Oz Story Magazine, No. 1

1995, first edition, from Hungry Tiger Press
David Maxine as Editor-in-Chief, Eric Shanower as Art Director
Oz Story Magazine, No. 1
Bought new for $14.95
Worn paperback
C+

Despite the title, this annual, which ran through 2000, is in the format of a tall paperback book of over 125 pages.  It includes contributions from Oz historians Baum, Thompson, and Cosgrove, as well as artwork by Denslow and Neill, although it also has more modern contributions, not just from Shanower of course but a not-bad comic page called The Pathetic Losers of Oz.  Overall, the pieces are uneven, with Baum's almost-50-pages-in-this-format Sam Steele's Adventures on Land and Sea, a boys' adventure story, mostly forgettable (except for the unfortunate repeated use of the N-word).  I most enjoyed the reproductions of the comic strip The Wonderland of Oz by Sprouse, with new text by Shanower.

The decade tags represent when these works were originally published, which in some cases is in this issue.

The Wonder City of Oz

1940, undated but I think 1990s Books of Wonder edition
Written and illustrated by John R. Neill
The Wonder City of Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Good condition paperback
D+


When Thompson bowed out, Reilly & Lee chose the Imperial Illustrator for the next Royal Historian.  It made sense in a way, since he'd been creating the visual image of Oz for 35 years.  In his "Dear Boys and Girls" message, he says even he can't tell which came first, the story or the pictures.  I'll tell you what I think came first:  a concussion or an LSD trip.


Taking these in no particular order, since gosh knows the book has little order, here is some of the WTF-ness of this book:
1.  Houses that fight with each other
2.  Houses that sneeze
3.  An Ozcalator invented by Oz. C. Later, which takes the entire population of each quadrant home
4.  Citizens having the skin color of their quadrant, so that there are blue-skinned Munchkins
5.  Not only red-skinned Quadlings, but fire in'jins
6.  A Jersey girl named Jenny Jump, who becomes half-fairy because a leprechaun steals her pepper-cheese
7.  An Ozlection between Jenny and Ozma, in which shoes count as votes until the (ward) Heelers try to steal the votes
8.  The Ozlection revised to count poundage of the Oz inhabitants
9.  Jack Pumpkinhead forming a Glee Club with Ozma's shoe-votes
10.  Scraps being besties with Jack, and spending most of the book in an 8-year-old boy's swimsuit
11.  The turn-style, which creates new outfits for Jenny's customers
12.  A cameo by Polychrome in which she gets snubbed
13.  "Ojo, the elephant boy"
14.  The Wizard of Oz trying to go around incognito
15.  The Wizard of Oz performing sort of a lobotomy on Jenny, to "put her in her place"
16.  The Wizard of Oz (or was it Siko Pompus the leprechaun?) de-aging Jenny from a hard-working 15-year-old to a fun-loving 11-year-old
17.  Jenny's 12-year-old shop boy, whose entire family has specific ages they stop aging at, basically falling in love with his Boss
18.  Said shop boy being named Number Nine, since he and his siblings are numbered one through fourteen
19.  Number Nine (number nine number nine, sorry, had a Beatles moment there) being renamed Whistlebreeches, due to an outfit Jenny makes him to stop his lollygagging
20.  Scraps, Jack, and Jenny flying "last year's model" of the Ozoplane to a planet where they're thrown behind chocolate bars
21.  Whistlebreeches rescuing them via a device of the Wizard's that seems like a fancier version of the Magic Picture
22.  The inhabitants of the invaded planet invading the Wonder City (AKA the Emerald City) but being turned into little tin soldiers by the turn-style
23.  People using guide-cats to get home from the Glee Club concert in the dark
24.  The picture of the Scarecrow labeled "Scarcrow"
25.  The Scarecrow being the King of the Munchkins (is this why Ojo is an elephant boy rather than a prince?)
26.  Glinda, while still Queen of the Quadlings and a Sorceress, being just a girl chum of Ozma's and performing no magic
27.  Aunt Em and Uncle Henry's debate on spanking
28.  The Gnomes that live under Oz (rather than Ev)
29+ Anything that I've blanked out

A few of these elements might've worked, like the turn-style or the Ozlection, but it's all too much, and it's thrown in there without developing most of it.  Yes, Baum and Thompson would ramble and not have much of a plot, but there was always a sense that there was something driving the story.  Thompson was reasonably faithful to the history and characters Baum created, or at least they were never unrecognizable.  This made me feel like I was reading fanfic as bad as My Immortal.  In fact, if Dumblydore had shown up saying, "What the hell are you doing, you motherf***ers???", he would've fit right in.

On the plus side, the illustrations are good.  Wacked-out as the text, but with expressive people, lively animals, and cool buildings.  If C is average, then all of the Oz books till this point (and all the other children's books) have been at least a bit better than average.  The lack of Ozziness (and no, coming up with words like "Ozbestoz" doesn't count) brings the book down to a C-.  The insanity takes it down to a D+.  The borderline sexism and racism to a D.  And then with the illustrations back up to a D+.  Yet, I will keep this book, just in case some friend ever speaks of a book being the weirdest and/or worst children's book ever.  I can say, "Have you read The Wonder City of Oz?"

Oh, and welcome to the 1940s, we won't be here very long.

Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz

1939, 1990 International Wizard of Oz edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Ozoplaning with the Wizard in Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
B-

Continuing the sci-fi note of Silver Princess, Thompson this time puts seven of the characters from the first Oz book into outer space, via the wizard's Ozoplanes.   One of these characters is the Tin Woodman, which is honestly the first memorable thing she's had him do since polish himself when the Emerald Palace was attacked in Kabumpo.  The character who's not given much to do is, perhaps not surprisingly but still annoyingly, Dorothy.  She and her first Oz friends, including the Soldier with the Green Whiskers renamed Wantowin Battles, gather to celebrate her (unspecified) anniversary of arrival in the Emerald City.  But the heroine of the story is Jellia Jam [sic].  Thompson gives her a saucy but clever personality, not too far from the minx of the second book.  Neill draws her with an upswept late '30s do.

As for the Wizard, he invents the Ozoplanes and some other devices, but he's a supporting character, despite getting his name in the title for the third or fourth time.  (I'm not sure how to count the Little Wizard books that Baum wrote, especially since I've never read them.)  His tell-all-escope doesn't tell all, since it gives his background without the whole accessory to Ozma's kidnapping thing.

As the quite good afterword by Michael Patrick Hearn describes, Thompson had very mixed feelings about Oz by the mid-1930s, but reluctantly stayed on.  She had issues with the Baum family and with Reilly & Lee.  And then along came a certain MGM adaptation of The Wizard of Oz.  This book had to tie in with the new movie, which is why the cover looks the way it does, with the Tin Woodman, Wizard, and Scarecrow all greeting something in the sky, the words "The Wizard of Oz" larger than any others.

Thompson got fed up, and financially independent, enough to quit, but she had produced nineteen Oz books, which is why, even though I'm missing a few, I've still read more of hers than of Baum's.  Her output isn't bad but it's rarely on the level of the originals.  This last one does show bursts of imagination, but the plotting is weak, particularly the introduction of yet another dispossessed young royal, once the travelers are back in Oz.  Still, this story, even when the Wizard and friends are plummeting to Earth on an iceberg, doesn't compare to the insanity of what came next....

