] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 1, 1997 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 17:20 -0600 (CST) From: gbirrell@post.cis.smu.edu (Gordon Birrell) Subject: Ozzy Digest That request from Tina Dewey (Notre Dame food services) for Oz-style foods got me thinking: In tribute to the colors of Oz, how about a marinated salad of roasted, peeled, and julienned red, green, yellow, and purple bell peppers, along with crumbled blue cheese? Add a sprinkling of poppy seeds for good measure. Serve on a sand-colored plate to emulate the Deadly Desert. Or alternatively: a parfait with layered slices of pear, kiwi, strawberry, and purple plum, topped with blueberries, whipped cream, and--why not?--brown sugar. I'm posting this to the Digest rather than to Tina Dewey, since these menu ideas are probably beyond the budget of a college dining hall, particularly the multi-hued peppers. -Gordon Birrell ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 17:19:21 -0700 (MST) From: estelle@usa.net (Estelle E. Klein) Subject: Oz posters Thanks for all the assistance on book repairs. How about posters- when considering hanging, should one just frame collectible posters as is, or have them professionally or otherwise drymounted and framed, or have them laminated and framed. Any concern about value? Any suggestions, please. ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 19:29:11 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 02-28-07 Tyler: I just got into your website! I like it! Scott: I always wondered, myself, about the now-nonexistent GWN. Re Polychrome: Since she's an immortal, I don't think "making her look like a young woman" is going overboard. After all, she may be the equivalent of a much older woman in years, despite Baum's description. Re "sweeping a corpse [the WWW] out the door" and forgetting about it: if she's shrunk to nothing, I would see little point in keeping the rest of her around, personally. Tyler again: Well, now that we're on the subject of WIZARD, perhaps now's the time to revive the debate (regarding the all-too-easy melting of the WWW). Was it Baum's way of getting out of a tough situation without really having to resolve things carefully? I know my initial reason for bringing up the "God machine" tactic was some sort of attempt at humor, but it could actually relate well to our current Book of Focus. Herm: Obviously the shop you mention caters to the prince and not the pauper! Until next time, Jeremy Steadman ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 19:19:01 +0500 From: rri0189@ibm.net Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 02-27-97 I DREAMT I DWELT IN EMERALD HALLS: I had a couple of comments on all these dreams: Firstly, do you think they're all coming from the mysterious "Kingdom of Dreams" on the Oz map? Or perhaps that's where you go when you have them. Jane: Why not summarize the discussion of dreams here (especially the popular "bookstore" dream) and ask the Gazetteers if they've ever had any Oz dreams they'd like to share? That will give you material for the future= as well. Jeremy: Hot damn! I thought I was the only one who ever had "The Director's Nightmare". All those clueless actors running around at dress rehearsal with their lines unmemorized, *totally unconcerned* that we were= about to open! Salute your mother from me as a kindred spirit. (I even had a "Stage Manager's Nightmare" once.) David, et al.: In DC Comics' "Sandman" series, Morpheus has a library consisting, IIRC, of "all the books that never were". (Or maybe it's "All= the unwritten books". Something like that.) When I die, I want a job in that library! I wonder if it has a film section by now. Neil Gaiman, "Sandman"'s creator, is a big Cabell fan, I believe. Douglass: Re-read the very end of the play ("The Actor's Nightmare"). Spelvin has more on the line than you think. -- Eleanor Kennedy ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 19:33:25 +0500 From: rri0189@ibm.net Subject: Blue Mondays in Oz Nathan: Some weeks ago you asked if Monday used to be a traditional laundry day, and you were answered. ("Yes") I thought I'd expand on the answer a bit and tell you why. Laundry was a long, exhausting, tedious job before the invention of the electric washing machine, not to mention a hot one, having to stand over a= tub of boiling water to do the whites. The last thing you'd want to do after a day of laundry would be to stand over a hot (wood or coal) stove and make dinner. If you did laundry on Monday, you could make dinner quickly out of the leftovers of Sunday dinner, with the meat either served= sliced and cold, or chopped and fried as hash. Baked beans were a not-uncommon accompaniment, since they required time, but no attention. In the mid-1800's, and in large households, Monday was when you *started* the laundry, which took all week to finish. Read "Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management" for the grisly details. -- Eleanor ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 18:41:22 +0500 From: rri0189@ibm.net Subject: Wizard of Oz Discussion I got stuck doing a massive project that kept me off-line for weeks, but it's over now and I've been spending= the whole of this past week catching up. Is it too late to get in on the "Wizard of Oz" discussion? No? Good! Ozzian Heights: The Munchkins' hats are described as being "a foot tall". Now, if we assume that the illustrations are drawn in correct proportion (I know, a dangerous assumption, but let's just assume it for the moment) then that would make the Munchkins and the GWN about 4 feet tall, which *is* about the size of a "well-grown child [for Dorothy's age, whatever that is]", and= definitely short for an adult. Since the Munchkins are "about the same size" as Dorothy, that would make her 3'10, or 4'. Comparing her to the other characters then, that would make the Tin Woodman and Scarecrow about 5', and the Soldier with the Green= Whiskers about 6', tall not only for Oz, but also for the U.S. at the time. = (Incidentally, the Wizard is depicted as only 4' tall, although he's more "normal-sized" in later books. If he was a midget, perhaps that's why he went into the entertainment field, first as a ventriloquist and then with the circus.) Ages and Ages: Dorothy thinks that the Munchkins are about as old as Uncle Henry, but the= GWN is "doubtless much older: her face was covered with wrinkles, her hair= was nearly white, and she walked rather stiffly." Now, most children tend= to define "old" as younger than an adult would. (That's an awkward sentence. Let me give an example: when I was 7 I informed my 18-year-old= sister that in a few years she would be 21 and "over the hill". Such is a= child's perception.) Let's assume for the sake of argument that the GWN appears to be 60. This would tend to make us place Henry and Em in their forties, perhaps Henry in his fifties. I think this is reasonable. 