Baum, L. Frank | Presentation copy inscribed by Baum to his son Harry Neal Baum

Baum, L. Frank

A New Wonderland. New York: R. H. Russell, 1900

4to (273 x 224 mm). Title printed in plum and green, 15 color-printed plates, including the frontispiece (often lacking), numerous in-text illustrations by Frank Ver Beck; half-title, frontispiece, and title-page with a few marginal tears, the frontispiece with small marginal loss, tiny dampstain to lower corner, a few stains, frontispiece and title detached. Original cloth-backed pictorial boards, pictorial endpapers; rubbed and bumped, hinges loose.

First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by Baum to his son on the verso of the frontispiece: "Harry Neal Baum, from his loving father, L. Frank Baum. Chicago 1900. These were the stories I told you when you were a baby."

Written in 1896 as Baum’s first full-length children’s book, A New Wonderland predates all of the Oz works and introduces many of the elements that recur throughout his later fiction. Its publication was delayed when the original publisher failed, and a projected edition under the title The King of Phunnyland was abandoned. Issued at last by R. H. Russell in 1900, following the success of Father Goose (1899), the book was later revised as The Magical Monarch of Mo. The large format and fragile construction have contributed to its scarcity, and copies retaining the frontispiece are uncommon.

Harry Neal Baum (1889–1967), the third son of L. Frank Baum, received a Ph.D. in medieval history and authored several historical works for children, in addition to writing articles about his father. He worked in advertising, holding positions at Fairbanks-Morse, Gebhardt & Brockson, and later serving as a vice president of Burson-Marsteller. Owing to his father’s declining health, he ghostwrote Mary Louise Solves a Mystery (1917) to meet his father’s contractual obligations. A longstanding figure within the Oz community, he attended early stage productions of The Wizard of Oz and later hosted meetings of The International Wizard of Oz Club.

A significant association copy linking Baum’s earliest imaginative stories to his own family.

PROVENANCE

Harry Neal Baum (presentation inscription)

REFERENCES

Baughman 49