P.S.  I couldn't find any innuendo!  Although it is weird that there's a husband and wife deer couple.

The Silver Princess in Oz

1938, 1990 International Wizard of Oz edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Silver Princess in Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
C+

OK, let's start with the pluses.  This is the best of the Prince & Princess romances in the Thompson books.  Randy has grown up from the 10-year-old in Purple Prince to a 16-year-old who's really 20, and therefore old enough to get married.  He falls in love at first sight with Planetty, the Princess from Anuther Planet.  (Not to be confused with Brother from Another Planet.)  The Neill drawings of the couple are charming, whether they're making goo-goo eyes or storming a palace.  Planetty's animal, Thun the Thundercolt, is (like her) metallic but (unlike her) silent and fiery.  Randy is accompanied by Kabumpo, and this is probably the book where I find the elephant least annoying, since for once he's not scorning everyone they meet.

The minuses.  I'm not crazy about the ending, since Planetty and Thun lose some of what makes them special in order to live on Earth.  Most of the lands visited are forgettable, in particular Gaper's Gulch, as if Thompson needed to put in another lethargic kingdom after Pokes and Fix City in Royal Book.  The land of tickling feathers, whatever it's called, is pointless, except to prove how strong Thun and Planetty are.  The Box Wood is OK.  And I like the concept of Nonagon Island, which sounds smaller than Octagon Island. 

Randy and Kabumpo meet the aliens on their way to visit Jinnicky the Red Jinn.  They come in the midst of a revolution.  And here we get to the racism.  Not only are Jinnicky's people slaves, they are black slaves, who speak and look like turn-of-the-century stereotypes of American blacks.  The torn nature of this book is literally illustrated by the pictures on pp. 176-77.  On the left, we have beautiful and brave Planetty and her noble steed attacking, and on the left we have two black men running away, their hair scraggly, their facial features grotesquely exaggerated.

Since I prefer innuendo greatly to racism, it's disappointing that Thompson put her energy for inappropriateness in this direction.   The best she can come up with for suggestiveness is "the Red Jinn trying to beat off the fisherman with his puny hands."

The afterword, by Thompson's niece, of course doesn't address the racism, but it is notable that she refers to how Thompson lost her father at a young age, which is why she had to support her mother and siblings.  Perhaps that's why fathers (and father figures) are so much more important than mothers in her Oz books, even in this book where a princess is born from a spring.

Handy Mandy in Oz

1937, 1990 International Wizard of Oz edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Handy Mandy in Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
B-

For a change, Thompson has a female main character, with the boy prince only a minor character.  Handy Mandy is brave and funny, as well as seven-handed.  She's sort of a Swiss miss, although she lives on Mt. Mern and Neill makes her look Dutch.  Apparently, in Pirates in Oz or one of the other Thompsons I'm missing, Ruggedo was transformed into a jug, and there was a prophecy about a seven-armed Mernite being the only one who could free him.  Uh oh.  At the end of this story, he's transformed into a cactus, and no Royal Historian has disenchanted him yet.

Nox the Ox is one of the less obnoxious animal characters, and he and Mandy team up to free little Prince Kerry.  Along the way, they run into Hookers, men with hook-noses, and Topsies, spinning characters who are black with woolly hair (see Uncle Tom's Cabin).  Because, you know, it wouldn't be a Thompson book without innuendo and/or racism.  And, yes, there's Scraps-bashing, in order to make the Scarecrow look good in comparison.

As with Captain Salt, Neill is in his 1930s renaissance, sometimes using two-page illustrations and generally seeming a lot more inspired by the stories than he has in over 15 years.  There's an old-school Neill castle but there's also an action-shot of an underground "scenic railway."  If I remember correctly, his pictures in the next Oz book are gorgeous, and it helps to offset Thompson at her most racist.

Oh, and while this book still has the Munchkins in the West, Thompson has learned to spell "Gillikin."

Captain Salt in Oz

1936, 1990 International Wizard of Oz edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Captain Salt in Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
B-

Set four years after Pirates in Oz, which came out in 1931, this marks the return of a bunch of characters whose earlier adventures I've never read.  Not only that, but nobody, not even Captain Salt is actually "in Oz," since it's all set in the Nonestic Ocean.  There are references to Oz and Ozma though, and Capt. Salt is on a colonization mission because Oz is overpopulated.  Since when?  Even in the Thompson books, there are still stretches of undeveloped land, or places where lonely travelers must travel for hours before finding a farmhouse.  After all, the population of the Emerald City isn't much larger than it was in the sixth book.  Yes, nobody dies (often) or ages (much), but it's not like there's been a baby boom.  In any case, apparently it's OK with Thompson for Ozma (or with Ozma for Thompson) to encourage conquest.

True, the colonization is done in a mostly peaceful manner, mainly consisting of planting Oz flags and telling the "conquered" that they are now under the beneficent rule of Queen Ozma.  (Side-note, in some books she's a princess, in others she's a queen; Baum wasn't very consistent about this either.)  Some of the islands are unpopulated, so that makes it even easier.

Meanwhile, there's a whole other continent, Tarara, with two major countries and various tribes.  A young king has been kidnapped by the bad guys, and then he's kidnapped by the title character.  OK, he's pressured into becoming a cabin boy, but still. 

And it's a no-women-allowed voyage, although female creatures like a motherly hippo are OK.  Inevitably, this leads to slashy subtext between Salt and Ato, a king turned cook:  "'What a tremendous fellow he was,' sighed Ato, sinking dreamily back in his hammock and half closing his eyes.  'I'll never forget how high and handsome he looked...'" (p. 23).  Salt returns soon after, to take Ato on another voyage, promising, "Only over my prone and prostrate body shall another man enter my galley to shuffle my rations, sugar my duff or salt my prog!"  That's devotion!


Thompson does a fine job creating the various lands that the crew visit, and Neill's illustrations are his best in ages.  Perhaps exploring new territory is as liberating for them as for the captain and the cook.

Ojo in Oz

1933, 1986 Del Rey edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Ojo in Oz
Original price $5.95, bought used for $3.48
Worn paperback
B-

There are two main things to talk about with this book:  innuendo (of course) and history.  Of the latter, Thompson calls it not just hoztry but Oz hoztry.  Are there other kinds of hoztry?  Wouldn't the history of Ev be called hevtry?  And what of Mo-ology?  Thompson still has a bad habit, a dozen years into her royal-historianship, of tacking "Oz" onto or into words as if to make them more authentic.  The worst example is "ozade."  If lemonade is made with lemons, limeaid with limes, and Gatoraid with--

OK, back to hoztry.  In the previous book, Glinda was celebrating a century of ruling the Quadlings.  Does this include the time of the Quadling king?  Was that mysterious man actually a consort, that died or divorced?

In this book we find out that Ojo's grandfather ruled the southern part of the Munchkin Country (which has moved back to the west), and had Seebania as the capital.  When Ozma became queen and was able to select rulers of the quadrants, the royal family was left with only Seebania, while presumably the Ozure Islanders took over rule of the Munchkins, or at least the north half.  Ojo's grandfather was overthrown by Mooj the Magician, who then imprisoned Ojo's parents.  Ojo's father, Ree Alla Bad, was released on condition that he not free his wife or ask anyone else to free her.  So he became Realbad the bandit.

