Description
Here is a first edition, second printing of The Marvelous Land of Oz book by L Frank Baum (sequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz). This printing in red Binding D, with “The Land of Oz” on the cover and silver embellishments, with the book less than 1 3/8″ thick. Published by Reilly & Britton, with a hand lettered title page and “Published July, 1904” below the copyright notice on back of title page. (Points from The Book Collector’s Guide to L Frank Baum by Bienvenue and Schmidt). With Jack Pumpkinhead on rear cover and illustrated endpapers featuring the Montgomery and Stone as Tin Woodman and Scarecrow from the 1902 stageplay. Contains 16 color plates by John R Neill. The Marvelous Land of Oz is also notable in that it portrays a sex-transformation–the boy Tip, originally under the thumb of the evil witch Mombi, becomes Princess Ozma, the benevolent ruler of Oz itself and Dorothy’s bestie. This book also contains one of my favorite color plates–Glinda with her Book of Records.
This is a fair to good copy overall. The exterior is not bad, with a clean front cover with all the silver embellishment intact, but some wear and cloth loss to corners and edges. The spine imprint is still clear. Inside, the former owner’s written their name all over two of the blank endpapers (could possibly be erased), with light coloring on the title page. The front hinge is substantially cracked (but holding), with some separation starting to top of The End page, though things are still holding together, loosely. The 16 color plates are all present, but two are detached, though the others are quite nice. The text pages have some finger soiling and occasionally pencil markings. There may be other issues I haven’t noted. See the many photos. Priced at a discount due to somewhat rough condition.