20 years spent farming the sort of harsh, gray "Kansas" that Baum describes would be enough to age anyone, and Baum makes it clear that Henry and Em are more worn than aged. I don't think there's any need for a "missing generation" here. Henry (or Em, whichever) could easily have been the older sibling of Dorothy's parent. Glinda's crown: I don't think it's as heavy as you think it is. There's a lot of empty space there, between the vertical metal bits, and that appears to be a feather on top. I'll grant you, though, that if those hanging bobs are solid jewels, they might be a bit heavy, but all the weight would be hanging down the sides, pulling the circlet down evenly. Miscellaneous: Has anyone else noticed Dorothy's unusual hairstyle? (Braided, but with no= fastening on the bottom, not even a ribbon. John says maybe she lost her hair ribbons and they couldn't afford to buy her new ones.) Does anyone else find it interesting that Dorothy's command to the Silver Shoes is "Take me home to Aunt Em!" Why not "Aunt Em and Uncle Henry"? Why not "home to Kansas"? Why put in any qualifier at all? Baum's first pun (Chapter 3): "'Good day,' said the Scarecrow in a rather= husky voice." Gordon: thanks for the description of the brown sugar experiment. That phrase always struck me, too. Sorry for the length of the post, but I had a lot of Ozzy messages pent up= waiting to come out. -- Eleanor Kennedy ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 19:05:37 -0600 (CST) From: Robin Olderman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 02-28-07 A line was (obviously) missing in my last post. The last section was supposed to be about how many times Toto was used to move the book (WOZ) along. Ozzy Dreams: O.K., y'all, after about 50 years of Oz, I've finally had a dream with an Oz connection, and it's YOUR fault! And it was ridiculous. For some reason, my husband, older daughter, and I were tumbling down a long, steep, snow covered slope...fortunately, one with no trees or rocks, but dangerous. I grabbed my daughter, who was about 5 in the dream, and protected her in the circle of my arms. We barreled down that hill with Jeff whirling down ahead of us. Lee (daughter) and I finally stopped. Jeff was, somehow, stranded above us and needed rescuing. I instructed Lee to stay where she was while I tried to rescue Daddy. She kept trying to follow me anyway. No segue whatsoever before three tin men appeared, told me they'd save him for me because they= were hollow and could walk over the snow without breaking its crust.They= thenbroke into song. I remember thinking in the dream that the song was crummy= and that I could write a better one and being quite aggravated with them... why were they singing, anyway, when my husband needed a rescue and not a seranade! Very peculiar dream. My daughter is now 24. My younger daughter didn't appear at all in the dream. I never felt my husband was in= real danger. I did, however, fear for my child. Why the heck would I dream up a= singing trio of tin men? They didn't even act like Nick Chopper...more like the Keystone Cops. FWIW, the daughter in question is getting married this year. I guess I have some anxiety about the wedding. I can recognize elements of feeling things are out of my control and, if you know me at all, you know I'm a "control freak." But three singing tin men?! ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 22:21:07 -0500 (EST) From: DavidXOE@aol.com Subject: Ozzy Digest, 02-28-97 Me: Tyler, I found your page today OK. But when I tried to find Chris D's, I couldn't, even though both of us are on AOL. Nathan: "Ipso facto" means, more or less, "by the fact itself," - in other words, once you believe whatever has been said previously, the rest follows. (For instance, if you believe what Rush Limbaugh says about Clinton, then ipso facto you'll believe what Bear says about him.) (Or, to be fair, if you believe what THE ECONOMIST says about Clinton, then ipso facto you'll believe what I say about him.) Scott H.: Hey, "Professor Woggle-bug of Oz" is -my- entry in the Centennial Contest (though, as I've said before, that's not its name as entered, since there are at least two of the preliminary judges reading this). Incidentally, is the identity of the third preliminary judge known? Just curious. I paid $105 for my copy of JOHN DOUGH AND THE CHERUB, back in about 1982, so I can't steer you to a cheap version. You haven't found anything Borders had and B&N didn't? I suppose some= Borders aren't carrying the ECP books, but all the ones I've checked have had them, and no B&N has. Bob: I doubt if your spare copy of LAND is worth anything much; I have a much better-condition copy from the early '40s that I also doubt would be worth anything much - though since it has sentimental value to me, I intend to keep it. Warren: Interesting. Could you tell us (or me, anyhow) where in THE VICOMTE DE BRAGELONNE that quote appears? I could check my translation to see how it compares with yours. (But since it would involve checking about 1800 pages, I'd rather have a hint as to where in the book it appears. Not by page, but by what's generally going on, and how far from the beginning it happens.) Herm: Prince and the Pauper in San Diego is one of those bookshops that has a lot of seriously collectible stuff, but at a price that's only attractive if you have a lot of money and not a lot of patience. (I bought the last couple of Rick Brant books I wanted for my collection there, for instance - since even P&P didn't think they were worth more than $20 or so. But their prices for a couple of Thompson books were out of my range.) One does have to remember that there weren't that many people in California in 1930, and that those who came there had tended to leave heavy items like books behind when they made their move. And that by now, there are more people in California than in the next two largest states in population put together. So it's not unreasonable that California prices for older books are higher than in the rest of the country. Dave: Some of the portraits of Dorothy (e.g. in WISHING HORSE) look pretty grown-up, except that she's rather flat-chested. But then, so are quite a= lot of grown-up ladies in our world... And Bradbury's "The Exiles" is a story that you have to read for yourself,= if you haven't. I think it's in THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, though I wouldn't swear to it. But the destruction of Oz - or, to be more accurate, the Emerald City - in it was part of the destruction of all the wonderful imaginings of mankind. Certainly Bradbury didn't approve. David Hulan ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 01 Mar 1997 01:16:40 -0500 (EST) From: HermBieber@aol.com Subject: For Ozzy Digest AOL strikes again: I note that in my plate repair item of yesterday, the first few words in paragraph two were dropped in the transmission. It should have read: "To remove a plate, as from a worn book, for transfer to a better book,= open" [the book partially on the glue line......etc.] I realize Wagner's account of "flying heads and rock men" may not be Baum,= orsome hazy erroneous recollection she has about Baum Oz. I was not at her lecture to debate the matter, and transmitted the article, uncensored, primarily for the matriarch angle. A near "dream" Once I was rumaging through books in a thrift shop at Columbia University selling items donated by the faculty. I had never found anything Ozzy or Baumy there in over ten years. Stooping over to examine a lower shelf, I slipped, lifted my head rather rapidly, and bumped it very hard on the shelf above. I was almost knocked unconscious and saw colored lights for a spell. Then I had a blurry vision of a red book, "the Fate of a Crown" by Schuyler Staunton (aka L. Frank Baum). I thought I was dreaming. When I "woke up", I was staring at a fine first printing of the book on the shelf, eye high. Somehow I had missed it on my first pass. It was 50c, AND THAT WAS NO DREAM! Herm Bieber ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 01 Mar 1997 01:46:32 -0500 (EST) From: JoelHarris@aol.com Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 