He didn't know his queen was pregnant, but later his uncle Stephen hid the baby away in safety, and we know that pair better as Unc Nunkie and Ojo.  Ojo, by the way, is "ten."  I have no idea how much time is supposed to have passed.

This is not the Ojo of Patchwork Girl, since he's much less graver, although I suppose his spirits might've improved after so long in the Emerald City.  Neill doesn't draw him with dark hair as he did twenty years earlier, although Realbad has curly black hair in text and illustrations.  Realbad also has a very dashing mustache.

Thompson does a good job showing the connection between Realbad and Ojo, even before it's revealed that they're father and son.  The queen, however, just shows up at the end and, much more than in Giant Horse, is a very vague character.  Thompson seems to have been a lot less interested in mothers than fathers, but then her cast tends to be more male than Baum's was.

The other main character is the bear Snufferbux.  (Snuff her bucks?  I hardly know her!)  He and Realbad fight over Ojo and other matters at many points in the book, but of course become friends.

He meets Ojo in a Gypsy camp, and I have to say that Thompson doesn't miss a stereotype for this thieving, fortune-telling, cruel but charming, swarthy pack.  Even Realbad's bandits are portrayed more sympathetically.  At the end of the story, Ozma deports the Gypsies to Southern Europe, and I try not to think about the fate of Gypsies in Northern Europe in the following decade.

Moving on to the lighter topic, this is unquestionably the most innuendous Thompson book so far, maybe ever.  In Lost King, she had a character named Humpy, and here we get Humper, but that's minor compared to this line when Realbad meets a unicorn in the fog:  "To his dismay and consternation the pointed end of his rod immediately embedded itself in a soft, yielding body."

And even that is nothing next to the dizzying chapter "Dorothy in Dicksy Land."  Yes, I know that "queer dick" means roughly "odd duck," but that doesn't mean that all the uses of "queer" and "dick" in this chapter can be glossed over.  How about this, which manages to get in a drug reference as well:  "'Here we are all Dicks together.  I am the Dick with the queer hat band.  That's my peculiarity.  To what are you addicted?'"  Or what of "Dorothy decided that [there were no female Dicks] because men were queerer than women"?  (I think Sinclair Lewis might disagree about that.)  Then in the next chapter, the Cowardly Lion asks, "Do you mean to tell me that every Dick in Dicksy Land is perfectly satisfied?"  Toujours gai Scraps remarks, "This is a queer country.  I'll come back some time and spend my life."

The Pointless Dorothy Side-Plot this time is possibly more pointless than ever.  Ozma, Nunkie, and the Wizard are already going to get Glinda's help in rescuing Ojo from the Gypsies.  But Scraps, who gets hushed two or three times of course, wants to rescue Ojo, and Dorothy and the Lion go along.  Mooj transforms them into clocks, and you could take this subplot out of the book and lose nothing.

I do really like Unicorners.  It's as if after dicking around for 180 pages, Thompson finally decided to write a good story.  The concept and execution of this little kingdom are well done, and not coincidentally the other aspects of the story improve for the last 60 pages or so.  Neill's best artwork in the book is of the unicorns.

Of course, some of his worst artwork is in the penultimate chapter, specifically the worst hairstyles since Glinda of Oz (1920).  After a few pictures of Ozma with her traditional long hair, she's got some horrible proto-late-1980s geometric do on p. 241.  And Queen Isomere sports a similar style.  I find it hard to believe that this was popular in 1933.  (Even Vanessa's hair on The Cosby Show was less ridiculous.)

I'm missing the next couple Thompson books, including the one with the most overtly drug-related title:  Speedy in Oz.

The Purple Prince of Oz

1932, 1986 Del Rey edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Purple Prince of Oz
Original price $5.95, bought used for $3.00
Waterlogged paperback
C+


It may be partly that I didn't pick this up as early as the other Thompsons, but I think this is one of the most forgettable of her books.  In fact, within hours after reading it, I thought, "I wonder when I'll get back to Thompson."  It's odd because it does mark the return of many of the Kabumpo characters, with Pompa and Peg Amy now the proud parents of a four-year-old baby.  (Do Oz babies age slowly, too?)  And it's the return of the Red Jinn of Ev, glimpsed briefly in Jack Pumpkinhead.  But it's yet another story about a young prince who must complete some tasks. 


I suppose I should note what I didn't with Pumpkinhead, that the Red Jinn has black slaves.  I assume Thompson did this to add to the exoticism, but it is unpleasant, if perhaps less so (because briefer) than the racism in Royal Book.  And the Red Jinn is supposed to be a sympathetic character, so no one judges him for being a slave-owner.  If I remember correctly, it's most offensive in Silver Princess, due partly to Neill's illustrations.  (I'm restraining myself from going and looking, so I can judge Silver P at the proper time.) 


Oh, the Thompsonian Innuendo Prize goes not to the King and Queen of Stair Way, Kumup and Godown, since the names are sort of to be expected, but to the Red Jinn for crying, "Oh!  Oh!  Oh!  He's the best and only boy friend I have ever had!"


But, yeah, otherwise, not too memorable a book. 

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.

The Giant Horse of Oz

1928, undated but probably 1941 Reilly & Lee edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Giant Horse of Oz
Original price $1.75, bought used for unknown
Surprisingly good condition hardcover, although the dust jacket is frayed
B

I'll deal with the simpler question of chronology first.  The dust jacket says, "There are now thirty-four of the Delightful Stories of the Wonderful Land of Oz," but they omit Wizard, which I think was still owned by another publisher.  The last book on the list is [The] Scalawagons of Oz, which came out in '41, while Lucky Bucky was published in '42.  The end papers seem to be Scarecrow-era though, with a line of characters that includes Pon the Gardener's Boy but not Betsy.

As for the chronology within the book, I hope you're sitting down.  We're three books past Lost King, but only two years have passed.  And Kabumpo and Gnome King were five years apart.  Let's call this 1828 O.Z., since in Cowardly Lion we learned that it was seven centuries since 1120 O.Z.

1822 O.Z. Kabumpo
1826 Lost King
1827 Gnome King 
1828 Giant Horse

Now, within this story it seems that 25 years ago (1803 O.Z.), Orin was a "Princess of the North," daughter of King Gil of Gilkenny.  Gil ruled some of the northern land, but Mombi was the supreme ruler of all the North, while the nameless King of the Munchkins had a son named Cheeriobed, who fell in love with Orin.  Mombi later fell for Cheeriobed, who of course spurned her, so she swore revenge.  She waited three years though to kidnap Orin, by which point Cheeriobed and Orin were happily married, with a two-year-old son named Philador.  This was twenty years before our story begins, so Cheeriobed and Orin's engagement must've lasted a couple years. 

