"The Wizard of Oz" / "The New Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum illustrated by W.W. Denslow, published by Bobbs-Merrill Company, copyright 1903. Fifth Edition, First State in original cloth with pictorial paste-down and with 16 color plates on glossy paper, c.1920. Complete all 16 color plates are present. [note: 2nd state has only 8 color plates].

Hard boards, original green cloth with illustration on the front board (some shelf & spine ends wear, there is a 2" crease in the middle of the backboard: see pictures); 7" x 9.1/4", blank endpapers, former owner's book plate inside front cover, 208 pages + 16 color plates on glossy paper, many text illustrations, very little soiling, very good condition.

First edition of the Wizard of Oz was published by George Hill in 1899. After George M. Hill's bankruptcy in 1902, copyright in the book passed to the Bobbs-Merrill Company of Indianapolis. The company published most of Baum's other books from 1901 to 1903. Initially under the title The New Wizard of Oz. The word "New" was quickly dropped in subsequent printings, leaving the now-familiar shortened title, "The Wizard of Oz." Later editions they published lacked most of the in-text color and color plates of the original. Filing for bankruptcy, Frank Baum lost the rights to all of the books he published by Bobbs-Merrill, and they were licensed to the M. A. Donahue Company.

"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 was born in Philadelphia on May 5, 1856. 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.

US: Priority (c 2-4 days) ------ $29.50
Canada: Express (c.5-7 days) ----- $95.50
World: Express (c.5-10 days) ----- $112.50