The Latest Oz Reading

Yes, another roundup of Oz, Ozzy, Oz-related, and Oz-adjacent books I've read this year:

• The first of two books I've read before, but now have new editions, is Mary Louise and Josie O'Gorman by "Edith Van Dyne". In this case, Ms. Van Dyne is not L. Frank Baum, as the book was published in 1922, three years after he died. This is from after Emma Speed Sampson writing the series. This is also the final book by "Edith Van Dyne" for my collection, as I now have all titles published under that name. Back to the book, though, this is badly misnamed, as Mary Louise is barely in it. This is definitely Josie's book, and she is certainly the more interesting character. When Mary Louise offers to turn the mansion she inherited (it's much too large for a young couple, just married) over to the Dorfield Children's Home Society, it sets a whole series of events into motion when a mysterious woman comes to town and presents two children to the society. Their story raises suspicions, and the girls believe they may not be orphans. This puts Josie O'Gorman, Girl Detective, on the trail, and she ends up traveling to Atlanta and Indiana, taking on new identities and occupations to uncover the mystery. Naturally, in the end, the family is reunited and the bad people get their just rewards. But it's no wonder that this was the last book to feature Mary Louise in the title, as Josie is certainly the star.
• The second book I already have an earlier edition of, but it seemed appropriate to get the new, hardcover edition of The Gardener's Boy of Oz by Phyllis ann Karr after having read The Scorecrow of Oz earlier. Pon is now King of Jinxland, but as it's Queen Gloria who actually rus things, he has little to do, and decides to try fishing his father, King Phearce, out of the pond he was buried in. Enlisting the aid of Grewl, the former King Krewl and now the gardener's boy, they succeed, only for the three of them to slip further into the pond and into all kinds of adventures underground, even making their way to the other side of the world and having an audience with Tititi-Hoochoo. Candy Longtaw, meanwhile, is a Native American girl who ends up having adventures of her own, and even coming up with a novel way to cross the Deadly Desert. In the end, everyone meets up and secrets are uncovered, families are reunited, and lots of other stuff happens. It's a big, sprawling book that touches on a lot of other bits of Oz, but Karr also creates a lot of new lore as well. It had been a very long time since I'd last read it, so this was a nice revisit.
• Under the Influence of Oz by Marin Elizabeth Xiques and Chris Dulabone isn't really an Oz book, as it continues the authors' previous adventures in Goblin Grotto, a land underneath Oz inhabited by (naturally) goblins. The inhabitants of Heartbreak Hostel, a home for the homeless, seem to be losing their memories and identities, and hostile forces are moving in to take advantage and turn the hostel into a money-making resort. Of course it all works out in the end, and the Cowardly Lion and Tik-Tok come in towards the end to bring in an Oz element.
• Stairway to Oz by Robin Hess. Ryan is visiting his grandparents in Colorado. Curiosity gets the best of him, and he opens the locked door into the basement, where he finds himself in the Nome Kingdom! Yes, his grandparents' house is the one previously owned by the Shaggy Man's brother. Like Shaggy's brother, Ryan ran into trouble with the Nomes, but he manages to deal with them. But there's been a coup in the Nome Kingdom, and the new King intends to invade Oz! Ryan recruits his grandparents, some Nomes who prefer King Kaliko, and other allies to save the day and rid Oz of the Nomes. I liked the premise of the starway, and that Ryan actually brought adults to Oz with him.
• And finally (for now), The Brides of Maracoor by Gregory Maguire, the first of the "Another Day" trilogy that follows Rain, Elphaba's granddaughter, after the events of Out of Oz. Rain and Iskinaary, the Goose, wash up on the shore of an island inhabited by seven women who have important spiritual duties to perform. Suffering amnesia, Rain's presence upsets the balance of life on the island. Lucikles, the examiner from the mainland, comes for his annual visit, and doesn't know what to do, but decides to let Rain stay there until he can get instructions. He arrives on the mainland in the aftermath of an invasion, and it is some time before he can make his report and receive those instructions. Then things start to get very interesting. Other than Rain—and it even takes a while for her to enter the story—there isn't a lot of Oz in this book, but events at the end indicate that may change as the series progresses. Maguire paints a fascinating portrait of this new part of his world, which is something like ancient Greece but with the efficiency of the Roman or Chinese civil service. He is definitely setting something up, and I'm actually looking forward to seeing what happens next.

And that's all the books I have right now. But there will be more of these reports, as I also have a surprisingly large pile of comic books and graphic novels here.