1803 O.Z. Cheeriobed meets Orin, and they fall in love
1805 They get married, infuriating Mombi
1806 Philador born
1808 Mombi kidnaps Orin
1828 "Present-day"

Philador is now "ten," but that's because it turns out that people can stay the same age as long as they want.  Trot is also ten now.  This means that she was no more ten when she arrived.  This is what I wrote on the subject for Lost Princess:   "Baum tells us that Betsy is a year older than Dorothy, who's a year older than Trot.  He hasn't yet explained that people have stopped aging in Oz, but it's starting to be implied.  Button-Bright is younger than Ojo, and we know he's younger than Trot and Dorothy.  In Road, he seemed to be about half Dorothy's age, say 4 or 5 to her 8 or 9.  He was half a head shorter than Trot in Scarecrow.  If I remember correctly, Thompson will make Trot 9, I think in Giant Horse, so when we get to that point, I'll try to approximate the other kids' ages."  Trot probably was nine at most, since she, like Philador, "likes being ten, so I've been ten for ever so long."  I don't think she could've been less than seven, if she was taller than Button-Bright.

To return to the Oz history, it sort of works for the North, with Mombi turning Orin into Tattypoo, the Good Witch of the North, who conquers Mombi and rules the Gillikins.  (I refuse to misspell that word like Thompson does.)  We still don't know what was up with the "King" of the Gillikins in Road, but that's not Thompson's problem.  The chronology here is more of a problem for the Munchkins, although at least their land is now back where it belongs, in the East.

The story opens on the Ozure Isles, in the Lost Lake of Orizon, definitely one of my favorite Thompsonian kingdoms.  The lake became lost after Mombi kidnapped Orin.  And yet, there's an "old history book" that tells of Ozma and "the three little mortal maids that have come to live in the Emerald City."  The book would have to be at least twenty years old, since the 1807 Ozurians have lost contact with the outside world.  But there is no way that more than twenty years have passed since Betsy and Trot arrived.  That would give us a chronology something like this:

1805 Mombi still rules the North
1806 Betsy arrives
1807 Trot arrives
1808 Ozure loses contact with outside world
1808 or later Tattypoo conquers Mombi
1809 or later Land of Oz is set
1828 "Present-Day"

Maybe the sea gulls brought the book from the mainland, but I'm still calling shenanigans.  My guess, Betsy, Trot, and even Dorothy arrived during the "lost time."  Of course, there's still the problem of the King of the Munchkins mentioned in Ozma and Road.  I'll go into this more when we get to Ojo.

The backstories, confusing though they are, do raise this above the average Thompson story.  There are as usual two parties trying to get to the Emerald City, this time Philador and the two friends he meets along the way, and Trot with the Scarecrow and an animated statue from Boston, this last character falling through the earth to Oz, where it's apparently day when it's night in Boston, lending support to the Oz = Australia theorists.  The two friends of Philador are the title character from Up Town (not to be confused with Down Town in Hungry Tiger), one of Thompson's better animals, and Herby the Medicine Man, who prescribes pills like they're candy.  So, yeah, this time we have drug abuse rather than innuendo, thanks, Plumly!

I'd remembered Neill as having more obviously 1920s illustrations than he does, but this is the book with "flapper Dorothy."  On p. 36, she's shown with feathers in her now dark bob.  (Neill, as you may've noticed by now, is pretty casual about hair color, sometimes changing it from light to dark and back for a character within one book, although he's usually consistent about Ozma, who's had black hair since the third book.)

The Gnome King of Oz

1927, 1985 Del Rey edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Gnome King of Oz
Bought newish for $5.95
Slightly worn paperback
B-

The title is interesting for a few reasons.  To begin with, Thompson is using the correct spelling of "gnome," with the G, as she usually does, unlike Baum trying to simplify things for the kiddies.  The king is "of" rather than "in" Oz, unlike Kabumpo and Grampa, even though they're Oz natives and Ruggedo is not.  He again hopes to conquer Oz, so he might become the king of Oz, but he of course fails.  The same number of years have passed in Oz as in the real world, so he's been on his island for the five years since Kabumpo.  He escapes thanks to an earthquake and a boy named Peter.

Peter is an all-American lad who plays baseball and would rather live in Philadelphia than Oz, unlike Button-Bright, who also hails from that city.  Neill draws Peter as more modern-looking than Button, or even than orphan Bob in Cowardly Lion.  He's nine years old, so we'll see how much he ages when he returns a couple books later.

The story doesn't get to Peter and Ruggedo till Chapter Four.  The first three chapters deal with the succession in Patch, which is the 705th small country within Oz.  The current population of the Emerald City is 57,318 "gay Ozites" and "nearly a hundred celebrities."  The 57,318 figure is identical to that in the sixth book, but Baum didn't count the celebrities separately.  Still, a pretty stable population. 

The new queen of Patch, which, like Ragbad and Kimbaloo, is another country with a very specific economy, appears to be Scraps.  Thompson does better with and by her this time, although Peter is the real hero of the book.  The two parties going to the Emerald City team up, as usual, although Ruggedo uses a magic cloak of invisibility and transport to go off on his own and try to conquer E.C.  Peter uses his baseball pitching skills to vanquish the gnome, who's again dunked in the Fountain of Oblivion and granted his freedom.  You'd think Ozma or somebody would know better by now, but this is one villain that the Royal Historians like to keep around.  As for Peter, he becomes a prince, like Dorothy becoming a princess long ago.

Unlike my other 1927 books, there are no lesbians in this story, unless you count bob-haired, short-skirted Queen Jazzma of Tune Town admiring Scraps's doggerel and serenading her, "Maiden stay, you are so gay, I'd like to look at you all day."  Actually, other than the recurring use of "gay," the main Plumly innuendo this time is "As for Peter, he was so excited over the adventure with Kuma's hand, he could think of nothing else."

The Hungry Tiger of Oz

1926, 1985 Del Rey edition

Ruth Plumly Thompson

Illustrated by John R. Neill

The Hungry Tiger of Oz

Bought newish for $5.95

Slightly worn paperback

B-

Except for Ozma being kidnapped by an "airman" (balloon-like man from the sky), this story is mostly about how the title character, Betsy, and a man made out of vegetables help the young Prince of Rash regain his throne.  (Chapter 19 is called "Reddy Restored to the Throne," so this isn't much of a spoiler if you read the List of Chapters first.)  Rash is a small pink kingdom on the edge of Ev, and, yes, the name leads to lots of puns.

There are surprisingly few if any innuendos, but to make up for this, the Del Rey cover (by Michael Herring I've discovered via the Internet) looks like this:





An exciting ride for Betsy!

 



Ahem.  Moving on, there are also a couple of egregious typos.  I haven't commented on this I believe, but nearly every Oz book contains some typos, no matter what edition.  Usually I ignore them, but this time we've got "shudddered" with three D's and a chapter called "The Vegetable Man of Ox."

Neill's work continues to be mostly unimpressive in the 1920s.  He misses chances to offer the Rash palace, or much of Down Town, the place run by King Dad and Queen Fi Nance.  With the latter, I kept thinking how this is three years before the Great Crash.





