Description

“FROM UNCLE FRANK ON CHRISTMAS 1914”: A REMARKABLE L. FRANK BAUM PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION COPY: TIK-TOK OF OZ, FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED TO HIS NIECE

BAUM, L. Frank. Tik-Tok of Oz. Chicago: Reilly & Britton, (1914). Octavo, original blue cloth, mounted cover illustration, pictorial endpapers. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box.

Scarce first edition of Baum’s eighth Oz book, a very desirable presentation/association copy inscribed by Baum in the year of publication on the ownership page to his niece, “My dear niece Cynthia Baum from Uncle Frank on Christmas 1914.” Illustrated by John R. Neill with numerous in-text and full-page drawings as well as 12 color plates.

Introduced in Ozma of Oz (1907), Tik-Tok the clockwork man—sometimes considered “literature’s earliest robot” (Fricke, 10)—proved popular enough to star in his own 1913 musical extravaganza, The Tik-Tok Man of Oz. “Unfortunately, although it created a sensation in California, [the play] did not do well on the road” (Hearn, Annotated Wizard, lxxv). Baum based this, his eighth Oz novel, on that production—he dedicated it to the composer of the score—but “was still careful to insert an introductory note advising his readers the book contained fresh material, lest they be deterred from buying it” (Eyles, 46, 50). The vivid color maps which serve as front and rear endpapers have long vexed Oz enthusiasts: the maps locate Munchkin Country in the west even though The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) placed it in the east. First printing, with publisher’s advertisement listing six Oz books. Without extremely rare original dust jacket. Hanff & Greene, 66-67. Bienvenue, 58. Recipient Cynthia Baum-Tassini was the daughter of Baum’s brother Henry and was the dedicatee of the earlier volume, The Emerald City of Oz (1910). The dedication of that book read “Her Royal Highness, Cynthia II of Syracuse.”

Front inner hinge tender at title page, occasional marginal marks, Ends of slightly toned spine a bit frayed, mild discoloration to rear cover, tiny chip to lower corner of bright and clean front pictorial panel. An extremely good copy with bright plates. Inscribed copies of this title are exceedingly scarce.