02-27-97 To any would-be book repairers: Use the right glue! It must be clear and flexible when dry. I recommend Demco's "Norbond" liquid plastic adhesive book maintenance glue, available from Demco library supplies at (800) 356=A91200. Once you have acquired the glue, follow Herm's instructions. DO NOT USE TAPE unless the book is a reading copy for you own use, as tape can destroy a book's value. I am not familiar with Gili's tape, but any tape on books scares me. Herm: Please give us tips on fixing broken hinges. John White: You may want to find a copy of The Dream World of Dion McGregor, all of the stories in which were allegedly from the author's transcribed dreams. Bob Spark: In my opinion, a book in "rough" shape that is missing pages has no value, not even as a "reading copy", unless it is very rare (such as a 1st edition of the Woggle Bug book, where a single page should have some value). Scott: Enjoyed your story about your book find! Everyone: Can anyone else share stories like Scott's? I am always engrossed by tales of Oz book finds! - Joel Harris ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 01 Mar 1997 02:26:52 -0800 (PST) From: Barbara Belgrave Subject: Ozzy Digest Hi all, I've been ill for a couple of weeks so I'm going back several days digests. Hope you can all still follow the posts. Scott... You mention, and I have heard others mention "Oz Christmas Cards of Fred Meyers". What cards are these? Did I somehow get missed from the IWOC Christmas Card List? Boo Hoo!!!! Bill W.... You talkes sometime back about a .fif file. Can we download a fif viewer from the address you gave us and do you have the Oz pics to view with it? Bob W.... Did you try the movie database site for movie clips? I can try and find the address for you if you don't have it. Nate... Does the "Wiz" soundtrack have to be new? I think I know where I acn find a used LP. How much you want to spend? You mentioned Micheal McClure performance of poetry with Oz characters mentioned, do you happen to have the wods to the poem? I'd love to read it. Robin... How's Fred Meyer doing these days? I haven't heard anything of him in a few months. Does he ever peek in to the Digest? Tyler... My bosses' name is VanAllen and my mothers maiden name is VonGunten. Both are very German and it is my understanding that "Von and Van" mean "from the house of". My mother says at one time it had something to do with royalty somehow. Let me know what you come up with. Now for a few ideas of my own... Someone wrote recently about the Tinmans costume. She wanted to know if it was in a museum somewhere. I'd like to know where any of the characters costumes are. Anyone know? Anyone besides me ever associate the "Sliders" tv show with "Oz"? I mena 3 males and 1 female traveling through space to other dimentions and sharing the adventures. Hmmm. Maybe I'm reaching huh? Ok then here's another one just in case some of you still think I'm sane. I being a person who believes our spirits come back to this earth time and time again till we learn the all the lessons we need to become complete think that Baum and Disney sure had a lot of the same ideas. Think they may be one of the same? Okay, okay, I'll try not be so OUT THERE. Just wanted to throw some food for thought. Now on to the BCF before we go on to the next one and I'm not done with this one. Here's my questions: 1. Did Baum get to choose Denslow as an artist? 2. Why didn't Del Rey continue and do all 40 FF books in paperbacks? 3. If there is no death in Oz, what about the Tin Woodman's parents and the wolves and the crows? 4. Is anyone else confused when Baum says in the Intro that "the heartaches and nightmares are left out of the fairy tale"? I think there is plenty of heartache when Dorothy leaves Oz and if the killing of the wolves and crows doesn't scare some kids into a nightmare I'd be suprized. Well that's enogh for now. Sinsozly, Barbara ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 01 Mar 1997 06:56:58 -0500 (EST) From: DIXNAM@aol.com Subject: Ozzy Digest 2-28-97 Dave; Hasn't Scott H. set some kind of Digest record? 19 individual posts in one issue! Tyler: I, too, had trouble accessing your web page, but finally got there= by way of the link from Nathan's page. It seems a backslash is required after "tylerjones". Once there, I enjoyed your presentation, (with that GREAT Emerald City), as well as Nathan's and Buckhead's pages. Herm: Thanks for the "Book Repair Seminar - Part 1" I, for one, would appreciate the sequel, when you have the time. Is "Book Saver" glue readily available? Dick ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 01 Mar 1997 12:48:52 -0500 (EST) From: "John N. White" Subject: Oz On the subject of books in Oz books, there is a picture in LAND where a student of Professor Nowitall is holding a book titled: "HISTORY of the LAND of OZ". When I was little I can remember looking at that picture and really wanting that book. DavidXOE@aol.com writes: > Your mer-girl dream sounds as if it might have been inspired by SEA= FAIRIES, > possibly? It could be; I've reread SEA FAIRIES a few times. sahutchi@cord.iupui.edu writes: > I always saw Dorothy's cleaning up the mess the witch made as rather > grusone. Witch or no witch, you don't sweep a corpse out the door and > forget about it! Oh yes I do. Of course, in my case it was an insect corpse. :-) I always thought it was very good of Dorothy to clean up the mess. Most protagonists just leave the mess (like in the Narnian SILVER CHAIR). Aunt Em: Dorothy, if you make a mess then you should clean it up. Don't expect other people to go around cleaning up after you. Dorothy: Yes, Auntie Em. So you see, Dorothy was just being a good little girl. HermBieber@aol.com writes: > The facimile editions for the recent editions of the Wizard of Oz were= made > by photocopying techniques, ... Thanks. That explains why the colors weren't corrected. I note that the DJ of the BOW edition of WIZARD has pictures that appear to have had their color corrected, though. Dave Hardenbrook writes: > Ozma: Just for the record, I am totally, utterly opposed to all slavery > in all forms! If my people are not all happy and free, *I'M* not > happy or free! Inquisition: How, then, do you explain this report that you learned of persons being held in a state of slavery -- and that in said state they were subject to defenestration and other sundry abuse at the whim of their cruel masters, the Herku -- and that you made absolutely no effort to free them? > NEILL *KNOWS*! :) : Whenever there is any sort of conflict between the text and the= illustrations I always go with the text. But if you really want a picture of Polychrome as a young woman then you should see an edition of Tin Woodman that I have with illustrations by Dale Ulrey. I think Polly's dress would especially appeal to you, Dave. It is *very* low cut in the back and under the arms (like down to her waist). > Ozma: Besides, Mr. Neill was the one who came out to Oz and actually > *did our portraits*! No, Neill was working from Baum's description. The real Ozma would have known that, so this Ozma must be an impostor. > Jellia: A story in which Oz is utterly destroyed is OK, but Ozma et al. > growing up and falling in love is "sacriligous"! Go figure. A story where Oz is destroyed is not only HICC, it would be a HICC story that I have absolutely no interest in reading. A story where Ozma gets married is no problem, since it is clear that the Ozma in question is the impostor who thought Neill went to Oz, and eventually