The Latest Oz Reading

I managed to knock a few more books out of my Oz to-read pile this summer, but circumstances have prevented me from writing about them until now. So, here are a few more:

• Two Terrific Tales of Oz by Greg Hunter. Technically, this is a reread, since I got the original edition way back in the '80s. This is a much nicer reprint, however, and so now this is one of the very few books outside of the Famous Forty for which I have two different versions. It's a flip book, with each story printed so that it starts at the front, no matter which cover you are looking at and holding the spine on the left. First, in "Unc Nunkie and the White King of Oz", Unc, Ojo, and Victor Columbia Edison go off on an adventure to save the legendary White King. Turn the book over, and you have "Betsy Bobbin of Oz", where Betsy is granted a birthday wish of being reunited with her childhood doll, Pearl. Of course, this being Oz, Pearl comes to life, and she and Betsy are off having an adventure involving some malevolent silkworms. Both stories are brief, but charming and very Ozzy, and it's good to have them back in print in this quality edition.
• I learned one big truth while reading Friends of Dorothy: Why Gay Boys and Gay Men Love The Wizard of Oz by Dee Michel: I should be gay! Everything about gay boys and gay men described in this book suits me to the proverbial T—with one huge exception, and that is I am attracted only to women. Nope, not even a glimmer towards men at all. (Well, okay, maybe one brief glimmer when Pierce Brosnan was wearing a tank top in an episode of Remington Steele, but it was very brief and never went anywhere.) I know Dee, and I know he's been working on this for a very long time, as he presented his initial ideas at the Oz Centennial convention way back in 2000. Eighteen years later, after much research and changes (or at least refinements) in attitude, this book is the result. It goes all over the place, delving into surveys of gay Oz fans and their experiences (a similar survey for straight Oz fans may have made for some enlightening contrasts, but I totally understand why he didn't do that), the history of Oz usage in the gay movement, and myths about Oz and gay culture (Judy Garland's funeral probably was not the spark that started the Stonewall Riots, just to give an example) are all explored in this book. It certainly threw some interesting light on Oz fandom, which I've been a part of for over forty years now, as well as insight into being a gay man that I doubt I could have gotten in any other way.
• Josie O'Gorman and the Meddlesome Major by "Edith van Dyne". I hope many Oz fans know that Edith van Dyne was a pseudonym for L. Frank Baum, and he wrote the Aunt Jane's Nieces books and most of the Mary Louise books. One of his sons may have written one of the Mary Louise books late in Baum's life, when his health started to falter, and then, like the Oz books, Reilly and Lee decided to carry on the series after Baum's death with another writer. Emma Speed Sampson continued the series and transitioned it into a Josie O'Gorman series, since she really was the star of the series anyway. This was the final book, and had a relatively low print run as a result, so "Edith van Dyne" have had a tough time finding this one, and when they do, the prices can be quite high. So when I saw a relatively affordable copy, I jumped on it. The cover is in pretty bad shape, and the frontispiece is now detached, but the text is clean and sound, so it made for a great reading copy. Josie is away from her home grounds of Dorfield (so we see none of Mary Louise or their friends), having been asked to investigate the disappearance of merchandise from a department store in a nearby city. The store's own detective (the titular Meddlesome Major) is ineffective, so Josie goes in undercover as a sales clerk. She settles in, makes friends, does her job well, and eventually stumbles onto a shoplifting ring which she singlehandedly stops. In the process, however, the major gets it into his head that Josie is the thief, and his efforts to prove it and stop her adds all kinds of comical obstacles. In the end, Josie not only solves the case, she has a new job and a new base of operations, and it looks like she's on her awn at last, no longer tied to Dorfield. Sadly, however, this is the last book ever written by "Edith van Dyne", and so we may never see what else Josie gets up to.
• And finally for tonight, Fables, Volume 13: The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham. Yes, this is the next reprint volume of the Fables comic book, and in this case, it also includes issues of its spinoff title, Jack of Fables, as Jack has returned to the Farm to help deal with a villain who wants to rewrite history—literally! There isn't a lot of Oz content in this book, except a few appearances by Bufkin and the witch who is later to be revealed to be Ozma. I'm almost caught up to where I started reading the series as comic books, but I'm enjoying this so much beyond the Oz content that I'm thinking about also collecting Jack of Fables and maybe some other related collections.

The Latest Oz Reading, Part II

We now reach some extremely vintage stuff that I've read for the very first time:

