Talk:The Oz books

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This is a great page but the limitations of Wiki markup have the unfortunate effect of making the sequence number layout really suck. I propose rearranging the layout to give a more uniform appearance. I was thinking of making each book's title a section header, then describing the book's special features (author, date, etc) underneath. If nothing much happens to the page for a bit I'll dive in and starting shifting it aounrd. --Phil | Talk 12:58, Mar 30, 2004 (UTC)

Go ahead with my blessings. Thanks for the compliments. I'm so glad somebody noticed! But I've only just begun... Mwa-ha-ha! --Woggly 13:14, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Contents 1 Gregory Maguire 2 Table of Oz books 3 Proposed move 4 Wikipedia:WikiProject Oz 5 Gutenberg.org links 6 Infoboxes 7 Sherwood Smith

[edit] Gregory Maguire

Is now mentioned in the lead, but should not be on this list. The criteria for the list are defined quite clearly in the second paragraph: The following list therefore contains only Oz books written by the authors of the first "Famous Forty" (including those published in later years). --Woggly 06:16, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)

On second thought, the list can be redefined. I'll add Gregory Maguire back in his proper place. --Woggly 09:30, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Table of Oz books

I created a table for the Oz books, here is a sample:

Any thoughts? --[[User:JonMoore|—JonMoore 20:24, 29 May 2006 (UTC)]] 30 June 2005 02:07 (UTC)

Looks okay to me. Are the library of congress numbers really important to you? I can't quite put into words why I dislike them, it somehow makes the list seem too cold and technical. Another hesitation is that sometimes the table format discourages less experienced editors from adding to a list or changing it. Then again, that may not be a bad thing.

--Woggly 30 June 2005 07:29 (UTC)

I just put the LC #'s there, because they WERE there. I'm not terribly in love with them either. We don't have any for Thompson's or any of the other's work, so I guess they are not important. But, really, what is there that anyone else would need to add? Name, year, publisher--what else? I thought this format made it slightly easier to read. I thought we could really get this article up to snuff and put it in as a Featured List. We would probably need pictures of each book cover, as well as a synopsis for that. Let me know. --[[User:JonMoore|—JonMoore 20:24, 29 May 2006 (UTC)]] 30 June 2005 18:11 (UTC)

Here is a sample of what we could do, if you wanted. I only have covers for some of the books, so far, and not all of the synopses. What do you think? If you want to edit it, the main code is at User:JonMoore/Oz. --[[User:JonMoore|—JonMoore 20:24, 29 May 2006 (UTC)]] 30 June 2005 21:24 (UTC)

The original books by L. Frank Baum
Cover	Order	Title	Illustrator	Year	Publisher
	1	The Wonderful Wizard of Oz	W. W. Denslow	1900	George M. Hill
	Dorothy gets swept into the Land of Oz by a cyclone, and meets may strange inhabitants while trying to get home. Also reprinted by various publishers under the names The New Wizard of Oz and The Wizard of Oz with occasional minor changes in the text.
	2	The Marvelous Land of Oz	John R. Neill	1904	Reilly & Britton
	A little boy, Tip escapes from his evil guardian, the witch Mombi, with the aid of a walking stick figure with a jack-o-lantern head named Jack Pumpkinhead with a magic Powder of Life stolen from the witch, as well as a living Sawhorse created from said same powder. Tip ends up on an adventure with the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman. Also reprinted as The Land of Oz.
	3	Ozma of Oz	John R. Neill	1907	Reilly & Britton
	While traveling to Australia with her Uncle Henry, little Dorothy is swept overboard with a hen named Billina. They land in Ev, a country across the desert from Oz, and, together with new-found mechanical friend, Tik-Tok, they must save Ev's royal family from the evil Nome King. With Ozma's help, they finally return to Oz.
	4	Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz	John R. Neill	1908	Reilly & Britton
	On her way back from Australia, Dorothy visits her cousin, Zeb, in California. They are soon swollowed up by an earthquake, along with Zeb's horse, Jim and Dorothy's cat Eureka. The group soon meets up with the Wizard and all travel underground back to Oz.
N/A	5	The Road to Oz	John R. Neill	1909	Reilly & Britton
	N/A
N/A	6	The Emerald City of Oz	John R. Neill	1910	Reilly & Britton
	N/A
	7	'The Patchwork Girl of Oz	John R. Neill	1913	Reilly & Britton
	A Munchin boy named Ojo must find a cure to free his Unc Nunkie from a magical spell that has turned him into a statue. With the help of Scraps, a living Patchwork Girl, Ojo journeys through Oz in order to save his uncle.
N/A	8	Tik-Tok of Oz	John R. Neill	1914	Reilly & Britton
	N/A
N/A	9	The Scarecrow of Oz	John R. Neill	1915	Reilly & Britton
	N/A
	10	Rinkitink in Oz	John R. Neill	1916	Reilly & Britton
	King Rinkitink and his companions have adventures that lead to the land of the Nomes, and eventually, Oz.
N/A	11	The Lost Princess of Oz	John R. Neill	1917	Reilly & Britton
	Concerning the disappearance of Princess Ozma, the ruler of Oz and covers Dorothy and the Wizard's efforts to find her.
	12	The Tin Woodman of Oz	John R. Neill	1918	Reilly & Britton
	The Tin Woodman is unexpectedly reunited with his Munchkin sweetheart Nimmie Amee from the days when he was flesh and blood.
N/A	13	The Magic of Oz	John R. Neill	1919	Reilly & Britton
	Last Oz book published while Baum was alive.
N/A	14	Glinda of Oz	John R. Neill	1920	Reilly & Britton
	Baum's last Oz book, published posthumously.