the impostor will be unmasked and the real Ozma restored. = :-) -- jnw@vnet.net (John N. White) ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 01 Mar 1997 13:23:11 -0500 From: "Melody G. Keller" <104270.2374@compuserve.com> Subject: Ozzy Digest, 02-28-07 Jellia: A story in which Oz is utterly destroyed is OK, but Ozma et al. growing up and falling in love is "sacriligous"! Go figure. -- Dave< It's the reason some people relish the death of innocent and good characters, and cheer the resurrection of wicked ones. (Which was done by Chester Gould's successors on the "Dick Tracy" comic strip. Sadists wrote in cheering the violet death of Moonmaid. (The new writers had her blown and burned up by a bomb in her car.)). There was also a letter from a sadist in the comic "Aquaman" who said, "I'm glad Aquababy is dead!" Keep in mind that Baum considered such beings creatures of evil. ("Consider the joy of making the happy unhappy. Consider the joy of destroying innocent people," says Guph. And the First and Foremost Phanfasm replies, "Ah! You have answered us...) Heh, heh. I wonder how many writers would create horrible fantasy worlds or write stuff like "The Oz Squad" and "Oz" if they could be condemned and afterward forced to live in those worlds.... Melody Grandy ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 01 Mar 1997 13:44:46 -0500 (EST) From: HermBieber@aol.com Subject: For the Ozzy Digest Dave: Not sure whether this was sent! More AOL problems of late! for John White: The facimile editions for the recent editions of the Wizard of Oz were made by photocopying techniques, and there are no antiquarian books which have organic dye plates that have not changed since they were originally printed (an exception is the metallic inks used in some expensive old books that are much more stable to aging). So there is no accurate point of reference. In fact, if you compare two identical books that have been stored under dry vs damp environments, you will see quite a variation in color. Having said that, the main cause for different tints will be in the method used to produce the plates from the photo copies. Expensive dye transfer processes can be used to make faithful renditions for expensive limited editions of art prints or nature photographs. But the processes suitable for cheap, mass produced books all have serious limitations in fidelity. On Dreams: Seeing the Wizard of Oz as a child had a profound effect on me. It was the first technicolor film I had seen. Movies must have always had a strong influence on me because I only recall dreams in black and white before I saw the Wizard. Thereafter they were usually in color. I distinctly remember one dream wherein I was returning to my home town. = The village was reached right after going through a dark RR tunnel. Well, the dream started in black and white, and when the train exited the tunnel, it changed to brilliant color. No kidding ! Gordon: I'm hoping the Phantom Book Shop thought they had an original dust jacket,= in which case the price would be in the right ball park. If they KNEW it was a replicate jacket, then I would have to question their judgement and perhaps their ethics. But I'm always amazed at California prices. I was recently in The Prince= and he Pauper, a shop in San Diego. They had some very nice Oz material, but the prices would knock your socks off. I decided the store name derives= from he fact that one enters as a prince and leaves a pauper. Herm Bieber ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 01 Mar 1997 14:23:43 -0500 (EST) Date-warning: Date header was inserted by delphi.com From: dsparker@mail.utexas.edu (Douglass S. Parker) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 02-28-07 A bit on Eva Katherine Gibson. I took a xerox of ZAUBERLINDA years ago, and let it sit till I tried to find something out about her in connection with a course last fall. First thing I found, from the UTAustin library, was: Gibson, Eva Katherine Clapp, 1857-1916 Indexed as: CLAPP EVA KATHERINE Author: CLAPP EVA KATHERINE matches your search: GIBSON EVA KATHERINE CLAPP Why the change? Well, she'd published before, in the 1880's. Maiden name? The library here has four of your five titles including ZAUB, but three of them are on microfilm. I'll put them down in somewhat edited form. Maybe the microfilms, or film [Reel G-9] is/are still procurable: 1 Clapp, Eva Katherine, 1857-1916. / Her bright future. / Chicago= 1970(1880) FILM 19,048 V.3 REEL G-9 Microforms PCL Level 1 USE IN LIBRARY ONLY PUBLISHED: Chicago : H.A. Sumner, 1880. DESCRIPTION: 309 p. ; 19 cm. NOTES: Microfilm. Woodbridge, Conn. : Research Publications, 1970-1978. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm. (Wright American fiction ; v. 3 (1876-1900), reel G-9, no. 2153) OCLC NUMBER: 2379120 2 Clapp, Eva Katherine, 1857-1916. / A lucky mishap: a novel. / Chicago 1970(1883) FILM 19,048 V.3 REEL G-9 Microforms PCL Level 1 USE IN LIBRARY ONLY PUBLISHED: Chicago : Belford, Clarke, 1883. DESCRIPTION: 276 p. ; 19 cm. NOTES: Microfilm. Woodbridge, Conn.: Research Publications, 1970-1978. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm. (Wright American fiction ; v. 3 (1876-1900), reel G-9, no. 2154) OCLC NUMBER: 2379130 3 Clapp, Eva Katherine, 1857-1916. / A woman's triumph a true story of western life. / Chicago 1970(1885) FILM 19,048 V.3 REEL G-9 Microforms PCL Level 1 USE IN LIBRARY ONLY PUBLISHED: Chicago : A.H. Andrews, 1885. DESCRIPTION: 80 p. ; 16 cm. NOTES: Microfilm. Woodbridge, Conn. : Research Publications, 1970-1978. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm. (Wright American fiction ; v. 3 (1876-1900), reel G-9, no. 2155) OCLC NUMBER: 2379146 4 Clapp, Eva Katherine, 1857-1916. / Zauberlinda, the wise witch./Chicago= 1901 PZ 8 G358 Z Humanities Research Center USE IN LIBRARY ONLY PUBLISHED: Chicago, Lansing, R. Smith printing co. (1901) DESCRIPTION: 256 p. col. illus. 22 cm. NOTES: Pictures by Mabel Tibbitts. Illustrated end papers. COPY NOTES: HRC bookplate: The L.W. Currey Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection. SUBJECTS: Fantastic fiction, American OCLC NUMBER: 592067 What has fascinated me about ZAUBERLINDA, Gibson/Clapp's 1901 OZ ripoff [Annie, from South Dakota, and her pet *cat*], is the way in which LFB reciprocated. After all, the Gnome (sic) King first occurs in Gibson, though he's scarcely a figure of fun, and so do prairie dogs. And there are also farmhand(s), which might have led into the 1939 movie. Could LFB, miffed at the theft, have decided that what was sauce for the gander was sauce for the goose? Anyway, years ago I got ZAUB on ILL from Bowling Green, where they have things like that. They may have more works/materials/whatever. The early novels don't appear to be juveniles, but they look like Popular Culture, and that's where BG shines. I would have written them last year, but didn't realize how little I knew until I was mired in something else. As usual. Hope that this helps. Thanks for the booknotes. AND the reference to Pattrick, which I have somewhere, buried under much stuff. I'll quite literally dig it out. //Doug Parker My classics hat: IPSO FACTO Latin for "by the act or fact itself." As a result of the act or fact, with no argument, explanation, or addition necessary. Webster3 gives a nice example, which comes down to: "If someone inveighs against censorship, is he/she IPSO FACTO being a censor him/herself?" Or, if you wish, "A dedicated reader of OZ books is ipso facto a cultured person." If you get tired of IPSO FACTO, there's