generally considered canonical, while some are considered deutero-canonical. Some are short stories, some are reference works, still others are novels written sometimes years after the authors' main body of Oz books. Baum's other Oz books are somewhat more contradictory of his canon books than the canon books are to each other, while Yankee through Wicked Witch are often referred to in fan circles as the "Quasi-Famous 7." The books of Sherwood Smith are officially recognized as canon by The Baum Trust, but as they deal with a new generation of characters, not all fans agree.
| Other Oz works by "Royal Historians" | | Title | Writer | Illustrator | Year | Publisher |
|---|
| The Wonderful Wizard of Oz | L. Frank Baum | N/A | unpublished; written 1901 | | A stage play closely based on the novel, featuring songs with music by Paul Tietjens. | | The Wizard of Oz | L. Frank Baum | N/A | unpublished; written and premiered in 1902 | | A stage extravaganza loosely based on the novel, with jokes written by Glen MacDonough, featuring songs by Baum and Paul Tietjens and many other interpolated as the show progressed. It opened in Chicago in 1902, starring the comedy team of Montgomery and Stone as Niccolo Chopper and the Scarecrow, respectively. The production moved to Broadway in 1903, and continued (on tour or in New York) until 1909. | | Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz | L. Frank Baum | Walt McDougal | 1904–1905 | | Newspaper comic/column chronicling the misadventures of the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Woggle-Bug, Jack Pumpkinhead, the Sawhorse, and the Gump in the United States. Originally used to promote The Marvelous Land of Oz. Often republished in book form, first in a heavily revised edition by Jean Kellogg as The Visitors from Oz and later as The Third Book of Oz by Buckethead Enterprises of Oz, which was censored. The Third Book of Oz also includes "The Woggle-Bug Book" (see below) and is illustrated by Eric Shanower. Hungry Tiger Press corrected the censoring from the Buckethead edition but used The Visitors from Oz as the title like the Kellogg adaptation. Complete series can be read . | | The Woggle-Bug Book: The Strange Adventure of the Woggle-Bug | L. Frank Baum | Ike Morgan | 1905 | Reilly & Britton | | Further adventures of the Woggle-Bug in the USA after he gets separated from the others. The text is included in The Third Book of Oz and the Hungry Tiger Press The Visitors from Oz. The book can be read . | | The Woggle-Bug | L. Frank Baum | N/A | N/A; written 1905 | N/A | | A stage musical based on The Marvelous Land of Oz, with music by Frederic Chapin. Reviews praised only Chapin and the show never opened on Broadway. | | The Rainbow's Daughter, or The Magnet of Love | L. Frank Baum | N/A | N/A; written 1909 | N/A | | A stage musical, music by Manuel Klein, based on Ozma of Oz and The Road to Oz. Never produced. | | Ozma of Oz | L. Frank Baum | N/A | N/A; written 1909 | N/A | | A revised draft of The Rainbow's Daughter. Never produced. | | The Girl from Oz | L. Frank Baum | N/A | N/A; written 1909 | N/A | | A play by Baum. The connection to Oz is reported as minimal. Held in the L. Frank Baum Papers at Syracuse University; later adapted for radio as The Girl of Tomorrow by Frank Joslyn Baum. | | Little Wizard Stories of Oz | L. Frank Baum | John R. Neill | 1913 | Reilly & Britton | | Six short stories about the Oz characters, originally written to help re-launch the Oz series in 1913. Full text can be found . | | The Tik-Tok Man of Oz | L. Frank Baum | N/A | N/A; produced in 1914 | N/A | | The final version of The Rainbow's Daughter, now with music by Louis F. Gottschalk, as produced by Oliver Morosco. Morosco and Victor Schertzinger interpolated one song of their own, but the production was not a big enough success for Morosco to want to move it to New York. | | "The Littlest Giant: An Oz Story" | L. Frank Baum | Bill Eubank | written 1917; published 1972 | International Wizard of Oz Club | | A violent tale about a magic dart, nominally set in the Gillikin Country but otherwise making no reference to Oz. | | Yankee in Oz | Ruth Plumly Thompson | Dick Martin | 1972 | International Wizard of Oz Club | | Tompy, a drummer boy from the United States and Yankee, an Air Force dog meet the Red Jinn of Ev and together defeat an evil giant who is threatening both America and Oz. Originally written in 1954, it was published by the Club in 1972 with Reilly & Lee's authorization. The Club considers it book #41. | | The Enchanted Island of Oz | Ruth Plumly Thompson | Dick Martin | 1976 | International Wizard of Oz Club | | David B. Perry and his talking camel Humpty Bumpty find themselves on Kapurta, an island stranded in the sky. David must supply the magic to move the island and visit the Emerald City in time for the Cowardly Lion's birthday party. Considered book #42 by the club. | | The Forbidden Fountain of Oz | By Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren McGraw Wagner | Dick Martin | 1980 | International Wizard of Oz Club | | Ozma takes a sip from limeade made from the Forbidden Fountain, forgets who she is and disappears. As the androgynous Poppy, she befriends reformed unsuccessful bandit Tobias Bridlecull, Jr. and a white lamb named Lambert. Kabumpo sets out to rescue her, but he believes Toby to be a kidnapper, so she does not want to be saved. Considered book #43 by the Club. | | The Wicked Witch of Oz | Rachel Cosgrove | Eric Shanower | 1993 | International Wizard of Oz Club | | Singra, the Wicked Witch of the South, awakens after a 100-year nap and decides to make up for all the wickedness she missed out on. Dorothy and friends must try and stop her before she destroys the Emerald City. Considered book #45 by the Club. | | The Runaway in Oz | John R. Neill | Eric Shanower | 1995 | Books of Wonder | Scraps the Patchwork Girl is upset because everyone ignores her while a group of Winkie dignitaries visits the Emerald City. She runs away, finds her way to Jinjur's Munchkin Country farm and Professor Wogglebug's Athletic College, and meets Popla the Power Plant.
