List of Oz books

2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Children's Books; Novels

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 (though many inconsistencies make it difficult to call it canonical). Most of the books in the "Famous Forty" were published by Reilly and Britton (later Reilly and Lee).

List of "canonical" Oz books ("The Famous Forty")

By L. Frank Baum

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 Woodsman. 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.
	3	Ozma of Oz	John R. Neill	1907	Reilly & Britton
	While traveling to Australia with her Uncle Henry, little Dorothy is swept overboard with a hen named Billina. They land in Ev, a country across the desert from Oz, and, together with new-found mechanical friend, Tik-Tok, they must save Ev's royal family from the evil Nome King. With Princess Ozma's help, they finally return to Oz.
	4	Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz	John R. Neill	1908	Reilly & Britton
	On her way back from Australia, Dorothy visits her cousin, Zeb, in California. They are soon swallowed up by an earthquake, along with Zeb's horse Jim and Dorothy's cat Eureka. The group soon meets up with the Wizard and all travel underground back to Oz.
	5	The Road to Oz	John R. Neill	1909	Reilly & Britton
	Dorothy meets the Shaggy Man, and while trying to find the road to Butterfield, they get lost on an enchanted road. As they travel they meet the rainbow's daughter, Polychrome, and a little boy, Button-Bright. They have all sorts of strange adventures on the way to Oz.
	6	The Emerald City of Oz	John R. Neill	1910	Reilly & Britton
	Dorothy Gale and her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em come to live in Oz permanently. While they tour through the Quadling Country, the Nome King is tunneling beneath the desert to invade Oz.
	7	The Patchwork Girl of Oz	John R. Neill	1913	Reilly & Britton
	A Munchkin boy named Ojo must find a cure to free his Unc Nunkie from a magical spell that has turned him into a statue. With the help of Scraps, a living Patchwork Girl, Ojo journeys through Oz in order to save his uncle.
	8	Tik-Tok of Oz	John R. Neill	1914	Reilly & Britton
	Betsy Bobbin, a girl from Oklahoma is shipwrecked with her mule, Hank, in the Rose Kingdom. She meets the Shaggy Man there and the two try to rescue the Shaggy Man's brother from the Nome King. This book is partly based upon Baum's stage musical, The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, which was in turn based on Ozma of Oz.
	9	The Scarecrow of Oz	John R. Neill	1915	Reilly & Britton
	Cap'n Bill and Trot journey to Oz and, with the help of the Scarecrow, overthrow the cruel King Krewl of Jinxland. Cap'n Bill and Trot had previously appeared in two other novels by Baum, The Sea Fairies and Sky Island. Based in part upon the 1914 silent film, His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz.
	10	Rinkitink in Oz	John R. Neill	1916	Reilly & Britton
	Prince Inga of Pingaree and King Rinkitink and their companions have adventures that lead to the land of the Nomes and, eventually, Oz. This book only ends up in Oz at the end, because Baum originally wrote it as a non-Oz book, entitled King Rinkitink, and only rewrote it later.
	11	The Lost Princess of Oz	John R. Neill	1917	Reilly & Britton
	Concerning the disappearance of Princess Ozma, the ruler of Oz. When she is discovered missing, four search parties are sent out, one for each of Oz's four countries. Most of the book covers Dorothy and the Wizard's efforts to find her. Meanwhile, Cayke the Cookie Cook discovers that her magic dishpan (on which she bakes her famous cookies) has been stolen. Along with the Frogman, they leave their mountain in the Winkie Country to find the pan.
	12	The Tin Woodman of Oz	John R. Neill	1918	Reilly & Britton
	The Tin Woodman, Nick Chopper, is unexpectedly reunited with his Munchkin sweetheart Nimmie Amee from the days when he was flesh and blood. Along the way, Nick discovers a fellow tin man, Captain Fyter, as well as a Frankenstein-like creature, Chopfyt made from their combined parts by the tinsmith, Ku-Klip.
	13	The Magic of Oz	John R. Neill	1919	Reilly & Lee
	Ruggedo, former Nome King, tries to conquer Oz again with the help of a Munchkin boy, Kiki Aru. In the meanwhile, it is also Ozma's birthday, and all of Oz's citizens are searching for the most unusual present for the little princess. This was published a month after Baum's death.
	14	Glinda of Oz	John R. Neill	1920	Reilly & Lee
	Dorothy, Ozma and Glinda try to stop a war in the Gillikin Country. This was Baum's last Oz book, and was published posthumously. Most critics agree this is Baum's darkest Oz book, most likely due to his failing health.

By Ruth Plumly Thompson

Thompson's style was markedly different from Baum's. Her tales harkened back to more traditional fairytales. She often included a small kingdom, 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 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 colour 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.

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.

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 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.