Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Famous 40 of Oz

The very first Oz book was called "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." It was written by L. Frank Baum, and it was published by the George M. Hill Company in 1900.

His second Oz book released in 1904, called "The Marvelous Land of Oz," had a different publisher called Reilly & Britton. This publisher continued to publish the following books by Baum:

3. "Ozma of Oz" (1907)

4. "Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz" (1908)

5. "The Road to Oz" (1909)

6. "The Emerald City of Oz" (1910)

7. "The Patchwork Girl of Oz" (1913)

8. "Tik-Tok of Oz" (1914)

9. "The Scarecrow of Oz" (1915)

10. "Rinkitink of Oz" (1916)

11. "The Lost Princess of Oz" (1917)

In 1918, Reilly & Britton was rebranded as Reilly & Lee and continued to publish Oz books for Baum starting with his twelfth book called "The Tin Woodman of Oz." And so these books continued:

13. "The Magic of Oz" (1919)

14. "Glinda of Oz" (1920)

L. Frank Baum unfortunately passed away here, and the series was taken over by Ruth Plumly Thompson. The books continued to be published by Reilly & Lee, beginning with the fifteenth Oz book known as "The Royal Book of Oz," published in 1921. And so they continued:

16. "Kabumpo in Oz" (1922)

17. "The Cowardly Lion of Oz" (1923)

18. "Grampa in Oz" (1924)

19. "The Lost King of Oz" (1925)

20. "The Hungry Tiger of Oz" (1926)

21. "The Gnome King of Oz" (1927)

22. "The Giant Horse of Oz" (1928)

23. "Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz" (1929)

24. "The Yellow Knight of Oz" (1930)

25. "Pirates in Oz" (1931)

26. "The Purple Prince of Oz" (1932)

27. "Ojo in Oz" (1933)

28. "Speedy in Oz" (1934)

29. "The Wishing Horse of Oz" (1935)

30. "Captain Salt in Oz" (1936)

31. "Handy Mandy in Oz" (1937)

32. "The Silver Princess in Oz" (1938)

33. "Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz" (1939)

Still under Reilly & Lee, the series then continued to be written by long time illustrator John R. Neill. He wrote the thirty-forth Oz book in 1940 called "The Wonder City of Oz." And so the series continued:

35. "The Scalawagons of Oz" (1941)

36. "Lucky Bucky in Oz" (1942)

Author Jack Snow took over briefly. In 1946, Reilly & Lee published the thirty-seventh Oz book known as "The Magical Mimics in Oz." Followed by:

38. "The Shaggy Man of Oz" (1949)

At this point Reilly & Lee were losing faith in the marketability of the Oz franchise, but they still continued to publish them every once in a while. In 1951, the thirty-ninth Oz book called "The Hidden Valley of Oz" was released and authored by Rachel R. Cosgrove.

Finally, in 1963, Reilly & Lee would published Oz book #40 known as "Merry Go Round in Oz," written by Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren McGraw Wagner.

After this, Reilly & Lee gave up on Oz and never bothered with it again. These forty books are known in the Oz world as "The Famous 40." Although the series did continue under different publishers, the first forty are considered to be the main set of Oz books. If you read all forty books and stop there, you are well within your right to brag about reading all of the Oz books. That said, there are more within the main canon which had to be officially canonized by an organization called "The Baum Trust."

I read all the books listed. I just wanted you to know that. And yes, I do plan to continue. I love Oz far too much to stop here.

This blog was written on January 30, 2023.

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