Written in 1943, to be the 37th Oz book. Neill died before he could illustrate the book, so publisher Reilly & Lee decided not to publish it due to shortages during World War II. The manuscript stayed with Neill's family until it was finally published in 1995. Eric Shanower enlarged and edited it and provided illustrations. | | The Rundelstone of Oz | Eloise Jarvis McGraw | Eric Shanower | 2000 | Hungry Tiger Press | | Pocotristi Sostenuto, a living puppet, must find the magical Rundelstone so he can rescue his fellow puppets from the evil Slyddwynn, the Whitherd of Whitheraway Castle. Originally published in the sixth and final volume of Oz-story Magazine. | | Who's Who in Oz | Jack Snow | Various | 1954 | Reilly & Lee | | Definitive guide to the Oz characters. |
Baum also wrote Oz-related stage plays: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1901) with music by Paul Tietjens and Nathaniel D. Mann, The Wizard of Oz (1902) (music by Tietjens et al.; with jokes by Glen MacDonough), The Woggle-Bug (1905) with music by Frederick Chapin, The Rainbow's Daughter, or The Magnet of Love (February 1909) with music by Manuel Klein, revised in April 1909 as Ozma of Oz, and ultimately produced, with music by Louis F. Gottschalk as The Tik-Tok Man of Oz. Also in 1909, he wrote a play called The Girl from Oz. The manuscript is held in the archives at Syracuse University, but apparently its relation to Oz is little more than nominal (it is also known as The Girl from Tomorrow and was later adapted for radio by Frank Joslyn Baum), as is also the case with the short story, "The Littlest Giant", a rather brutal tale designated in two lines to be in the Gillikin country of Oz. With Gottschalk writing the music, he wrote an unproduced stage version of The Patchwork Girl of Oz in November 1913, that was developed into the film scenario.
Jack Snow also wrote a short story titled "A Murder in Oz," in which Tip takes his life back from Ozma, and both are ultimately restored as twin siblings. Few fans regard this story as canon, and the largest Oz-devoted vanity press has released a trilogy of books that seem to completely contradict it, though its author reports working on something that resolves that.
Ruth Plumly Thompson also wrote a great deal of poetry about the Oz characters, which the International Wizard of Oz Club posthumously published as The Cheerful Citizens of Oz.
Later sequels
The following are some of the most significant additions to the Oz series by later authors. They are generally considered apocrypha, but are more or less in line with the originals.
See also List of published Oz Apocrypha for a much longer list, including small press items available mostly through mail order.
Alternate Oz
See also March Laumer
Below are some books which deal with alternate views of Oz, and are usually considered apocryphal. Because there are literally hundreds of unofficial Oz books, the following is a list of those that are best-known, or most independently or commercially successful.
| Alternate Oz | | Title | Writer | Year | Notes |
|---|
| The Laughing Dragon of Oz | Frank Joslyn Baum | 1934 | Was a "Big little book" written by Baum's son (credited as "Frank Baum") and published by Whitman Publishing. It had none of the characters from the official Oz books, though briefly mentioned the Wizard. Whitman quickly withdrew it after a lawsuit threat from Reilly & Lee. | | A Barnstormer in Oz | Philip José Farmer | 1982 | Set approximately 30 years after the events of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the protagonist of this novel is Hank Stover, the son of Dorothy Gale Stover. After his plane is lost in a mysterious green cloud, Hank finds himself in an Oz on the brink of a civil war. The novel states that the events of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz are based on real events. Baum had been a newspaper reporter in Nebraska around the time Dorothy was transported to Oz; he interviewed her and later used his notes as the basis for the first novel. All subsequent novels by Baum are solely products of his imagination. | | Was | Geoff Ryman | 1992 | Was employs the literary conceit that a Kansas girl named Dorothy existed and that, as a school teacher, L. Frank Baum made up the story of the first Oz book in order to amuse her. The novel takes place in the real world. | | Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West | Gregory Maguire | 1995 | Published by ReganBooks/HarperCollins. It is a parallel novel written by Gregory Maguire and illustrated by Douglas Smith. Based upon the writings of L. Frank Baum, it is a revisionist look at the land and characters of Oz, best known from Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
The novel presents events, characters and situations from Baum's books and the film in new ways, with several differences between the L. Frank Baum series and the Wicked Cycle. These differences arise from the original Oz functioning as a mirror-image of Kansas in a cultural and economic framework: Oz was wealthy, prosperous and had excellent agricultural yields while Kansas was characterized by economic hardship, environmental difficulties and poor harvests. The social strife described in the Wicked Cycle indicates that the two series are set in similar and internally consistent but distinctly separate visions of Oz.
