» Speedy in Oz 1934 | First Edition Identification Guide | Golden Age Children's Book Illustrations

Speedy in Oz (1934) is the twenty-eighth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the fourteenth written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. It was Illustrated by John R. Neill.

Summary

Thompson Speedy In Oz 1934 First Printing — *Speedy in Oz 1934 first printing*

This book features yet another island which floats in the sky: Umbrella Island, which flies by virtue of a huge umbrella with lifting and shielding powers. The king is not very good at steering the flying island; he bumps it into a giant’s head. For compensation, Loxo, the great brute, demands the King’s daughter Gureeda, whom he mistakes for a boy, as a servant to lace his huge boots. However, he grants the Umbrella Islanders three months to train the child to be a bootlacer.

Meanwhile, the boy Speedy (from The Yellow Knight of Oz) returns for another adventure. While inspecting a dinosaur skeleton, Speedy is blown by a geyser into the air. The skeleton comes magically to life and becomes Terrybubble, a live dinosaur skeleton. Terrybubble and Speedy land on Umbrella Island. Speedy develops a friendship with Princess Gureeda. He also becomes friendly with the island’s resident wizard, Waddy. An unscrupulous minister, however, notices that Speedy and Gureeeda look very much alike and could pass for fraternal twins. He hatches a plot to compensate the giant by handing Speedy over to him as a slave instead of Gureeda. Terrybubble learns of this plot, and he parachutes off the island with Speedy and Gureeda. All three are captured by Loxo, and it is up to the wizard Waddy to save them.

Aside from a brief consultation with Princess Ozma and her advisers, the book deals exclusively with characters of Thompson’s creation.

Speedy in Oz First Edition Book Identification Points

Please refer to the gallery for detailed images of binding(s) and dust jackets.

Ruth Plumly Thompson - Speedy in Oz 1934 First Edition Identification Guide
Year	Title	Publisher	First edition/printing identification points
1934	Speedy in Oz	Reilly & Lee Co., [1934]	First edition. Illustrated by John R. Neill, 298 pages. Textual points: Pictorial self-endpapers in black and white. Color plates: 12 full-color inserts, some tipped in and some bound in: plate facing the title page is tipped in; other plates face page 32 and 49 (bound in), 80 and 97 (bound in), 128 (tipped in), 160 (tipped in), 192 and 209 (bound in), 224 (tipped in), 256 (tipped in), and 288 (tipped in). The plate stock is coated only on the printed side. *Binding:* various color of cloth: black, dull blue (textured and untextured), medium blue, dark deep blue, gray, maroon, sage-green, olive-green, light brown, bright red, and bluish-purple (textured) cloth have been reported. Pictorial paper label in colors. The spine printing on the copies bound in black cloth is in orange; on copies in other colors the spine printing is in black. No priority is known; all color-plate copies are assumed to be the original state. On this book as on first states of subsequent books in the regular Oz series (except for Merry Go Round in Oz), the Reilly & Lee imprint on the spine is in the semi-script, “fancy” letters. *Size of leaf:* 9 by 6 5/8 inches. Thickness of volume: 1 1/2 inches. Later Printings Later copies lack color plates. One copy, purchased new about 1938, has been reported with the publisher’s imprint on the spine in boldface. It has no color plates.