Review of \u3ci\u3eThe Annotated Wizard of Oz: Centennial Edition\u3c/i\u3e By L. Frank Baum

Celebrations around the country last year honored the hundredth anniversary of the publication of L. Frank Baum\u27s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. His story of Dorothy, the young girl from the great Kansas prairie, and her amazing adventures in the magical land of Oz is no more amazing than the book\u27s transformation during its first century from simple children\u27s tale into one of the most recognized and beloved American icons worldwide. A major event in that process was the publication in 1973 of Michael Patrick Hearn\u27s Annotated Wizard of Oz, the first in-depth study of Baum\u27s masterpiece. Modeled on Martin Gardner\u27s Annotated Alice, Hearn\u27s book was based on the premise that The Wizard was as worthy of serious study as Alice\u27s Adventures in Wonderland, an opinion that is now widely accepted. It was only fitting therefore that a revised edition of this research classic should be published during the centennial year. Hearn has expanded his introduction, updated the bibliography, and added important new photographs and illustrations, but the greatest expansion has been in the number and content of the annotations. Because annotations, by their nature, illuminate individual points and do not aim at consistency, they can range from acute to far-fetched, and these are no exception. Nevertheless, they provide a treasure of information for the general reader as well as the researcher. A glance at the list of books and articles in the bibliography will give a good idea of just how much work has been done on Baum in the past three decades, and Hearn has incorporated much of this research into his notes, making this new edition necessary for all who love Baum\u27s classic. The 1973 edition of Hearn\u27s book also functioned as a near facsimile of the first edition of Baum\u27s tale. The text illustrations had been redrawn for better reproduction, but the text colors, the color plates, and the arrangement of the pages were true to the first edition. This was an important aspect of the book because the design of the original 1900 edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was strikingly original and had a great influence on children\u27s books published after it. It is here that Mr. Hearn\u27s current designer has let him down. While the Denslow text illustrations are now reproduced as originally drawn, the text colors sometimes do not match the shades of the original, and the order of many of the pages has been altered to accommodate the notes. More serious is the fact that the color plates have been printed over gray backgrounds that misrepresent the colors of the originals. This is not a fatal flaw, however, as an accurate facsimile, the Books of Wonder / William Morrow edition (1987), is in print and readily available. Buy that one to read the story; buy The Centennial Annotated Wizard to read all about the story