always the legal maxim RES IPSA LOQUITUR "The thing itself speaks," which is to say, "It's obvious [without argument, etc.]," or "Plain as the nose on your face," or... Sorry. I get carried away. Thanks for the book references. //Doug Parker ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 01 Mar 97 11:55:35 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things DAVE'S OZ BOOK 1: Jeremy Steadman wrote: >I always wondered, myself, about the now-nonexistent GWN. She's *isn't* non-existant!!! She makes a comeback in my book _Locasta and the Three Adepts of Oz_ (see Section 4.4 of the Ozzy Digest FAQ)! DAVE'S OZ BOOK 2: RE: John White's comments It seems to me that someone here on the Digest once said, "Oz is for everyone"...I therefore am of the opinion that everyone has a right to their= own personal vision of Oz, and because each version of Oz is equally of= another niverse, no version is "TRUE" Oz while others are "IMPOSTERS" (Well, okay probably _Wicked_, _Oz Sqaud_, etc. are imposters). But a lot of people I= now realize don't believe that and never *will* believe that and think I am a "sacriligious heretic" for having my own unique ideas about Oz. So what can I do but shrug and move forward? So I'm going to get on with writing my books, and you've heard me discuss them on the Digest for the last time ( this time REALLY AND TRULY! :) ). -- Dave ======================================================================== ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 2, 1997 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 01 Mar 1997 15:33:50 -0500 (EST) From: SmartyKid@aol.com Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-01-97 I like your newsletter, but I don't understand the ways like you say Alan: BLAH BLAH BLAH or Nate:BLAH BLAH BLAH etc. Please explain ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 01 Mar 1997 15:54:18 -0500 (EST) From: JoelHarris@aol.com Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-01-97 The telephone number for Demco did not seem to make it on the last Digest. Try 8003561200. Estelle: If you do not care about the value of the poster, do whatever makes it look best (drymount or laminate). However, I would think that either would pretty much make the poster worth a lot less to collectors. To preserve value, only acidfree matting should be used under glass, of course. Joel ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 01 Mar 1997 17:52:06 -0500 (EST) From: DavidXOE@aol.com Subject: Ozzy Digest, 03-01-97 And the Dread Hexadecimal Plague is back again! Jeremy: My feeling is that the name of The Prince and the Pauper bookshop refers to the fact that even a prince who enters is likely to exit a pauper. :-) (But with a lot of neat, if overpriced, books!) Eleanor: I've read one "Sandman" book, but didn't like it that much, so haven't read any more. (This despite the fact that the Gaiman/Pratchett collaboration, GOOD OMENS, is one of my favorite books of the last decade.) If Dorothy was four feet tall in WIZARD then it seems extremely unlikely that he was as young as 5. I read to 4th and 5th graders (who are presumably 9-10 ears old) and I don't believe any of them is over 4 feet tall; certainly not uch over. Being 60 myself, I don't think that the description of the GWN including "face covered with wrinkles" and "walked rather stiffly" is consistent with her being that age. Admittedly, it varies, and I've known people in their= 40s ith wrinkled faces and stiff walks, but it's more typical of people well= into their 70s. It's certainly true that a child's estimate of age is very different from an adult's, but here we're dealing not just with Dorothy's perception but with actual physical description. I agree with you that it's interesting that Dorothy says "Take me home to Aunt Em!" In fact, she seems to have much more affection for and interest in Em in WIZARD than in the subsequent books; from OZMA on she seems much more interested in and concerned about Henry. Barbara B.: I thought Fred Meyer sent out Christmas cards to everyone in the IWOC. If you've only been a member for a year or two, then it's probably explained because for the past couple of Christmases he's been having physical= problems and may well not have updated his address list. If you've been a member longer than that, then I don't know. (I notice you're not listed in the 1996 Membership Directory, incidentally.) High German "von" and Dutch/Low German "van" both basically mean "from". "Van" doesn't have any connection with nobility at all ("van Beethoven", for instance, means "from the beet fields"), but I think most "von"s do represent the landed gentry. (No assurances on that, though; maybe somebody knows for sure?) >I being a person who believes our spirits come back to this earth time and >time again till we learn the all the lessons we need to become complete >think that Baum and Disney sure had a lot of the same ideas. Think they >may be one of the same? If your speculation is that Disney was a reincarnation of Baum, then no, I don't believe that. Disney was born well before Baum's death. If that's not what you meant, then I don't know. Others will undoubtedly answer your questions; I'll only have a go at 2 and 3. Del Rey stopped reprinting the later Oz books because they weren't selling well and Judy-Lynn del Rey, who had spearheaded the effort to publish them, died. And there was clearly death in Oz at least up to shortly before the events= of EMERALD CITY, since one of Billina's chicks is recorded as dying after= Ozma's birthday party (presumably the one in ROAD). I think the first mention of deathlessness in Oz was in TIK-TOK. John W.: So how does one find a copy of that TIN WOODMAN illustrated by Dale Ulrey? Who published it, and when? I've never seen any Oz books that Neill illustrated with illustrations by someone else. Dave: Bet you can't find a single instance of anyone calling you a "sacrilegious heretic" in the entire history of the Digest. But I agree with you entirely that the thing to do is to get on with writing your books about your own ideas of Oz, and getting them published if you can. Talking about them on the Digest is up to you, but if having your ideas nit-picked (which is a much more accurate description of what's happened than "flamed") bothers you, then you shouldn't. One problem, I think, is the HACC. I think it's fun to think about, but I have no intention of even considering what any non-canonical book says in the course of writing my own books. I do my best to adhere completely to the FF (sometimes, as in EUREKA, reconciling apparent contradictions between FF books), but I ignore non-FF books just as completely. I'll leave it to others to try to reconcile any such discrepancies. It's also probable that the more unusual your vision of Oz is, the less chance you have of getting your books published other than at your own expense. But that's a separate consideration. David Hulan ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 01 Mar 1997 17:01:07 -0800 From: serenadb@sos.net (Serena DuBois) Subject: Ozzy digests 2/25 following! I am spending a pleasant Saturday catching up on reading for a week, so if some of this is old as I type in, I am sorry. I want to begin by thanking everyone for info on bookstores where I can get later RPT books etc. and for clearing up my misconception regarding reprints and color plates. I stand corrected. wasn't on your message!) Your web page which I have not had a chance to look at yet! But I wanted to say in response to your message of 