Description
I’m pleased to offer here one of the most highly sought after Oz books, after the 1st edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This is the rare UK motion picture edition, timed with the MGM movie release in Great Britain: “The Wizard of Oz–The Original Story on Which the Film is Based”. Contains eight beautiful color stills and publicity photos from the movie, unlike the much more common American movie edition that contains the traditional Denslow plates. The plates in this book were made by colorizing the black & white photos, and are especially striking, particularly the frontispiece of Judy Garland.
This is the London Hutchinson & Co edition, shown as plate 18 in Bibliographia Oziana, and Fig. 21 of the Book Collector’s Guide to L Frank Baum. With a full color wrap-around illustration depicting Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Burt Lahr on the front and spine. The book itself is undated, but according to the references is circa 1940. There are several full-page (and some smaller) black and white Denslow illustrations in addition to the 8 colored photos.
This book is in very good plus condition–one of the nicest I have seen!. The book covers still have bright colors and beautiful images, and there is little wear to the spine as is common with this paper-covered board format. The hinges are tight and the endpapers are clean. All eight color plates are intact and in very nice shape. No writing or tears noted. The only minor flaw is some foxing to the edges of the text block as shown in the last photo. A super nice copy!
