Is there a word missing from page 156 of The Sea Fairies?
Strictly speaking, this is not an Oz question, as The Sea Fairies was Baum’s major book for 1911, but it doesn’t take place in Oz. It does, however, introduce Trot and Cap’n Bill, who later become integrated into the Oz books four years later in The Scarecrow of Oz, and it is very similar in many ways to an Oz book, including illustrations from John R. Neill. So The Sea Fairies and its sequel, Sky Island, are considered by some to be honorary Oz books. And yes, a word is missing from page 156, in chapter 14, of The Sea Fairies. It appears that the single word “man” took up an entire line of text after the line: “You did; you pulled that bell cord,” said the one-legged But somehow it got lost or misplaced. This error has been in every single printing of The Sea Fairies that I am aware of, including modern day reprints from Books of Wonder and Dover, and even online text file versions. Other than for authenticity’s sake, I have no idea why nobody has ever corrected this.
