The Lost King of Oz was published in 1925 by Reilly & Lee Co. in Chicago as the nineteenth book in the Oz series and the fifth written by Ruth Plumly Thompson, who had taken over as Royal Historian of Oz following L. Frank Baum’s death in 1919. The first edition featured a dark blue binding with a full-color pictorial label on the front board and black stamping on the spine. John R. Neill provided twelve color plates and numerous black-and-white illustrations throughout the 282-page volume.
The novel introduced the character of Snip, a button-boy, and explored the backstory of Oz’s vanished ruler, King Pastoria, father of Princess Ozma. The work entered the public domain in the United States in 2021. A paperback reprint edition was published by Del Rey / Random House in 1985, and a facsimile hardcover edition was released by the International Wizard of Oz Club in 1990. Later reprints also appeared from Books of Wonder.
The book went into the public domain on January 1, 2021.
Summary
Old Mombi, formerly the Wicked Witch of the North, is now a cook in the land of Kimbaloo. One day she comes across Pajuka, the former prime minister of Oz, transformed by Mombi into a goose years before. She sets out to find Pastoria, the king of Oz, whom she also enchanted in the past. However, she has forgotten what shape she transformed Pastoria into. She kidnaps a local boy called Snip as her unwilling assistant and bearer of burdens. Eventually deciding, however, that he knows too much, Mombi throws Snip down a well; he ends up in Blankenburg, populated by the invisible Blanks. Snip meets and soon rescues Tora, an amnesiac old tailor. Tora has been held prisoner for many years by the Blanks, to do their tailoring; he has compensated by sending his detachable ears flying about the countryside to hear the news.
Meanwhile, Dorothy is accidentally transported to Hollywood, where she meets Humpy, a live stunt dummy, whom she brings back to Oz. They escape the Back Talkers in Eht Kcab Sdoow (by running backwards), and meet the Scooters who help scoot them on their way. Kabumpo the Elegant Elephant shows up to provide transport (of the mundane sort). Dorothy’s party encounters Snip and Tora, and Mombi and Pajuka too. They come to the conclusion that Humpy the dummy is the enchanted Pastoria.
Eventually, matters are clarified and settled: Pajuka is restored to humanity, but Humpy proves not to be the missing king after all. Old Tora is disenchanted and turns out to be Pastoria. He spurns any notion of returning to his throne, however; he is content to settle down as a humble tailor in the Emerald City, with Snip as his apprentice and Humpy as his tailor’s dummy.
In a rare act of Ozite capital punishment, Mombi is ruthlessly doused with water and melts away like the Wicked Witch of the West, so that nothing is left of her but her buckled shoes.
The Lost King of Oz | First Edition Identification Guide
Please refer to the gallery for detailed images of binding(s) and dust jackets.
| Year | Title | Publisher | First edition/printing identification points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1925 | The Lost King of Oz | Reilly & Lee Co., [1925] | First edition. Illustrated by John R. Neill, 280 pages. Textual points: The book is printed on heavy paper stock and measures about 1 3/8 inches thick. Pictorial self-endpapers in black and white.* Color plates: 12 full-color inserts, tipped in facing the title page and pages 14, 46, 62, 78, 94, 110, 158, 174, 222, 238, 270. The plates are printed on stock coated only on the printed side. Binding: medium-blue cloth, with pictorial paper label in colors. Spine imprint reads in boldface type: “Reilly | & Lee”. Size of leaf: 9 by 6 5/8 inches. An issue with the imprint of the Copp, Clark Co., Limited, of Toronto on the title page and spine is known. It is otherwise identical with the American first state; copies of the Canadian issue have been seen both with perfect type and with damaged type as described in the footnote below.
Later printings vary primarily in the coating and method of inserting the color plates. The earliest reprints are in deep royal-blue cloth with all the plates tipped in and coated on both sides. Subsequent printings have all the plates bound in and coated on both sides, although two transitional copies have been seen: one in deep royal-blue cloth with 6 tipped-in and 6 bound-in plates, and one in bright-blue cloth with 10 tipped-in and 2 bound-in plates. The last color-plate printing (ca. 1934) in bright-blue cloth has the publisher’s name on |
The Lost King of Oz | First Edition Dust Jacket Identification Guide
First edition binding(s) and various dust jacket printings identification.
References:
- Wikipedia
- Bibliographia Oziana – Haff, Greeme, Martin. 2002
