Early editions of The Royal Book of Oz say that it was written by Baum, but later ones say it was written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. Whats up with that?
The cover of all Reilly and Lee editions of The Royal Book of Oz listed Baum as the author, and the title page added, “Enlarged and Edited by Ruth Plumly Thompson.” This was a ruse on the publisher’s part, as the entire work was Thompson’s. Baum’s widow, Maud Baum, added to the smokescreen by writing a preface for the new book that mentioned some notes her husband had left that formed the basis for the story. It was felt that this would ease the transition from one writer to the next. Thompson’s sole authorship of The Royal Book of Oz was first acknowledged in Jack Snow’s Who’s Who in Oz, published in 1954, and the first edition to feature Thompson’s name on the cover as author was the Del Rey paperback edition of 1985. The Dover edition of 2001 retained Baum’s name for the sake of authenticity.
Related Questions
- As mentioned before, not all first editions are valuable. But just why will someone pay $15,000 or more than $100,000 for a first edition of a book that looks just like all the later printings?
- Early editions of The Royal Book of Oz say that it was written by Baum, but later ones say it was written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. Whats up with that?
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