2/25 that if you use Microsoft Word, you can download from the Microsoft site either on the internet, and I think, from AOL, a program called Internet Assistant which codes and decodes HTML pages. I don't think it handles complicated stuff, but could probably take some of the pain out of what you are doing if you don't have it already. I got it to read web pages I have downloaded and have not tried to create anything with it. It works fine for reading and has two formats just like word itself. One is the equivalent of Print Preview (you can't change anything) and the other shows the HTML codes etc. It comes zipped with explanatory material. Book fixing. I would never dream of mending books that were to be collectibles but will take a hand with old friends to keep them from falling apart. I find Scotch magic tape and some nice multicolored "duct type tape" I found (came in green, blue and red) did wonders for my ERB (NOT the Mimics, the author!) books which I had read to pieces in my teenyears. I used the duct tape to replace nonexisting back bindings matching it to the color of covers which in the Burroughs books were usually (luckily!) red green or blue! I would be more inclined to take Oz books (we had a number of first editions in the ones still in storage) to a repair person, but as was remarked, sometimes professional repairs can cost more than the book is worth. It is a puzzlement what to do. My thanks to Herm Bieber (2/28) for directions for less rough and ready book mending than I practiced! Oz (and other "find") dreams. I have wondered if Robert Heinlein was acting out this dream when he wrote "The Number of the Beast" in which our heroes (2) and heroines (2) travel in a time twister on the run from some "Black Hat" baddies out to wipe them out of the story. They go not so much back and forward and time but into alternative universes including both Oz, Wonderland (meeting Lewis Carroll in the process), and other favorites looking for a safe place to light. I love Heinlein's later Multiverse books for exactly the reason the Hard Sci Fi crew hates them. They give hope to my finding Oz (and other "made universes") myself one day! Deetee (short for Dejah Thoris, her dad obviously loved ERB!) wanted to stay in Oz until Glinda pointed out she would have to stay the little girl she had been when she read Oz and grew to know it so well and give up the baby she was carrying because there is no birth or death in Oz. They moved on, but came back for various reasons from getting problems solved to dropping off children for babysitting (!!)at later points in the book(s). His characterization of the Oz characters he used felt right to me (closer to the "real" thing that Farmer was in "Barnstormer in OZ!!") when I read them (Tik-Tok kept needing rewinding in mid-sentence), and interestingly he may have known about not using non PD characters because as I recall, they only saw Glinda, Tik-Tok, and a few other Baum characters. As for my own dreaming, I have often dreamed about reaching for things, books etc and not being able to open them, but can't remember Oz in particular. Most of the time I just go back and RE-read when I get that nudge. But I could always use a new adventure. Does anyone remember Dot&Tot well enough (!!) to know if they found a place where all the unwritten books were a la the area with all the piles of lost stuff. Something has been picking at the back of my brain that that might be there, but maybe just wishful thinking as a nice episode... That story is so much like a kid's dream itself it would fit! John N. White writes on 2/27 about his "Dram Dream" >...So in the end Dram realizes what she really wants is an Ozzy home like the one offered to her by the childless couple. Hmmm... That leaves a lot of blanks, but there may be an Oz book there. What do you think?> I personally think that's the basis of a very good Oz book! Go for it! Douglass Parker: Your 2/27 suggestion that your not finding Oz books were inadequacy dreams. I call those kinds frustration dreams, that you are in inner frustration about something else in your life, being stopped from doing this that or the other by factors in your life not necessarily in yourself. And that story (??) the Actor's Nightmare reminds me of a poem called something like "A Teacher's Friday Night Nightmare" which is bits and pieces of all the school poems the kids had to memorize and throw back at her jumbled together in a very comic way. My mother put it on an old wire recorder record we had as a kid. I don't remember the author, but enjoyed it. I know it had a bit of the "Wonderful One hoss Shay" in it and maybe Paul Revere's Ride and others. If anyone remembers the correct title and author (and in this erudite bunch someone will!), please tell me! Gordon Birrell I chortled at your description on 2/27 of the brown sugar witch melting to a puddle. Having just reread WWOZ for this digest I found it particularly vivid! Good work! I don't think Dorothy was old enough at that time to comprehend death or worry about what it was so her mopping up the mess made sense where if an adult did it, it would be really weird! On 2/28 Dave Hardenbrook quoted Ozma as saying: >Ozma: Just for the record, I am totally, utterly opposed to all slavery > in all forms! If my people are not all happy and free, *I'M* not > happy or free! Please give chapter and verse on this quote! I'd hate to think you were putting words in a fairy queen's mouth! ;-) I am finally up to date having read about 1 week's Ozzy Digest in one sitting! When I plunge into something, I plunge! Sorry for the monster= message! Serena DuBois ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 01 Mar 1997 19:01:07 -0600 (CST) From: Robin Olderman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-01-97 Poster preservation: I don't know, either, but I do know not to laminate them. I learned that when I was framing some stuff at a frame shop and overheard a poster collector "freak out" when a lady came in to have her 1939 GWTW poster laminated. Book finds: Lotsa stories, but I'll stick to just three of the odd ones. I believe some things are meant to be, like calling a Vancouver shop for the first time in several years only to have the clerk tell me they'd just gotten something in and were considering trying to find my number to tell me about it: it was a letter Baum had written to a little girl. Neat stationery and a Baum signature! Maybe the funniest find was right next to where we used to hold the Ozmopolitan Convention. I'd found out about a "secret stash" of Oz books that a dealer was bringing there the next morning. I told no one, got there early, and found one car at the dealer's. The car belonged to Irene Fisher, but the driver was my pal John VanCamp. He'd found out about the same "secret stash" and not only hadn't told *me* about it, but hadn't told Irene (another collector) why he needed to borrow her car. Neither of us was thrilled to see the other. (We ended up splitting the cache three ways with the person who'd told me about the stuff in the first place. I guess the best "find," however, was at a St. Louis Book Fair. I was hunting Oz and found Jim Haff instead. He got me into IWOC. Steve Teller keeps up with Fred Meyer more than I do. How's Fred, Steve? I wish Fred did have a computer. He would certainly enjoy this group. --Robin ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 01 Mar 1997 19:14:22 -0600 (CST) From: Robin Olderman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-01-97 Barbara: Baum and Denslow were, essentially, partners in WOZ. Del Rey started publishing the Oz books as a pet project of Lester Del Rey's wife. When she died, so did the project. As for the nightmare and heartaches aspect of WOZ, yes, that always bothered me as a kid. I didn't understand Baum's disclaimer at all, and it rather irritated me, since I thought the book was loaded with stuff that could make for nightmares.