The Latest Oz Reading

Actually, I have a lot of Oz reading, some that I've read over a year ago now, to catch up on. I hope to do a lot of it before I head to California in a couple of weeks for OzCon International (my forty-third consecutive time at that convention!), but this one is especially important because of some other entries I'll be posting on this blog soon. Don't worry, all will become clear in time.

As you may be aware, I started rereading the Oz books as a regular part of my reading some time ago. The plan was to go in order, but when I chaired the 2016 edition of OzCon, I broke that and read Rinkitink in Oz as we were celebrating that book's centennial, and I wanted to give a few comments on it. Those of you who know your Oz history probably also know that Rinkitink was originaly written as a non-Oz book around 1905. (My suspicion is that he wrote it in the hopes of it being a follow-up to Queen Zixi of Ix and it would also be serialized in St. Nicholas Magazine. I wonder if anyone has checked the files of St. Nicholas, if they're still around, for any correspondence with Baum? But I digress…) At that point, I had only read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Marvelous Land of Oz anyway, so I said to myself, "Well, if King Rinkitink had been published as a stand alone book, it would likely have come out between Land and Ozma of Oz anyway. So this is a good insight into Baum's writing of that time." All well and good—until I got through The Scarecrow of Oz. What to read next? After all, I'd already reread Rinkitink in Oz.

For those who may not know, Rinkitink in Oz is an exciting adventure story about Prince Inga of Pingaree whose home is conquered and destroyed, and his only aides in rescuing his family and people are the visiting King Rinkitink from the kingdom of the same name, Rinkitink's surly talking goat Bilbil, and the three magic pearls, which King Kitticut had only recently revealed to his son. Inga, Rinkitink, and Bilbil make it to the twin islands of Regos and Coregos, which they eventually conquer, but King Gos and Queen Cor flee with Inga's parents to the Nome Kingdom, where the Nome King promises to hold the King and Queen of Pingaree. In the published book, Dorothy discovers what's going on and swoops in to save everyone with a basket of eggs, which is not a terribly satisfying conclusion, and Inga doesn't get to save his parents at all. I've often said that my favorite Oz book is the first eighty percent of Rinkitink in Oz, because it just kind of falls apart when the old familiar Oz characters are introduced. Oz fans have long wanted to know how the story originally ended, but no manuscript has ever been found.

Enter the International Wizard of Oz Club and the Royal Publishers of Oz! They collaborated on a contest to complete King Rinkitink! They chalenged writers to take over the book from a new chapter 20 (where Oz characters first appear in the published version) and write a new ending. King Rinkitink, as a standalone book, was finally published in 2017, with a new prize-winning ending by Andrew J. Heller and new illustrations by Javi Laparra. I'm not sure this is exactly how Baum might have ended the book, but it is at least a satisfying conclusion, and it comes about through the efforts of Inga and Rinkitink, not someone else swooping in and taking over. The one change made to the earlier part of the book is that the name of the Nome King is changed from Kaliko to Roquat. That makes sense, as Roquat would have been the king in 1905. (He ended up changing his name to Ruggedo, but he was deposed and replaced by Kaliko in Tik-Tok of Oz. Despite the name, he is quite clearly Roquat in Rinkitink in Oz. In fact, the Nomes as they first appeared in the Oz books probably originated in King Rinkitink.) There were some references to Oz that, while I was reading it, I was surprised were left in, until I got to Helller's conclusion. Although nobody goes to Oz, nor do any characters from Oz appear, it's clear that this version of King Rinkitink takes place between Ozma of Oz and The Emerald City of Oz, as the NOme King has already had his first encounter with Ozma and Dorothy.

Heller does bring Inga's adventure to a satisfactory conclusion, but it does get a little silly at the end when we find out the final fate of Rinkitink (much as Baum wrote it in Rinkitink in Oz) and Bilbil. Things start to spiral out of control for a bit. However, the characters recognize this and comment on it.

Okay, that's it for now. Like I said, I will tell you why I needed to write this up very soon. And I hope to have some entries about other things I've read soon as well.