"The New Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum, the book is designed and illustrated by W.W. Denslow, last copyright, 1903 by Baum and Denslow. Second state of the first Donahue edition with one double-sided color plate.

In catalogs, this edition is listed as the 2nd state of the 3rd edition. The first edition was issued by Geo Hill in 1899-1900. In order to regain the copyright from Hill, Frank Baum titled the Bobbs-Merrill and Donahue editions "The New Wizard of Oz".

Provenance: "For my dear granddaughter Betsy Dawson with love A.J. / Easter, 1953. Bound by me." is ink written on a loose piece of paper is inserted.

Original pictorial green cloth without "New" on the front board, (some wear, damaged edges, rounded corners: see photo); leather spine with 4 raised bands and gilt title; 6.3/4" x 9.1/4", red and green illustrated endpapers; [creased and probably re-glued at the hinges; glossy color frontispiece printed on both sides; 261 pages with over 70 text illustrations (more than half of them in one or two-color print: see photos); very good condition.

"Folk lore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations.

Yet the old-time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as "historical" in the children's library; for the time has come for a series of newer "wonder tales" in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and bloodcurdling incident devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale.

Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder-tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident. Having this thought in mind, the story of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was written solely to pleasure children today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heart-aches and nightmares are left out. L. Frank Baum, Chicago, April, 1900."

William Wallace Denslow (1856-1915) was an American illustrator. By the time he turned twenty, he was drawing advertising art and working for magazines and newspapers all over the country. He gained a national reputation, and set up shop in Chicago in the 1890s. There, he met L. Frank Baum, and the two helped inspire each other's creativity on a number of projects. He also did illustrations for Elbert Hubbard at his famous Roycroft Shop, and in general became one of the most well-known and prolific American artists of the turn of the century.

Baum and Denslow first worked together on Baum's privately printed book of verse, By the Candelabra's Glare, for which Denslow contributed two drawings. Their first joint public publishing project was Father Goose: His Book, a collection of Baum's verse illustrated by Denslow. Generally, Denslow drew a picture to go with Baum's poem, but in some cases it worked in reverse — Baum would write a poem to go with one of Denslow's illustrations. The book was a surprise best seller in 1899, but many give Denslow's art and design more credit for its success than Baum's poems. In 1900, The Songs of Father Goose came out, which was a volume of some of Baum's poems set to music by Alberta N. Hall; Denslow's illustrations were retained. (A third Father Goose book, Father Goose's Year Book, came out in 1907, but did not contain any artwork by Denslow). In 1901, Denslow illustrated Baum's fantasy novel Dot and Tot of Merryland. Denslow also provided a new cover design, title page, and endpapers for Bobbs-Merrill's 1903 edition of The Wizard of Oz.



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