I do have to say that the androgyny of the illustrations of the child characters has reached a new height.  For over 20 years, Neill has been drawing most of the boys and many of the girls with that same Prince-Valiant-ish hairdo, so Dorothy and the rest have transitioned well into the 1920s.  But here Betsy, whom he used to show with long blonde hair, to help distinguish her from Dorothy's blonde bob, is also sporting a blonde bob.  The problem is, Prince Reddy is as well.  This leads to the picture on p. 191, where it looks like a tiny Betsy is standing on a giant Betsy's shoulder.  In fact, Reddy should be wearing one of the big wigs.  On p. 207, it looks like Betsy is at the coronation of her older sister, when it's Reddy in his crown.  Not only their hair but their eyes, noses, and mouths are similar.



The Lost King of Oz

1925, 1985 Del Rey edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Lost King of Oz
Bought newish for $5.95
Slightly worn paperback
B

This is Thompson's best so far.  The main plot deals with pre-wizard history, as she tries to resolve a loose end that Baum left.  That she doesn't do so completely satisfactorily is not entirely her fault, since, as we know, Baum contradicted himself.   In DatW, Ozma had claimed that both Ozma's nameless grandfather and Ozma's father were prisoners of Mombi, and then "When I was born she transformed me into a boy."  Baum had named Ozma's father Pastoria for the 1902 musical of The Wizard of Oz, which carried over to the book of Land, where Mombi confessed that the Wizard gave her the baby princess.

In Thompson's version, it's not only acknowledged that the Wizard helped Mombi, which Baum ignored after the Wizard's return to Oz, but the Wizard shows genuine remorse.  Thompson does, however, have Ozma remember her father and their old hunting lodge, implying that Ozma was older than a baby.  Thompson doesn't reconcile how Ozma is descended from both a long line of fairies and Pastoria, although she does mention the fairy queen Lurline.  Perhaps Ozma's mother was queen, and Pastoria the consort and then regent.  (I loathed Wicked, so I haven't read Son of a Witch, but I will admit that the theory, as described in Wikipedia, sounds plausible.)  After all, Ozma says in DatW, that all rulers of Oz once it became a fairyland were named Oz if male, Ozma if female, and "Pastoria" doesn't fit that.

In any case, the lost king is found but he abdicates so he can continue his career as tailor.  There's no long-range impact, other than an old mystery being cleared up.  And we do get to see Mombi again, before she's wiped out by water.  She's lost her magic because of Glinda, but she's still a mean old broad.  I like how Neill draws her Gillikin ex-witch costume to look old-fashioned among the simpler fashions around her.

Mombi journeys to the Emerald City accompanied by a goose she was going to cook for dinner (she's had to become a cook) and Snip, a button-boy of Kimbaloo.  The goose is actually the Prime Minister Pajuka.  (I kept thinking of the song "Paducah" from 1943's The Gang's All Here.)  She transformed him years ago and he demands to know what she did with the king, but she lost much of her memory when she lost her magic.  The three travelers pass through Catty Corners, so of course Thompson uses the word "pussy."  Then Snip finds Tora the Tired Tailor, who's also lost his memory, and no one yet realizes he's Pastoria.

The Dorothy subplot this time isn't as pointless as usual, for two reasons.  When she accidentally wishes herself to Hollywood, California, she ages all the years she's been in Oz, and then this is reversed when she returns to Oz, which resolves a bit the question of aging in Oz.  (Not entirely, since Thompson will add a proviso to this later.)  More importantly, Dorothy discovers a moving-picture stunt dummy that she brings to life, and his robe has a clue that helps restore Pastoria.

She and the dummy, whom she's named Humpy (oh dear), run into Kabumpo, whom I still don't like, even if Thompson assures us he's kind under his gruffness.  Kabumpo says that Kimbaloo is near Pumperdink, but that's not how it looks on the map.  (Kimbaloo by the way has an economy built on buttons and bouquets, and they seem to be doing better than Ragbad in these post-utopian times.)  The two parties who are going to the Emerald City team up.

Meanwhile Ozma and some of her friends have gone to Morrow, today.  This is mainly so Ozma can remember her father, and be away when he returns.  It also leads to what may well be the worst Scraps-bashing.  Ozma hushes her, Trot calls her a goose, Sir Hokus commands, "Silence, wench!", Betsy "looks shocked at the Patch Work Girl's heartless speech," and I think there's even a moment when the Scarecrow gets annoyed with her, although I can't find it now.

Still, flaws and all, this is an improvement on the first four Thompsons, and luckily not the last time she'll delve into Ozian pre-history.

Grampa in Oz

1924, 1985 Del Rey edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Grampa in Oz
Bought newish for $5.95
Slightly worn paperback
B-

This is similar to Kabumpo in that a young prince goes in search of a princess bride, who turns out to be the enchanted girl he's already befriended.  Urtha shows up at an earlier point than Peg Amy, so she has more time to befriend her prince.  The story also resembles Royal Book in that there's a parallel and pointless story for Dorothy.  I do like the various lands that Grampa and company go to, even if the back cover of this edition gives away that they "fall, swim, explode, sail, and fly above and below Oz and Ev."  Grampa isn't an actual grandfather, it's more of a courtesy title.  Thompson dedicates the book to "Uncle Billy," who was briefly referenced in Cowardly Lion. 

I'm taking off the "utopias" tag until further notice.  It is in this book that it becomes clear that Thompson is not a Baumian socialist.  There's a mention of money in Mudge, but that's one of the "bad kingdoms," and Ragbag is supposed to be a "good kingdom."  In a utopia, a royal family (or any family) wouldn't be impoverished.  At this point, the only thing that Thompson is definitely carrying over is talking animals, and that's not enough in itself.  Is the farm in Charlotte's Web a utopia?  I didn't think so.

Well, Thompson does continue the tradition of sticking the Winkies in the East, which comes up several times.  She also apparently has forgotten The Magical Monarch of Mo, when she writes that Fumbo is the first king to go on living after losing his head.  Like the Mo King, Fumbo gets a dough-head, although his is not eaten by birds.

There are fewer double entendres than usual, unless you count the Fire Islanders waving their arms gaily or the weather cock rising excitedly.  Incidentally, Bill does not meet Billina, although there is a gold-brick-laying hen.

Nothing too notable about Neill this time, except that he has Urtha wear flowers but not look like she's made of flowers.  The Del Rey cover makes Urtha look like walking shrubbery, which isn't exactly an improvement.

The Cowardly Lion of Oz

1923, undated probably 1930s (see below) Reilly & Lee edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Cowardly Lion of Oz
Bought used for $15.00
Hardcover with worn corners, stains, and some coloring
C+


On the "This Book Belongs to" page is written, "Mary Louisa [illegible] from Theda, Dec. 25, 1933, May you be very Happy always."  That right there is the most interesting thing in the book.  Who was Theda?  A friend?  An aunt?  A psychologist?  How happy was little Mary Louisa in the midst of the Depression?  How did her life turn out later?  And what, a Christmas gift with no seasonal greetings?  And why did Mary Louisa just color in the first illustration, and not bother with the rest?  I could've got this then roughly 55-year-old edition for even less if she had.


