THE NEW WIZARD OF OZ
(Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, ca. 1920 [before 1925]).
THE WIZARD OF OZ IN AN EARLY PRINTING BY THE ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATOR. A nice early copy of the Wizard . The title on the binding is stamped The Wizard of Oz , not the New Wizard. There is no period after author s name on the spine. Baum said of THE WIZARD OF OZ: "[It] was written solely to pleasure children...It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heart-aches and nightmares are left out." The "fairy tale" became transcendently popular, and was continued through some forty subsequent books by Baum, Ruth Plumly Thompson, and a small handful of other authors. Like ALICE IN WONDERLAND, Baum's tale has been revived in numerous guises, most notably as a blockbuster Hollywood movie, and more recently as a Broadway hit, "The Wiz." Item #32071
An early printing. THIS COPY INSCRIBED BY THE POET DAVID McCORD. The poet writes: "To Sara W.... from David McCord in some ways a wizard himself". A drawing by the poet follows the inscription. With 8 colour plates, colourplate pastedown to the upper cover, illustrated title-page and many full page plates in black and white and numerous drawings throughout the text by W.W. Denslow. Large 8vo, original green cloth with pictorial pastedown on upper cover and decorations and lettering in blue on spine. (8), 208 pp. A very well preserved and handsome copy, internally fresh and clean throughout but with wear to the cloth along the rear shoulder and mellowing and a small abrasion to the spine panel.