Unlike the popular 1939 movie and Baum's writings, this novel is not directed at children, and contains adult language and content.
It is the basis for the Broadway musical Wicked by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman. | | Son of a Witch | Gregory Maguire | 2005 | Published by ReganBooks. Sequel to Wicked. | |
| A Lion Among Men | Gregory Maguire | 2008 | Published by ReganBooks. The third book in "The Wicked Years" . | | The Wizard of the Emerald City | Alexander Volkov | 1939, 1959 | Volkov's original adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. Ellie, 8, and her puppy Totoshka are carried in an hurricane to the Magic Land. After the first shock of the beauty of the land and Totoshka's sudden gift of wise speech, they meet the Fairy of the Yellow Land, Villina, who tells them that she has allowed their house to be taken by the wind to land on the head of Gingema, the Wicked Witch of the Blue Land, and kill her. Now Ellie is called "The Fairy of the Killing House" and is worshipped by the people around. Villina tells Ellie to follow the Yellow Brick Road to find Goodwin, the Great and the Horrible, the ruler of the Magic Land, who lives in the Emerald City. He is supposed to bring Ellie back home to her parents if she fulfills the greatest wishes of three creatures that she will meet on the way. They set off, Ellie wearing the silver shoes that Totoshka has found in Gingema's house. They meet Strashila the scarecow, who dreams to have a brain, The Iron Man, who dreams of a heart, and the Cowardly Lion, who dreams about courage. This novel is nearly the same as the original, with a few minor changes and additions. | | Urfin Dzhus and His Wooden Soldiers | Alexander Volkov | 1963 | The first of Volkov's sequels, all of which have nearly nothing to do with Baum's. In this one, set one year after the events in the first novel, Urfin Dzhus, a former servant of Gingema, discovers a magical powder that brings things to life. He then creates an army of wooden soldiers and sets off to conquer the Magic Land. On her farm in Kansas, Ellie meets a crow bearing a pictured message: Strashila and The Iron Man behind bars. Ellie (with Totoshka) and her uncle, the wooden-legged seaman Charlie Black, set off through the desert and the mountains to help their friends. | | Seven Kings of the Underground | Alexander Volkov | 1969 | Trapped in a huge cave after a collapse, Ellie, now 11, Totoshka and Ellie's cousin Fred (13) are forced to move further into the cave. They end up in the underground of the Magic Land, in the Land of the Seven Kings of the Underground, which is currently caught up in a serious political crisis. The people recognize Ellie as the Fairy of the Killing House and keep her hostage, forcing her to use her magical powers to restore the Magical Spring of Sleepy Water that keeps the order in the country. It is up to Fred now to find a way out to seek help from Ellie's friends. | | The Fiery God of the Marrans | Alexander Volkov | 1972 | Ellie's little sister Annie, born during Ellie's last visit to the Magic Land, and her best friend Tim, dream of seeing the land of their bedtime stories. Their dream is so strong that Fred, now an engineer, creates two mules operating on the sun energy. And so the two children, aged only 8 and 9, take Totoshka's grandson, Artoshka, and set off through the desert. Little do they know that this is not going to be just a social call: The Emerald City is once again conquered by Urfin Dzhus, accompanied now by the primitive tribe of the Marrans, whom he has brainwashed of being a god. | | The Yellow Fog | Alexander Volkov | 1988 | A giant witch named Arachna wakes up after a 5,000 years' sleep. She wishes to rule the Magic Land, but seeing that the people would not surrender, sends on them an eerie Yellow Fog that threatens to bring eternal winter and poison all the people, eventually causing mass death and destruction. Once again Annie, Tim and Artoshka, accompanied by Charlie Black, rush to the rescue. Eventually Charlie builds a giant piloted robot (similar to a Japanese Gundam) that defeats the witch with his 10-meter long sword. | | The Secret of the Abandoned Castle | Alexander Volkov | 1989 | This time the people of the Magic Land have to deal with alien invasion. The inseparable Annie and Tim, now 12 and 13, along with Fred the engineer, arrive to help their friends. They discover that the aliens are not united: some of them, the Arzaks, are enslaved to the Menvits through their hypnotic eyes. The guests of the Outer World discover that the Magic Land may hold the key to the Arzaks' freedom. | | Dorothy of Oz | Roger S. Baum | 1989 | The author is L. Frank Baum's great grandson. | | The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass | Stephen King | 1997 | The characters visit an unpopulated version of the Emerald City, looking the same as it does in the 1939 film. The man sitting on the Wizard's throne turns out to be Marten Broadcloak, an alter-ego of one of the Dark Tower Series' main villains. | | Return to Oz | Joan D. Vinge | 1985 | The book version of the movie Return to Oz (1985), which is based on the second and third books, The Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz. | |
See also
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