As for the story itself, it's about an unfunny clown and an initially sad orphan boy who go to Oz and are immediately recruited into capturing the title character for a king who's vaguely an Arab stereotype (but much less than the Silvermen are Chinese-ish).  Meanwhile, our lion chum, on the very bad advice of Scraps, has decided to eat a brave man in order to gain real courage.  (Forget this humbug wizard brew that's served him for about 20 years.)  This book is the first where Thompson seriously begins the character assassination of my treasured Patchwork Girl.  Not only does she make Scraps advocate murder, but she shows not only newbie Sir Hokus but even the Scarecrow trying to repress the irrepressible girl's enthusiasm and doggerel.


My main enjoyment was looking for the best unintended double entendre.  It was tough to narrow down, with lines about knobs and rods (door and fishing respectively), and certainly the one about young Bob feeling uncomfortable when Notta (the annoyingly named clown, Notta Bit More) puts on one of his "queer costumes," deserves dishonorable mention.  But I'm going to go with Bob's question to the Cowardly Lion, "Are you a friend of Dorothy's?"  You go, Girl!


Neill's work is average this time.  He can't seem to draw bald people without full heads of hair.  There are times when I feel sorry for him, as when he has to present Notta (disguised as a fish) driving a Flyaboutabus and hitting a pedestrian who's encased in a glass jar.  I'm sure Thompson was abstemious, but I wouldn't blame Neill for wondering sometimes what she was smoking.  It would explain not only the oddness of her books but the beyond-Baum rambling nature.


The book ends with Notta and Bob settling in Oz, and Notta going off to pointlessly consult Prof. Wogglebug about Bob's "future."  Besides the fact that people don't really age in Oz, Bob doesn't even show up in later books, unless I've completely blanked him and Notta out.

Kabumpo in Oz

1922, 1985 Del Rey edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Kabumpo in Oz
Bought newish for $5.95
Paperback with binding starting to loosen
B-


The first thing to address about this book is spelling.  Thompson spells "gnome" with a G, which is more traditional.  (Baum worried children wouldn't know how to pronounce it.)  She does, however, misspell the northern country as "Gilliken," even though it's obvious that it should end in "kin," like "Munchkin."


The story begins in the North, in the tiny kingdom of Pumperdink.  The prince receives a message that he must marry the "proper princess" or Pumperdink will disappear.  So he and the title character, an Elegant Elephant, set out for the Emerald City so Prince Pompadore (yes, that's how she spells that) can propose to Ozma.  If Ozma refuses, Kabumpo plans to kidnap her, yes, charming.  He's also very rude later to Peg Amy, a wooden doll that's come to life, but he does redeem himself somewhat as the story goes on.


The places are more interesting than last time, including a sea of soup and a town populated by numbers.  One place has creatures called the Twigs, and so this is the oldest book I own where people are called "faggots."  In fact, there's a "faggoty old fairy," a 1000-year-old woman who collects sticks.  She lives in the Follensby Forest, which is odd to read so soon after Babbitt's friends mock his middle name of Follonsbee.


The Gnome King, who got the Waters of Oblivion treatment again at the end of Magic of Oz, has his memory and wickedness back.  This time, he gets exiled to an island, the Runaway Country, which has a "long wiggly peninsula."  Why can't I read Thompson without thinking inappropriate thoughts?  (Wait till we get to the "queer dicks" in Ojo in Oz!)


The other villain, J. Glegg, gets a more brutal punishment, held down by fourteen people and forced to drink Triple Trick Tea until he explodes.  His scheme to marry Princess Peg Amy once she's disenchanted fails, partly thanks to Trot ex machina.  Peg gets a happy ending with Prince Pompa, even though they've only known each other for about 100 pages and neither of them seems old enough to get married.  In the illustrations he does not look like he's celebrating his 18th birthday for the tenth time.


Nonetheless, Neill does some good work here, particularly with the Royal Family of Pumperdink, Kabumpo included.  He does draw a cat-like creature as a rabbit, perhaps mixing up the Curious Cottabus with Wag the rabbit.  Wag in turn should not be confused with Wiggs or Woggs of Once on a Time.  As for the weird Del Rey cover art this time, it's not too bad, except that Pompa should have lost some of his hair instead of sporting the Prince Valiant look, and the restored Peg Amy definitely doesn't look old enough to get married.  (Neill shows her only in doll form.)

The Royal Book of Oz

1921, 1985 Del Rey edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Royal Book of Oz
Bought newish for $5.95
OK condition paperback
C+

An inauspicious debut for Thompson, this, like so many of her books, substitutes franticness for action.  So it's funny when Dorothy tells her friends later of her "exciting adventures," when these include a visit to a town where everyone is sleepy (Pokes) and a city where everyone is fixed in place while the furniture moves (Fix City).  She and the Cowardly Lion have gone in search of the Scarecrow, and along the way they meet Sir Hokus of Pokes, who knew King Arthur but has been asleep for only 500 years, and the Comfortable Camel and the Doubtful Dromedary, who rank somewhere above Hank the Mule and below Jim the Cab-Horse on the list of interesting beasts.  Sir Hokus will become one of Thompson's favorite characters.  In his introduction, he's OK, about as interesting as an Edward Eager knight.  (Shockingly, I don't own any Eager books, since I was always checking them out of the library, because that's what his characters would've done.)


The "title character" is a sort of Debrett's Peerage for Oz, an idea of the Wogglebug's, despite the Scarecrow's belief that Oz is "democratic."  The Scarecrow, although once on the Emerald City throne for a few months, doesn't have an impressive background.  So he returns to the farm where he was created, and we even get a glimpse of the Munchkin farmer who put him together.  Then he slides down his "family tree," the pole that Dorothy found him on.  He lands on the Silver Island, which is modeled on China, so cue those stereotypes.


There are moments when the Scarecrow is longing to leave Silver Island and return to Oz that I feel like he's protesting being in a Thompson book, longing for imperfect but lovable Baum.  Not that the book is completely irredeemable.  There is some nice wordplay and Thompson has not yet abandoned most of Baum's characters.  Actually, in her premiere that was credited to Baum until this edition, I get the sense that she's trying too hard, as when she sticks "Oz" and "ozzy" in wherever possible, as in her term for Oz geography, "ozify."  (Not to be confused with "ossify.")


Speaking of maps, while I dislike the Del Rey covers' substitution of some weird art for classic Neill (this time the quintuple-spectacled Wogglebug flourishes the Royal Book at a horrified Scarecrow), I do appreciate the maps they include.  The east-west problem is resolved and everything is neatly labeled and plausibly placed.  Credit for those goes to James E. Hoff and Dick Martin of the International Wizard of Oz Club.  The club is still around after 55 years by the way.

Glinda of Oz

1920, undated probably 1970s Reilly & Lee edition
L. Frank Baum
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Glinda of Oz
Bought new for unknown, but probably $7.95 like other Baum Oz hardcovers
Hardcover with stains
B


This time the "To Our Readers" is by the publishers, and after a summary of the book it tells of how "in May, nineteen hundred nineteen, [Mr. Baum] went away to take his stories to the little child-souls who had lived here too long ago to read the Oz stories for themselves."  They promise more stories by Baum, although that's not what would happen.

