The ''Oz'' books form a
book series
A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their publ ...
that begins with ''
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is a 1900 children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. It is the first novel in the Oz series of books. A Kansas farm girl named Dorothy ends up in the ma ...
'' (1900) and relates the fictional history of the
Land of Oz
The Land of Oz is a fantasy world introduced in the 1900 children's novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by William Wallace Denslow, W. W. Denslow.
Oz consists of four vast quadrants, the Gillikin Countr ...
. Oz was created by author
L. Frank Baum
Lyman Frank Baum (; May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author best known for his children's fantasy books, particularly '' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', part of a series. In addition to the 14 ''Oz'' books, Baum penned 41 other novels ...
, who went on to write fourteen full-length ''Oz'' books.
Baum was styled as "the Royal Historian of Oz" in order to emphasize the concept that Oz is an actual place on Earth, full of magic. In his ''Oz'' books, Baum created the illusion that characters such as
Dorothy
Dorothy may refer to:
*Dorothy (given name), a list of people with that name.
Arts and entertainment
Film and television
* ''Dorothy'' (TV series), 1979 American TV series
* Dorothy Mills, a 2008 French movie, sometimes titled simply ''Dorot ...
and
Princess Ozma
Princess Ozma of Oz, formally known as Tippetarius, is a fictional character from the Land of Oz, created by American author L. Frank Baum. She appears for the first time in the second Oz book, '' The Marvelous Land of Oz'' (1904), and in every ...
relayed their adventures in Oz to Baum themselves, by means of a
wireless telegraph
Wireless telegraphy or radiotelegraphy is the transmission of text messages by radio waves, analogous to electrical telegraphy using cables. Before about 1910, the term ''wireless telegraphy'' was also used for other experimental technologies fo ...
.
After Baum's death in 1919, publisher
Reilly & Lee continued to produce annual ''Oz'' books, passing on the role of Royal Historian.
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Ruth Plumly Thompson (27 July 1891 – 6 April 1976) was an Americans, American writer of children's stories, best known for writing many novels placed in Land of Oz, Oz, the fictional land of L. Frank Baum's classic children's novel ''The Wonde ...
took up the task in 1921, and wrote nineteen ''Oz'' books. After Thompson, Reilly & Lee published seven more books in the series: three by
John R. Neill, two by
Jack Snow, one by
Rachel R.C. Payes, and a final book by
Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren Lynn McGraw. The forty books in Reilly & Lee's ''Oz'' series are called "the Famous Forty" by fans, and are considered the canonical ''Oz'' texts.
Books by L. Frank Baum
''Oz'' books
Story collections and other works
In addition to the canonical ''Oz'' books, several of Baum's works that are not ''Oz'' stories are nevertheless nominally set in the same
fictional universe
A fictional universe, also known as an imagined universe or a constructed universe, is the internally consistent fictional setting used in a narrative or a work of art. This concept is most commonly associated with works of fantasy and scie ...
as the ''Oz'' books, and include several character crossovers. These are:
''
Queen Zixi of Ix
''Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak'', is a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by Frederick Richardson. It was originally serialized in the early 20th-century American children's magazine ''St. Nicholas (mag ...
'', ''
The Magical Monarch of Mo'', ''
The Sea Fairies'', ''
Sky Island
Sky islands are isolated mountains surrounded by radically different lowland environments. The term originally referred to those found on the Mexican Plateau and has extended to similarly isolated high-elevation forests. The isolation has s ...
'', ''
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus'', and ''
John Dough and the Cherub''.
The rest of the "Famous Forty"
Following Baum's death, publisher
Reilly & Lee continued publishing annual ''Oz'' books, selecting new Royal Historians to record the latest Oz doings. These books, together with Baum's original fourteen novels, form the "Famous Forty", and are considered the canonical books of the series.
[
Ruth Plumly Thompson's style was markedly different from Baum's. Her tales harked back to more traditional ]fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...
s. 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.
Books by Ruth Plumly Thompson
Thompson wrote two additional novels in the 1970s which are not included in the "Famous Forty": '' Yankee in Oz'' (1972) and '' The Enchanted Island of Oz'' (1976), both published by the International Wizard of Oz Club.
Books by John R. Neill
Illustrator John R. 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
Munchkin Country is the fictional eastern region of the Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum's List of Oz books, Oz books, first described in ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900). It is popularly known as Munchkinland, as it was first called in the 1939 ...
, red for Quadling Country, etc.) to an extreme, extending it to sky and skin colors.
Books by Jack Snow
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.
Book by Rachel R.C. Payes
Book by Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren Lynn McGraw
Additional books
Books published by the International Wizard of Oz Club
Books recognized by L. Frank Baum's Family Trust
Additional books by the earlier writers
Books by other writers
Some are in line with the originals, while others deviate in various ways.
Alternative ''Oz'' books
Below are some books that deal with alternate versions of Oz, which do not follow the ''Oz'' canon originally established by L. Frank Baum
Lyman Frank Baum (; May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author best known for his children's fantasy books, particularly '' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', part of a series. In addition to the 14 ''Oz'' books, Baum penned 41 other novels ...
.
Books by Gregory Maguire
American novelist Gregory Maguire
Gregory Maguire (born June 9, 1954) is an American novelist. He is the author of ''Wicked (Maguire novel), Wicked'', ''Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister'', and several dozen other novels for adults and children. Many of Maguire's adult novels are ...
explored Oz themes in The Wicked Years series between 1995 and 2011, then extended that work with his Another Day series starting in 2021.
Books by Alexander Volkov
Alexander Volkov was a Russian novelist who published his own series of Oz novels called the ''Magic Land'' books, for readers in Soviet Russia, China and East Germany. His first book, published in 1939, was a translation and adaptation of Baum's ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', but the further books that he wrote in the 1960s and 70s were entirely Volkov's invention.
Books by the Baum family
Books by other writers
See also
* List of characters in the Oz books
* Books in the United States
As of 2018, several firms in the United States rank among the world's biggest publishers of books in terms of revenue: Cengage Learning, HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw Hill Education, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, and Wiley.
...
References
*Hearn, Michael Patrick (ed). (2000, 1973) ''The Annotated Wizard of Oz''. W. W. Norton & Co.
*Greene, David L. and Martin, Dick. (1977) ''The Oz Scrapbook''. Random House.
*Trust, Fred (2008)
"Wizard of Oz books Collectors Price Guide."
External links
*
at Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...
Oz books by L. Frank Baum
at Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
; scanned color illustrated first editions
The Complete Oz Works (Non-Illustrated)
Oz books by L. Frank Baum
at Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...
The Royal Timeline of Oz: Oz books (canonical and other) listed in chronological order
* The wonderful coloring books of O
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oz Books
Book series introduced in 1900
Lists of fantasy books
Lists of American books