Preprint from Quest.
The Annotated Wizard of Oz: "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum;Pictures by W. W. Denslow. Ed. with an Introduction and Notes by Michael PatrickHearn. Centennial ed. Preface by Martin Gardner. New York: Norton, 2000.Hardback, $39.95, cii + 396 pages + color plates.
This is, for the time being, the definitive edition of the Great AmericanFairy Tale, Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz. The text of the 1900 first edition is reprinted with its illustrations and a plethora of informative notes about the text, allusions, and analogs. The front matter includes a ninety-page"Introduction to The Annotated Wizard of Oz," which is the fullest and most detailed available biographical account of the book and its author. It even treats Baum's Theosophical and related interests (pp. xc-xciv), though it does not adequately recognize the importance that those interests had for Baum andThe Wizard. The volume is abundantly illustrated, in addition to Denslow's original drawings, with black and white and full-color photographs and reproductions. A fourteen-page bibliography covers Baum's work and important studies of Baum and Denslow. For all devoted Ozzians, this is The WonderfulWizard of Oz bible.