It's a good story to end with, if still flawed.  It's nice to see both Ozma and Glinda get off their thrones and have adventures, like back in the old days.  Ozma contradicts herself on what magic she specializes in, compared to when she broke Mrs. Yoop's enchantments in Tin Woodman, since there she brewed and here she acts like she just relies on her fairy wand.  We meet another Yookoohoo, Reera the Red, who's always been one of my favorite minor characters.  We're again reminded that only Glinda and the Wizard can work magic according to Ozma's laws.  (Well, Ozma herself is an exception.)  Reera transforms the Three Adepts into themselves after they've been turned into fish, but Reera doesn't get in trouble because she's done it on condition that no one tell who did it.  As for the Three Adepts, they claim they didn't know about Ozma's laws, and they are allowed to work magic to rescue Ozma, Dorothy, and the Skeezers on the sunken island.

On their journey north, Dorothy thinks it would be a good idea if everyone could perform magic, "and satisfy all their needs without so much work and worry," but Ozma believes that then no one would be happy, because there'd be nothing to strive for.  If J. K. Rowling has read any Oz books, she must've read this one.  Ozma's argument would work coming from Dumbledore, and it's similar to something Hagrid says to Harry.  Also, Glinda features giant talking spiders and magic tents.

Ironically, it's Dorothy who solves the mystery of Queen Coo-ee-oh's magic, by figuring out that the three magical acts that the queen performs each require a syllable of her name.  There's also some technology involved, so we're a long way from the sylvan weaving of Zixi.  This is possibly the oldest book I own that mentions submarines, but then I don't own much Verne.  My favorite gizmo is the skeropythrope, partly because of the name and partly because of the illustration.  It doesn't work but the sparks look awesome.

This is another book where Ozma gets involved in politics, but the Skeezers and the Flatheads are residents of Oz, and so her interference seems more justified than in Ozma.  It's a bit odd that her diplomatic team is just herself and Dorothy, when the rescue team is huge, again, like in Lost Princess, too large.  For instance, Button-Bright is included mostly so that he can get lost, but there's no pay-off like him finding the enchanted peach.  I am glad that the Patchwork Girl is along, and that Baum points out that Scraps's silliness often makes people dismiss her clever ideas, since that's what happens when she makes the same suggestion twice and is dissed the first time.  No wonder Neill draws her as making faces at the reader.

Uncle Henry is also one of the rescue party, out of his concern for his niece, which is sweet, even if they haven't interacted in the books since he settled in Oz.  No mention of Aunt Em.

The rulers of the Skeezers and the Flatheads, Coo-Ee-Oh and the Su-dic (Supreme Dictator), are both vain and selfish, in different ways than the interregnum Princess Languidere of Ev.  At the end, Ozma reinstalls the Three Adepts as rulers of the Flatheads (whom Glinda has made into normal-headed people, with brains inside), and appoints Lady Aurex as ruler of the Skeezers, with clever young Ervic as Prime Minister.  Ervic is for his few chapters the unsung hero of the book, outsmarting Reera and saving the Adepts.

I'm glad that Glinda got a book named after her, but this story isn't about her in the way that Tin Woodman is about Nick Chopper.  Glinda is brave and clever, but she doesn't really stand out among so many brave and/or clever people.  She's not even the only, or the best, magician.

I do like the cover with its vaguely goddess-trinity arrangement of Glinda, Ozma, and Dorothy, although it's a "mother" and two maidens rather than Maiden, Mother, and Crone.  The back cover shows Scraps and Jack cozying up, although there is an illustration inside of Scraps with her arms around the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman.  Maybe now that she's a regular, she's gotten past the infatuation stage with the Scarecrow and is just affectionate with everyone.

I'm not happy with the way that Neill generally does Ozma's hair in this book.  On the cover, it's the usual length, but mostly he gives her a weird compromise length, like a bad 1960s bouffant.  Sometimes he draws Dorothy's like this, too, only blonde rather than brunette of course.  Even stranger, he gives Coo-ee-oh ringlets that look vaguely like a British judge's wig, especially since he usually forgets to make them the black color mentioned in the text.  He does well with Reera, particularly in the picture of her, Ervic, and her pets on p. 215.  Not everyone can rock a chef's hat while lounging, but Reera does.

The Magic of Oz

1919, undated probably 1970s Rand McNally edition
L. Frank Baum
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Magic of Oz
Bought new for $1.95
Paperback with stains and broken spine
B+

This is another book with Ozma's birthday, but much stronger than Road.  This time the focus is on the gifts, particularly what Dorothy & the Wizard and Trot, Cap'n Bill, & the Glass Cat have to go through to get their gifts.  Meanwhile, the Nome King is again hoping to conquer Oz.  The three main plots are good on their own and interweave well. 

The last plot I mentioned is the subject of the first three chapters.  Bad boy Kiki Aru discovers a secret word of transformation, "Pyrzqxgl," which would also give him the winning score in Scrabble.  As a child, I loved how coy Baum is about warning readers to not pronounce the word correctly, although I'm sure every child tried.  Kiki makes himself into a bird and flies from his home on Mount Munch (the mountain that Nimmie lives near) to Hiland, Loland, Noland, Ix, and Ev, although we barely get glimpses of these places, unlike the visit to Mo in Scarecrow.  (He has no trouble speaking as a bird, despite Baum sometimes claiming that animals can't talk outside Oz.)  He encounters the Nome King, who encourages him to use the magic word for evil purposes.  Kiki is inexperienced, but he knows enough not to fully trust Ruggedo.

Dorothy and the Wizard, with the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger as transportation and protection, journey to the Gillikin Forest in order to get monkeys who'll agree to be shrunk and pop out of a cake.  They arrive just as the Nome King and Kiki, disguised as Li-Mon-Eags (lion-monkey-eagle hybrids) try to get the wild animals on their side.  There's a slight parody of the Russian Revolution in the Nome King's speech to get the beasts to revolt, and earlier he remarks to Kiki that it's the fashion to make kings abdicate. 

There are also references to the just finished Great War, as in Baum's dedication (which usually is to his family members), this time to "the Children of our Soldiers, the Americans and their Allies."  And Neill gives the giant soldiers, which Kiki creates out of monkeys, the headgear of doughboys and other servicemen, rather than the plumes described in the text.  For all the mockery of war and officers, Baum does seem to respect the bravery of the foot soldier.  In fact, he shows female soldiers as especially gallant, Jinjur's Army of Revolt aside.  Even in Land, Glinda's female army is treated with respect.

I wonder what those who think the Oz books are satanic would make of Cap'n Bill's speech about how people take the good things in their lives for granted, since he says in part, "Most folks forget to thank God for givin' 'em two good legs, till they lose one o' 'em, like I did; and then it's too late, 'cept to praise God for leavin' one."  The piety here is simple and unassuming, as suits the speaker, but therefore easy to overlook.

Cap'n Bill and Trot are stuck on a magical island where a beautiful, ever-changing flower grows.  Anything "meat" grows roots, like flesh, wool socks, and leather shoes, so the Glass Cat who's led them there is able to go get help.  Bungle is more prominent in this book but just as vain yet loyal as ever.  At the end of Patchwork Girl, the Wizard had replaced the cat's pink brains with ones that weren't so pretty, but Baum has forgotten that, along with Bungle's brief humility.  The other feline regular, Eureka, gets a brief scene with Bungle, and we can tell the two cats don't get along.  In fact, when the miniaturized monkeys later get even with Bungle for pulling their tails by covering her in blue mud, it is the thought of what her furry rival would say that particularly worries Bungle.