(Not for me, though!) Death in Oz? Essentially, no one knows for sure, so it's wide open for conjecture. ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 01 Mar 1997 20:15:31 -0500 (EST) From: CrNoble@aol.com Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-01-97 Eleanor: If Dorothy had commanded the silver shoes to take her back to Kansas, she could have been taken to the wrong part of the state. As for why Aunt Em and not Uncle Henry, I guess the odds were better that Em would be in or near the new house, whereas Henry could have been somewhere else on the farm. -- Craig Noble ======================================================================== Date: Sun, 02 Mar 1997 09:40:56 -0500 (EST) From: HermBieber@aol.com Subject: For Ozzy Digest Dave Hulan: You are correct in that there are fewer books, hence higher prices, in CA because people who migrated there left them in the east. The same is true for Florida and Arizona. I always hoped to intercept the old Oz books of seniors retiring to the sun belt. Sadly, one can't advertise in "Modern Maturity", the AARP magazine, because it does not accept personal ads. So I am fortunate to be living in the Northeast, the land of Oz plenty (comparatively speaking). But even here one has to devise special techniques for uncovering Oz treasures. Someday, when I truly retire, I will reveal my proprietary book finding secrets. Book Repair - II (BROKEN HINGES) book. The book is assembled from double sided stock, each contain two pages with four sides of print or B&W illustration. These are then folded into a gathering, typically 4, 8, 16 or 32 pages. The gatherings are then sewn onto a backing of a gauze/paper laminate. The pages are then trimed to be flush, as the inner folded sheet protrudes more than the outer folded sheet least in each gathering. The backing material may be saturated with adhesive so it all hangs together, but this adhesive is not apparent looking into the book from the opened pages. The cover is constructed by covering two pieces of cardboard with cloth,= with a gap between the two cardboards equivalent to the width of the spine. The cloth on the inside will not usually cover the whole cardboard because the endpapers will do so. The outside cloth may be printed upon, embossed, or covered with a pictorial paper label. The gauze in the page backing will extend about 1" on each side, and this is glued to the inside of each cardboard. Then the end papers are inserted. Each is a double page. The outside page is glued to the inside face of the cover cardboard. The inside page (or free endpaper) is glued to the first page of the first gathering. (Sometimes the first page of the first gathering is glued to the cover cardboard instead of using separate endpapers.) Note that the cloth spine may be reinforced with paper or thin cardboard, but it is NOT glued to the backing. To do so would result in a creased or puckered spine when the book is used. TO MAKE THE ABOVE CLEAR, TAKE AN OLD BOOK APART WITH A KNIFE, OR BY SOAKING IT IN WATER OVERNIGHT. Types of wear: With use, the first thing that goes is the paper inner hinge of the= endpaper. When this shows signs of cracking, the book is termed "hinges starting". Later the hinges part completely to expose the gauze underneath. When the gauze cracks or tears (more likely), the cover may part from the printed pages. If this happens on both sides, the book is termed "disbound." Finally, the cover cloth may crack or tear along the spine edges. If a= book has been disbound but the cloth is OK, then it can be repaired by lifting= the first inch of endpaper off the inside cardboards (with razor or exacto= knife) to remove the 1" strips of gauze glued therein. Be careful not to tear the endpaper. Now a new piece of gauze is glued to the books backing, again= with a 1" piece protruding on each side. Then, one side at a time, the gauze= flap is glued between the endpaper and the cardboard. This is called "recasing" the book. Press the book while it is drying, and make sure you don't get the cover on upside down. Again use wax paper to prevent the glue from wandering. Also take care that the cloth spine doesn't get glued to the backing. With practice, you can take one Oz book with fine internals and a lousy cover,= and another with a pristine cover and crayoned and cut inside pages and switch the parts so that only an expert can tell it has been done. In economic terms, this means $20 + $20 + 1/4 hour labor = $150. Its really not that much work, one just has to go something else productive during the drying times. If the cardboards are extensively damaged, as by creasing or the cloth being worn through at the edges and corners, then one can buy or make a new case= to fit the book, and glue the old spine onto the new spine, so that the long edges are hidden in the creases. The label can be transferred onto the new front cover (except that Oz labels are VERY HARD to soak off). This is called "rebacking", and a rebacked book is obviously worth a lot less than a recased book. A tight book will have a very small crack between each gethering, and the center of the gathering will show the threads. Looking at the spine end on will give a better idea of gathering size (which is a definitive first edition point in some late Oz titles). Often a well worn book, will have streched or loosened sewn threads so that a visible gap appears between the gatherings. Said gap usually does not go through the backing. Such a book is quite loose (termed "shaken"), and is often "tightened" by gluing the adjacent gatherings together for about 1/16" to 1/8" along the spine. Use a wax paper dam, as in inserting plates, to confine the glue to this small width. However the proper way to repair a loose book is to have it "resewn". But this is costly and only justified for expensive books. To resew, recase (or reback) and otherwise repair a book professionally can cost well over $100, mostly for labor. The final step is to fix the paper hinge, which often is the only repair required. Open the book flat on a table to expose the front hinge, assuming this is broken. Run a bit of glue along the edge of the cardboard and push the book together while keeping the rear cover and the edge of the front cover on the table. This has the effect of gluing the gauze onto the cardboard edge. (If the gauze flap is not torn, but has detached from the front cardboard and front endpaper, it must be first reglued between the cardboard and endpaper as in recasing). Let dry while keeping the sideways pressure on the open book, and downward pressure on the cover at the hinge. Laying a heavy book on the hinge is ideal, but be sure to use wax paper in between. Also use a creased wax paper on the outside crease between the front cover and the spine. .Otherwise glue may bleed through the cloth and glue the spine cloth onto the edge of the paper label. Then, when the look is later closed, it will tear the label. The torn paper hinge may be mostly attached to the cover, or mostly with the free endpaper, or a combination. Moisten the hinge paper with a little water, so it will stay away from the gauze. Then use a toothpick