As part of Ozathon 2024, I’m so excited to talk about The Marvelous Land of Oz, the second Oz book and the one that really establishes the Oz series. First I want to give you a little history and background of the book, and maybe inspire you to pick up a copy. In this post I won’t give away any important plot elements (the ending of this book is wonderful and I’d hate to spoil it).
When Baum published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900, he had no intention of beginning a series. He had a number of other works in progress, such as The Enchanted Island of Yew, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, and The Magical Monarch of Mo. But Wizard captured the imagination of the public in a way that was unexpected. Its publication even led to a long-running stage musical, giving Baum the success he’d sought for so many years.
In his opening letter to The Marvelous Land of Oz, Baum writes:
I promised one little girl… that when a thousand little girls had written me a thousand little letters asking for another story of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, I would write the book… [T]he thousand letters reached their destination long since, and many more followed them. And now, although pleading guilty to a long delay, I have kept my promise in this book.
L. Frank Baum, 1904
Instead of Denslow, John R. Neill was hired to illustrate this book, and he brought a very different feeling to the book with his detailed, realistic, Art Nouveau inspired drawings. Only 27 at the time of Land of Oz‘s publication, he would go on to illustrate the Oz books for many years, even after Baum died and Ruth Plumly Thompson continued his series.
While I love the whimsy of Denslow’s illustrations, it’s Neill who brought Oz to life for me. It’s because of him that I fell in love with the characters and the magic of Oz. His illustrations in Land are a little more cartoonish, making it a good transition from Denslow; his illustrations grow more ornate in the next few books as he becomes the official “Illustrator of Oz”.
In Land of Oz Baum gives free rein to his love of wordplay. He introduces us to the Wogglebug, a Highly Magnified and Thoroughly Educated insect whose use of puns is frequently offensive to his friends. He also introduces us to Jack Pumpkinhead, who spends his time worrying about the many ways his head might spoil, and who is the object of many of the Wogglebug’s worst (or best) puns. Baum also loves to poke fun at his characters, as he does when the Scarecrow and Jack Pumpkinhead first meet. They are both so strange to each other, they assume they must speak different languages, despite clearly being able to understand each other, and despite the fact that only one language is spoken in all of Oz (as a clever young girl has to explain to them).
While Baum’s humor will entertain adults, Peter Glassman, owner of Books of Wonder, notes in an afterword, “Baum was very careful to make sure that his ‘adult’ humor never left any of his young readers feeling they had missed something, or that a joke was being told over their heads.”
In addition to humor and absurdity, Baum frequently pauses to consider deeper ideas, in this world where strange beings can be brought to life with some magic powder and a few words. In this book you’ll see the influence of feminism on Baum, whose mother-in-law Matilda Joslyn Gage was one of the most notable feminists and a leader of the suffragist movement. Early in the book, the Scarecrow is dethroned by an army of women who have decided to run the Emerald City to suit themselves. While Baum at times makes fun of these women, he is equally critical of the men, who are at a loss when all of the women leave them with the cooking and housework, and he is also critical of male rulers (“it is a poor rule that don’t work both ways” explains the Scarecrow). And it is Glinda and her army of women who the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman escape to with a plea to restore order.
That’s a brief overview of the book. I’ll write more about The Land of Oz at the end of the month, to give you time to read it. Please share your thoughts about the book (no spoilers please).
