Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz

1929, undated (see below) Reilly & Lee edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz
Original price unknown, bought used for $20.00
Poor condition paperback, with broken spine, tears, and stains
B-

Peter returns from Philadelphia via a magic coin in his sack of pirate gold.  (Thompson by the way, in her introduction, lists her full West Philly address.  So here you go: RPT house  .)  Presumably two years have passed since Gnome King, although Peter's age isn't mentioned.  He again gets to be more heroic than Bob Up of Cowardly Lion, although Jack has his part to play in saving the day.

I like the setting of the red mountain baronies, including Baffleburg.  Baron Mogodore is a pretty good villain.  It is creepy, perhaps more creepy than intended, that this cruel, ugly, middle-aged man wants to marry teenaged princesses Shirley Sunshine and Ozma.  (Check out the two-page illustration of Mogodore leering at bound Ozma, pp. 216-17.)  Shirley is drawn as a more traditional-looking lady than Ozma, and it's interesting to compare the picture on p. 230 of them clasping hands with that on p. 207 of Road, where Ozma meets Polychrome.  Both times Ozma has an expression like "Yes, you are lovely, My Dear, but I am the most beautiful girl in the world," while the other girls humbly agree.

I could've done without yet another rhyming character.  Yes, Baum would include poems and songs, but Thompson overdoes it.  At least this time the poet is an Iffin, a Griffin without the Gr.  I also have to note that I think this might be the first time that Thompson doesn't use her annoying "Don't you care," meaning roughly "Don't worry, be happy."

The typos are worse, the innuendo less, than usual.  And this line would have different connotations four decades later:  "'I am the King and the highest Swinger here.'"


The list of "The Famous Oz Books" confusingly only goes up to Grampa in Oz (1924).  So I'm not sure on the date of this copy.  It's probably not a first edition, since there are no color plates.  It could be a 1935 second edition, but it's in such terrible shape I probably won't keep it.