• I was visiting some Oz friends in Portland and had a little time, so I tucked into their copy of Mary Louise and Josie O'Gorman. This is one of the later titles by "Edith Van Dyne" that was published ofter Baum's death, so this one was written by Emma Speed Sampson. And I think this is the title where "Edith" finally Acknowledged who the real star of the series is, because intrepid girl detective Josie O'Gorman is at the center of things. It is Josie who wonders about the identity of the two orphan children brought to Dorfield and how they came to be in the care of their cousin Dink. It is Josie who manages to get some information out of them that sends her to Atlanta and Indiana, tracking down the children's lost relatives. And it is Josie who manages, through her dogged determinism and a few lucky breaks, to reunite a family separated by greed and war. Granted, Josie has had a huge role in many earlier Mary Louise books, often front and center just as much as here. Domestic, married life seems to agree with Mary Louise, as she barely appears in her own book—which is fine, as she had ceased to be a terribly interesting and compelling character a few volumes back anyway.
• The reason I wanted to read that book is that I had recently acquired and read the next book in the series, Josie O'Gorman, as I saw it at a great price I couldn't pass up. Yes, finally, Josie is the titular star of the series, not Mary Louise. But at least Mary Louise and the rest of the gang are still around, and Josie is still based in Dorfield, so that hasn't changed, at least. And the girls gain a new friend, Ursula, who has come to Dorfield looking for work and a way to support her little brother, Philip. The girls take her in, of course, but something doesn't seem right to Josie, and she ends up doing some digging. But when Philip is kidnapped, she goes into overdrive and discovers a lost fortune and all kinds of skullduggery in Louisville. (Josie appears to be a great traveler, using the trains a lot in her adventures.) Of course all turns out well in the end, and everyone is happy except for the bad people who had been trying to make them unhappy. What's unusual about my copy of this book, however, is that it's not the book I bought! The ad said it was the next book, Josie O'Gorman and the Meddlesome Major, which has always been an extremely elusive book to find at an affordable price. It arrived safe and sound, with the expected title on the cover, and I set it aside to read at a convenient time. But when I finally picked it up and started reading, I realized there was no major meddling in anything. The half-title page, title page, and running titles all said "Josie O'Gorman", and the copyright date was 1923, not the expected 1924. Since Josie O'Gorman is also a hard title to track down, and I hadn't read that, either, I didn't mind. I made a few inquiries, and while such a hybrid is highly unusual, it doesn't add much to the value. So all I really have is a curiosity. But now I'm at least down to only two "Edith Van Dyne" titles I don't own, and one I haven't read.

The latest Oz reading

Yup, I'm back in an Oz cycle! So, here's what's been in front of my eyes lately:

• Ozma of Oz #8. Yes, Eric and Skottie's adaptation from Marvel has wrapped up at last (with a great promo pic for Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz #1 in back). This issue picks up after the Scarecrow has thrown his eggs at the Nome King, and Dorothy steals the Magic Belt, and goes to...well, the end, of course. This means another hardback collection to buy in the spring!
  
• The Ozmapolitan of Oz by Dick Martin. I've decided to incorporate some of the older books in my collection that I've previously read into my regular Oz reading, as I've been enjoying reading some stuff to Laura (and my nephew when he visited for a week — more on that one later), and for whatever reason, I picked this one first. This was Martin's only written addition to the Oz books, and it's a lot of fun, actually. Dorothy and Tim, the most recent employee of Oz's largest (and, it appears, only) newspaper, The Ozmapolitan, are off on a news hunting expedition. It appears to be a random set of little adventures, but it turns out that Tim is hiding a secret, and that ends up tying the whole story together. It's fun and Ozzy, and I enjoyed rereading it.
  
• Mary Louise Adopts a Soldier by "Edith Van Dyne", who is, of course, actually L. Frank Baum. This was Baum's last non-Oz book (but not, as it turned out, Edith Van Dyne's, as many of you may know). Like all of the Mary Louise books, it's pure girls' adventure. Mary Louise and Grandpa Jim hire a soldier, just returned from the recently concluded Great War, and Danny seems to be quite smitten with Mary Louise. But he's hiding a secret (hmm, seems to be a theme in my current reading), and appears to steal Mary Louise's car for his own nefarious purposes. Towards the end it all starts getting a little far fetched, with German agents trying to destabilize relations between the United States and Mexico (!) and a road trip to Albuquerque, but of course it all comes out fine in the end, the good guys win, the bad guys end up in jail, and all is well — until the next book, of course...
  

The latest Oz reading

Technically, the latest book I read isn't Oz. It's Mary Louise Stands the Test by Edith Van Dyne. "Hey," I can hear you say, "isn't Edith Van Dyne a pen name for L. Frank Baum? So isn't this then an Oz-related book?" Well, yeah, except that the copyright date is 1921, two years after Baum died. So yes, this is one of those books by Emma Speed Sampson, who took over the Mary Louise series (and later started a very short Josie O'Gorman series). But I have a lot of other books by "Edith Van Dyne", so why stop?

And boy, is this one a doozy! Mary Louise is really put through the wringer in this one! First off, I gather that she got married in the last book. Good for her! However, now her beloved grandfather (and guardian) has gotten paranoid and is being just awful to her husband, so he decides to accept a position with his firm — in China! Fortunately, grandfather eventually comes to his senses and makes peace with Mary Louise — just before he dies! Then word comes that the ship her husband on was wrecked, and all hands lost! And finally, her grandfather's fortune can't be found! Poor Mary Louise! Whatever can she do? Fortunately, she has great, dear friends who help her out, and Josie O'Gorman, girl detective, is on the case! It's sheer melodrama, so not to be taken too seriously. I also seem to have assimilated Baum's style enough to recognize, even if I hadn't already known it, that this was not written by Baum.