This book also marks the return of the Kalidahs, well, one in particular that Cap'n Bill stabs.  It doesn't die but it is annoyed.  Baum doesn't describe the Kalidah this time, probably knowing that readers well remember the creature from the first book.  Neill's Kalidah is more realistic than the ones Denslow drew, but not any scarier.

The most notable illustration for this edition is the odd cover, as can be seen here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Magic_of_oz_cover.gif
The guilty look of the monkey, the amused look of the Wizard, and the odd trail of smoke coming from behind the monkey suggest the creature has farted in the cauldron.

I'm disappointed in the illustrations of the Magic Flower, since Neill doesn't convey its beauty.  I do like the illustration of when it offers fruit for awhile.  Similarly, Neill doesn't do justice to the diamond palace of the Lonesome Duck (a great minor character), but I like the look of amazement on Dorothy's face in that picture.

In Baum's introduction, he says, "A long and confining illness has prevented my answering all the good letters sent me-- unless stamps were enclosed-- but from now on I hope to be able to give prompt attention to each and every letter with which my readers favor me."  It's sweet that Baum answered all the fan letters he could, but then you realize that he had died the month before this book came out.  The Royal Historian was not quite done, as there was another posthumous book the next year, but his contradictory yet lovable version of Oz was nearly complete.

The Tin Woodman of Oz

1918, undated probably 1970s Reilly & Lee edition
L. Frank Baum
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Tin Woodman of Oz
Bought new for $7.95
Slightly stained hardcover but one of my Oz books in better condition
B

In the 1939 movie of The Wizard of Oz, the Tin Woodman is always referred to as "the Tin Man," but I think Baum used the term "the Tin Woodman" (along with Nick Chopper and the Emperor of the Winkies of course) until this book, where he starts to sometimes say "the Tin Man."  This is ironic since, as the cover shows, there are now two Tin Men.  Perhaps he got tired of the longer name.

This other tin man is the Tin Soldier, and they were made in similar ways for similar reasons.  There are differences, however, in Nick's origin story in the first book and the twelfth, particularly in the Wicked Witch of the West's role in the life of the Munchkin girl Nick loved, here revealed to be named Nimmie Amee.  The Tin Soldier came along after Nick was rusted in the woods but before Dorothy rescued Nick.  The not-yet-tin soldier, named Captain Fyter, got Nimmie on the rebound, and then the vengeful witch enchanted his sword as she'd enchanted Nick's axe, so he, too, chopped pieces of himself off, one at a time.

Their mutual friend the tinsmith replaced each part with tin, and in this book we find out he's been saving the "meat" pieces.  Why?  So as not to be wasteful, although it's still a bit horror-storyish.  And in fact, he's made a sort of Frankenstein's monster out of them, named Chopfyt, even the name a mishmash of the two tin men.  Chopfyt doesn't have a blend of their personalities though.  He's moody and a bit lazy.  He's also married Nimmie, since he reminds her of the two men she loved.

That's at the end of the quest to resolve Chopper's (and Fyter's) abandonment of the girl years ago.  Even though no one ages in Oz (any more at least), people do get over heartbreak and move on with their lives.  The tin twins (as Baum calls them a few times) think Nimmie is pining for one or both of them, so they'll give her the choice between them, but she's already chosen a husband.

Along the way, they meet Mrs. Yoop, who's not only a giant but a yookoohoo, which is not exactly a witch and not exactly a sorceress.  (I believe that there's another yookoohoo in the last Baum book.)  She doesn't miss her brutish husband, but she is lonely for company.  She imprison the travelers, which at this point includes a boy wanderer named Woot (not to be confused with netspeak w00t), the Tin Woodman of course, and his faithful companion the Scarecrow.  They meet another prisoner, Polychrome, who in this book comes across as very clever and kind.  Mrs. Yoop transforms her and Nick into birds, which is ironic in light of the conversation that Nick and the Scarecrow have about the happiness of a bird's life near the end of Lost Princess.

After their escape but before meeting Capt. Fyter, Woot meets some dragons, and as always with Baum, there are jokes about how dragons age so slowly.  We also spend a few chapters with Jinjur, and I have to ask, what happened to her husband?  On the journey from the Nome Kingdom to the Emerald City in Ozma, they stop by Jinjur's place and she's gotten married to a man that she nags and hits.  (As Nimmie treats Chopfyt.)  She's mentioned in passing as the Scarecrow's friend and touch-up artist in Patchwork Girl.  And here we visit her ranch and there's no sight or mention of her husband.  Did he run off?  Is there divorce in Oz?  Altogether, the view of love and marriage in this book is not a happy one.

Well, the Swynes are happy.  The proposal party meets the parents of the Nine Tiny Piglets, who give a completely different view of how the Wizard acquired their children than the story he told in DatW.  You know what I think of the Wizard's honesty, so I'm inclined to believe the parent pigs and assume that he took the piglets sometime before he flew off in his balloon and made up the more colorful story about them as part of his showman's spiel.

The place that the questers go to that feels most original is Loonville, which is populated by balloon people whose last names are all Loon, including their king, Bal.  There's also Panta Loon, who gets too big for his britches and explodes.  He's repaired by Til Loon.  As a child, I would rack my brains trying to figure out what a "tilloon" was.  It wasn't till much later that I realized that Baum was referencing a 1914 Chaplin movie, Tillie's Punctured Romance.  This certainly fits the theme of puncturing romance.

The other theme in the book is identity, since the tin men go into existential crises, starting with Nick talking to his "meat head," and climaxing in the encounter with Chopfyt.  Even their mostly amicable twinship (made more amicable in the illustrations) has its limits, and Ozma ends up sending the captain to patrol the dangerous parts of the Gillikin Country, in order to keep him mostly out of sight and not reduce Nick's uniqueness.

Another story that is retold in this book is the origin of Oz and Ozma.  Although in other books Ozma and Dorothy look about the same age, here we're told that Ozma looks a bit older than Dorothy, "perhaps fourteen or fifteen years of age."  She may or may not be the fairy that Queen Lurline (a version of Queen Lulea in Zixi?) left behind to rule Oz after transforming it into a fairyland.  That's the moment when Oz became a utopia, where no one ever ages, including those who emigrate from the outside world.  I think that when the throne is usurped, as happened with the Wizard, people (including the Wizard and Tip-Ozma) do age, and then the utopian laws gradually reassert themselves when the rightful ruler is on the throne.

Again, I think Baum needed stronger editors, not just for each book (and there are always a few typos), but for the entire series, to improve continuity and consistency.  The different versions of stories are interesting but impossible to reconcile.  Still, this is one case where I disagree with The Oz Scrapbook (1977).  I generally concur with their ranking of the Baum books, but I would not put this as a lesser entry in the series.

Speaking of errors, there are a few of Neill's illustrations that don't match the text, like Polychrome being herself rather than a canary when she feeds the Jaguar eggs.  His work is generally good but not remarkable in this book.  He does begin to use two-page pictures to good effect, as when Woot, Nick, and the Scarecrow talk to Mrs. Yoop.  These double illustrations will become more common as the series goes on.