60 Great Books Bauman Rare Books - 10 - Very Rare First Edition, First State, Of The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz 8. BAUM, L. Frank. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Chicago and New York, 1900. Octavo, original pictorial green cloth, custom clamshell box. $42,000. First edition, rare first state, of “the first truly enduring American fantasy” (Connolly, 38), with 24 color plates by W.W. Denslow. “Among the five Baum titles published in 1900, preeminent even then was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz… The first edition was a picturesque novelty with its 24 color plates and many line drawings; Denslow’s conceptions of the characters and landscapes contributed immeasurably to the book’s popularity” (Fricke, 22). Baum “set out to change children’s books and made a lasting contribution to American literature… The Wizard of Oz has entered American folklore. It reflected and has altered the American character” (Hearn, xiii). This book is bibliographically complicated as the text, color plates and binding were separately produced, and individual books were not assembled in a uniform manner; copies exist with binding, text and plates in various combinations. This copy possesses all first-state points in the text and plates. Cased in binding B (with imprint stamped in red sans serif type). Hanff & Greene, 25-27. Bienvenue, 4-5. Text and plates generally quite clean, very minor expert repair to top of upper joint and spine tail. An exceptionally bright and lovely copy of this notoriously fragile book. “L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz [is] not only the greatest fairy tale that this nation has produced, but one of its great myths.” —Fredrich Buechner
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