The New Wizard of Oz

BAUM, L[yman] Frank. The New Wizard of Oz. With Pictures by W[illiam] W[allace] Denslow. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill [1925]. 8vo, [x] 208pp. Green cloth pictorially stamped in lavender. 8 b&w photographic plates, 8 b&w plates and numerous smaller b&w illustrations. Spine ends and corners lightly  rubbed, a few light spots on front cover, upper corner of a few sheets bent, evidence of erased gift inscription on front free endpaper, else a clean, tight copy. Scarce.

1925 Chadwick Silent Film Photoplay edition from the collection of Fred M. Meyer, longtime Executive Director of the International Wizard of Oz Club. Featuring 8 stills from the first full-length silent film of L. Frank Baum’s classic novel. Directed by Larry Semon – who also starred as the Scarecrow -- the film featured Semon’s wife, Dorothy Dwan as Dorothy and a young Oliver Hardy as the Tin Man. The movie featured a tale much different from Baum’s original vision, with Dorothy an 18 year old who finds herself struggling to choose between two suitors, Oz ruled by an evil Prime Minister named Kruel, and Dorothy discovering that she is the long-lost Princess Dorothea. This edition, while retaining Baum’s original tale and eight of Denslow’s original 24 color plates reproduced in black and white, features 8 still images from the 1925 silent film some of which demonstrate scenes which show the vast changes made between the novel and the film. Of note, this silent film featured the actors who played the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion as farm hands in Kansas, a device reused in the beloved 1939 MGM musical. The first photoplay edition of this classic tale.