Baum kept regular scrapbooks of the reviews of all his Oz books. His scrapbook for The Wizard of Oz contains 202 reviews, and all but two of them are favorable. Of course, he might not have kept the negative ones, so this proves only that there were many that were favorable. One that is found in this scrapbook, yet the source is not identified (I suppose Baum did not have the influence of a librarian in his life :), that reads: “Mr. Baum has given us a clever and original story that deserves a good reception,” but “the illustrations are uncommon, suggesting frequently the upset ink-bottle.” However, most reviews tended to agree with Kindergarten Magazine
(October 1900):
Impossible as are the little girl’s companions, the magic pen of the writer, ably assisted by the artist’s brush, has made them seem very real, and no child but will have a warm corner in his heart for the really thoughtful Scarecrow, the truly tender Tin Woodman, the fearless Cowardly Lion. Delightful humor and rare philosophy are found on every page. The artist, whose fertile invention has so seconded the author’s imagination, is W.W. Denslow, who illustrated Father Goose.
The most significant and prophetic was that which appeared in The New York Times on September 8, 1900. I found it the most referred to in the materials reviewed. Here it is in its entirety:
Who wrote this book again? . . .
There were some reviews that attributed the success of the book not to its author, but instead to its illustrator, W.W. Denslow. The Dial found the book “remarkably illustrated by W. W. Denslow, who possesses all the originality of method which is denied his collaborator.” (Dial: December 1). Also, The Chicago Post (September 21, 1900) seemed more concerned that Deneslow could not draw a childlike Dorothy, but admitted that if the book were a success it would be due more to the illustrator than the author.
Dorothy and Alice
Baum would have no doubt been flattered to have his first full-length fairy tale compared to the most famous of modern fairy stories. In reviewing A New Wonderland (an edition of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass that were released in 1898, after the death of Lewis Carroll, and containing Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll by the author’s nephew) a reviewer talks about Baum’s Phunniland book saying, “Mr. Dodgeson had a real distinction of style which is wholly lacking here, though to be found in a chapter or two of Mr. Baum’s other book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” (The Dial : December, 1, 1900). The Bookseller and Latest Literature (July 1900) also states that the new Baum work “is penned with the wild extravagance of fancy that is noticeable in that chidren’s classic, Alice in Wonderland.”
Historical Children's Literature
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign