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=The Emerald City of Oz (1910) = By L. Frank Baum Illustrated by John R. Neill



L. Frank Baum (1856-1919)
 = = His full name is Lyman Frank Baum, but he preferred to go by Frank and so shortened his name to L. Frank Baum. L. Frank Baum was born in Chittenango, New York and was the seventh of nine children. His father, Benjamin Baum, was a wealthy businessman who made a fortune in the oil fields of Pennsylvania.

Baum grew up on his parents' estate called Rose Lawn in New York. When Baum was young his father bought him a printing press, which is believed to have contributed to Baum's storytelling. With the help of his younger brother, Baum produced //The Rose Lawn Home Journal// and then later, when he was seventeen, //The Stamp Collector////.//

In 1886, when Baum was 30 years old, his first book was published: //The Book of the Hamburgs: A Brief Treatise upon the Mating, Rearing, and Management of the Different Varieties of Hamburgs//, which is about his business of raising a particular breed of fowl.

In 1897, he wrote and published //Mother Goose in Prose//, a collection of Mother Goose rhymes written as prose stories.

In 1899 Baum partnered with illustrator W.W. Denslow, to publish //Father Goose, His Book//, a collection of nonsense poetry. The book was a success, becoming the best-selling children's book of the year.

In 1900, Baum and Denslow (with whom he shared the copyright) published //The Wonderful Wizard of Oz// to much critical acclaim and financial success. The book was the best-selling children's book for two years after its initial publication. Baum went on to write thirteen more novels based on the places and people of the Land of Oz.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">After 1901, Baum and Denslow had a falling out and John R. Neill became the primary illustrator for Baum's Oz books. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">In total, Baum published fourteen //Land of Oz// books; //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The Emerald City of Oz //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> is the sixth of the fourteen.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Publisher
This edition of // The Emerald City of Oz // was published in 1910 by **Reilly & Britton**. Summer Britton and Frank Reilly began their own publishing company in 1893 called the Madison Book Company of Chicago. In 1904 they changed their company’s name to Reilly & Britton.

Reilly & Britton signed L. Frank Baum into contract in 1904 and began selling Baum’s Oz books.

In 1919, Britton’s share of the company was sold to William F. Lee, a long-time employee of Reilly & Britton, and the company was renamed to Reilly & Lee, which is the publishing company name written on the copyright page of my adopted book. I believe it should read that the publisher is Reilly & Britton rather than Reilly & Lee because the book was published in 1910, and I’m not sure why the book already reads Reilly & Lee.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">In addition to publishing Baum's books (not just his Oz books, but also his many other children's stories written after 1904), Reilly & Britton, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">with a strong initial focus on children's books, published editions of the fairy tales of Hans Christian Anderson and The Brothers Grimm in 1905.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">After Baum's death in 1919, the firm pursued some imaginative promotional activities for its Oz books through the 1920s with comic strips, a fan club, plays for children, and other tactics— though these largely ceased with the death of Frank K. Reilly in 1932. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Frank J. O'Donnell served as president of the company in the 1940s and the early 1950s.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">While the firm never grew to be one of the major publishing houses of its era, it remained in business through six decades. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">In 1959 the company was purchased by the Henry Regnery Company, which for a time maintained Reilly & Lee as a separate imprint for the Oz books. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">In turn, Henry Regnery later assigned the Oz series to Contemporary Books, also of Chicago, which eventually was absorbed as a division of McGraw-Hill.

Dedication
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">L. Frank Baum's dedication reads: "To Her Royal Highness Cynthia II of Syracuse, and to each and every one of the children whose loyal appreciation has encouraged me to write the Oz Books this volume is affectionately dedicated."

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">It is obvious from the beginning pages of this book, before the story starts, that Baum is extremely dedicated to the children for whom he writes his stories. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">In addition to this dedication of the book to children, there is a note written by Baum to children on the page before the table of contents.

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">On the top of the page is an illustration of, I believe, the wizard of Oz.
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">To the left of the illustration of the man is the word "hum" and to the right of the man is the word "bug" to make, together, the word "humbug." <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Next to the man's head, on both the right and the left sides, is the symbol spelling "Oz." <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The list of chapters is simple; the chapter numbers are listed on the left, followed by the names of the chapters, and the page numbers on which each chapter can be found follows on the right-hand side of the page. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">There is a simple border around the text, which is just a line with minimal styling on the bottom left and right corners. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Each title begins with the same word, "how," which follows the simplistic nature of children's books. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Each chapter title is named to indicate what will happen in the chapter, so, for example, "How the Nome King Became Angry," "How Uncle Henry Got Into Trouble," or, the last chapter, "How the Story of Oz Came to an End."

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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;">In the beginning of the book, before the title page, there is an advertisement for L. Frank Baum and his Oz books, calling Baum "The Wizard of Oz Man." <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;">This advertisement lists thirteen of Baum's fourteen Oz books. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;">The advertisement is directed at parents: <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;">"Develop your child's imagination with the wonders of a Fairyland that has a message to grown-ups as well." <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;">"Go to your bookseller when next you have a present to select, and ask to see the Oz Books. They will make you wish you were a youngster again yourself. Read one of them at the bedtime hour-- you will enjoy it as much as the kiddies do."

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The first word, or every couple words, of the chapter are written in all capital letters. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The first page of each chapter features the name of the chapter in incipit lettering within non-color illustrations at the top of the page. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The page numbers are set in the bottom middle of each page.

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">On the top of every left page "The Emerald City of Oz" is written in bold lettering and is underlined. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Similarly, on the top of every right page the word "Chapter" and the number of the chapter is written. For example, "Chapter Ten" or "Chapter Twenty." <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;">These distinctions help the reader navigate the text and, since this book is written for a young audience, there are also illustrations to help navigate the text.

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">There are illustrations in black pen ink on almost every other page to accompany the text, as well as the illustrations I already mentioned on the first page of every chapter. In addition to these black ink illustrations, there are twelve illustrations in full color, which is a main advertising point in the advertisement in the beginning of the book. These color illustrations are each accompanied by a quote from the book that helps to narrate the image. The paper on which the color illustrations are printed is thicker, glossy paper as opposed to the cheaper paper used for the rest of the book. These color illustrations also take up the whole page, whereas the black ink illustrations usually only take up about half of the page. This proves that the focus is definitely on the twelve color illustrations. =====

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">John R. Neill (1877- 1943)
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; line-height: 0px;">Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.



He illustrated more than forty stories set in the Land of Oz, including three of his own that he wrote after L. Frank Baum's death. His pen-and-ink drawings have come to be identified almost exclusively with the Oz series even though he was also a magazine illustrator.