[edit] Proposed move

In keeping with Wikipedia naming conventions, I was wondering if anyone would object to my moving this page to either Oz books or List of Oz books? --[[User:JonMoore|—JonMoore 20:24, 29 May 2006 (UTC)]] 22:19, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

~I agree with that -- Ian ≡ talk 06:47, 27 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:WikiProject Oz

I have created a new WikiProject about Oz: WikiProject Oz. I hope to create a community to help guide the continued development of the articles about the series and its authors, characters, etc. toward even more quality articles. If you are interested, please add your name under the "Participants section" and please leave any comments or questions on the project's talk page or my user talk page. [[User:JonMoore|— —JonMoore 20:24, 29 May 2006 (UTC)]] 23:34, 12 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Gutenberg.org links

Would you consider adding external links to the Gutenberg Project copies of the public domain books? Durova 08:48, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Infoboxes

I've been adding infoboxes to the entries on Baum's individual Oz books that lacked them. But on two entries, those for The Lost Princess of Oz and The Tin Woodman of Oz, the cover images are too small for the infobox format. Regretably, I can't fix 'em myself; my skill level and knowledge base aren't up to the job.Ugajin 05:08, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sherwood Smith

I see someone has moved this to "Alternate Oz". However, these new books are meant to continue on from the end of the 40 canonical ones. The Baum Family Trust have given her the title of Royal Historian too. Jonks 16:24, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

The question of what is canonical/who is a Royal Historian is a very complex one. A lot of books/authors can sort of claim the title, but since it is so unclear it is better to keep everything under one title. The Baum Trust represents only some of the great-grandchildren. Another great grandchild, Roger Baum, is an Oz author himself. Is he a Royal Historian? Some say so. As all of Baum's Oz books are in public domain, no one has copyright claim, so there is no one person or group to determine. One could also argue that Eric Shanower, who illustrated so many of the FF author's books, might be considered a Royal Historian. The situation is even more complex because the publishing company has pretty much abandoned Ms. Smith's books. The second was barely released, and it looks as if (according to Ms. Smith) the next two will not be released by them.

Ok, yes, I know the whole canonical debate is quite complex. However, I think that "Alternate Oz" is not really the best way to describe the books by Smith, Shanower and any Baum descendant. When I read "Alternate Oz", I think of the works by Maguire, Philip Jose Farmer, etc., as these authors are/were completely rewriting Oz. However there are many authors who are just continuing Baum's fantasy world. Jonks 15:55, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Good point. My suggestion would be to move a bunch of the books (smith, Hungry Tiger stuff, Roger Baum, etc.) that are in the tradition of Oz to the "Non Canonical Oz Works" section and just get rid of the "by Royal Historians" qualifier. That seems clearest to me. Any thoughts on this?

I agree with the above point as classifying those works that seek to continue and expand Oz do not necessarily create an alternative Oz.