to coat= the side of the paper hinge facing the gauze with flexible drying glue. (Booksaver is made by the , but any similar flexible glue can be used. Ask your librarian ot a local book dealer what is available in your area.) Using toothpicks or a knitting needle, press the torn hinge against the gauze, first the inner hinge, then the outer hinge (the paper attached to= the cover). The torn edges should butt together or overlap slightly. Use a knitting needle to smooth the paper snug into the crease, and burnish the torn glued edges as the glue is drying. The final result should look very good, and if the tear was in the crease (e.g. all the paper was attached to the cover) it may even look like it had never been torn. (If some of the hinge paper is missing, find a piece of blank Reilly and Lee paper from a shot Oz book and cut to fit the "hole" in the hinge paper.) Let dry, all= the while keeping the book open. When dry carefully close the book, and then repair the back hinge if needed. The closing cover may be a bit stiff at first, but it will shortly break in. AGAIN, THE BEST WAY TO LEARN THE ABOVE IS TO PRACTICE ON A BOOK THAT YOU ARE PLANNING TO DISCARD ANYWAY. Herm Bieber ======================================================================== Date: Sun, 02 Mar 1997 15:03:14 -0500 (EST) From: Pfloydkix@aol.com Subject: Strange occurence To: DaveH47@delphi.com Hi, I have a question about the movie "Wizard of Oz". I don't know if this is true or not but I would really like to know. Ok here it is, in the movie when the wicked witch throws fire at the scarecrow the viewer is supposed to look in the background and see a man hanging himself. It was said a man did hang himself in the movie and that part was never edited out.= Rumor or not? If you have the answer please mail me at: Pfloydkix@aol.com ======================================================================== Date: Sun, 02 Mar 1997 17:25:52 -0500 (EST) From: dsparker@mail.utexas.edu (Douglass S. Parker) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-01-97 Wild Woozles, such as inhabit the Web, or rather the Net, nibbled away at my salutations in OD 3/01. The Eva Katherine (Clapp) Gibson note was to Ruth Berman; IPSO FACTO to Nathan DeHoff. Eleanor Kennedy: On your urging to reread THE ACTOR'S NIGHTMARE, I poked at my shelves yesterday, but couldn't uncover it. (How can everything I own be under something else?) I'll persist, muttering to myself about the dangers of putting down anything about which I'm not Absolutely Sure. Ruth Berman: I found the Pattrick "Books In Oz" piece. As systematic a presentation as the matter is likely to get. Thanks very much. One more thing about ZAUBERLINDA: The book's design is very evocative of WOZ, too: Colored printings beneath and around text, reluctance to let a page go by unillustrated, and even [anticipating ROAD], various colors of page stock. Was that standard practice in children's books at the turn of the century, or might one say that Baum & Denslow started it, and Gibson & her illustrator Mabel Tibbits, extended it? Gordon Birrell, the 2/21/96 1/2 remarks on The Dainty China Country: >What the Dainty China Country chapter demonstrates is that the just= exercise of >power involves not only appropriate force against dangerous aggressors but >also, and inevitably, a sense of responsibility to respect the rights of >those who are smaller, weaker, more fragile, and--yes--more brittle. Very perceptive and really helpful, though I don't suppose that it will squelch those who consider WOZ 19-22 irrelevant, as did MGM. [Why go to Glinda's? Bring her back by fast bubble.] But there may be other, extra-structural reasons for insisting on the China Country, as well as the other places: Fighting Trees, the Lion's spider-thing, the Hammerheads. [1] Here's the start of what delighted me most about the subsequent Oz-books, and, even though [or because] it became a sort of tic in Thompson: The creation of a series of largely ad hoc quasi-allegorical places, which might or might not have any thematic function in The Book As A Whole. "What will he/she come up with next?" Wild invention (well, not in WOZ, but later) of unusual spots, parodic or satiric places--this, for me, was the fundamental pleasure of Oz, I think; it was certainly what set me to making the huge Oz map that swallowed a good part of my 13th year. The plot was, I'm afraid, secondary; what I wanted was a series of realized weirdnesses. [2] It doesn't do much for the Populist-Oz theory, but it should be considered in connection with William R. Leach's Consumerist-Oz, first set forth in the essays bracketing his edition of WOZ in the American Society & Culture Series [Belmont CA: Wadsworth, 1991] and developed in his LAND OF DESIRE: MERCHANTS, POWER, AND THE RISE OF A NEW AMERICAN CULTURE [NYC: Pantheon/Random House, 1993]. Leach himself doesn't do much with it, about all he gives is a parenthesis, "...brown for the Dainty China Country (a land where all the 'little people' are made out of colorful china--Baum's homage to his years as a glass and crockery salesman)..." [LAND OF DESIRE p. 252]. Maybe it should be considered in terms of Baum's AMERICAN FAIRY TALES of 1901 [Dover repr. 1978], where department stores almost seem the locale of choice. [No china, I think, but there's a Glass *Dog* who anticipates Bungle, and the mannequin in "The Dummy That Lived" is certainly fragile, and deteriorates alarmingly.] Neither [1] nor [2] may operate very well in terms of structure; in fact, they keep dragging the reader outside the story...though the CC is certainly a useful foil to that REAL Wanamaker's or Field's or Macy's, the Emerald City. But that resonance/resemblance to an outside world [which might just be ours] is one of the glories of great children's literature. Or, as may be, of any great literature. Which is, I suppose, a hassle best avoided. Anyway, fine point. Doug Parker ======================================================================== ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 3 - 4, 1997 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] (Sorry there was not 3/3/97 Digest...You humble editor has had a bad cold... -- Dave) ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 02 Mar 1997 16:59:31 -0800 From: "Stephen J. Teller" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-01-97 > Incidentally, is the identity of the third preliminary judge known? Just > curious. > Yes, she is. I've known her for many years. > From: Barbara Belgrave > You mention, and I have heard others mention "Oz Christmas Cards of Fred > Meyers". What cards are these? Did I somehow get missed from the IWOC > Christmas Card List? Boo Hoo!!!! > How's Fred Meyer doing these days? I haven't heard anything of him in a > few months. Does he ever peek in to the Digest? > I hope to talk to him tonight. He doesn't peep in to the digest. > > Now on to the BCF before we go on to the next one and I'm not done with > this one. Here's my questions: > 1. Did Baum get to choose Denslow as an artist? They were both part of the Chicago artistic circle. Denslow had done some illustrations for BY THE CANDALABRA'S GLARE and illustrated FATHER GOOSE HIS BOOK. > 2. Why didn't Del Rey continue and do all 40 FF books in paperbacks? Judy-Lynn Del Rey dies. She was the moving force behind the project. > 3. If there is no death in Oz, what about the Tin Woodman's parents and > the wolves and the crows? This has been much discussed lately on the Digest. The question is, when did death cease to exist in Oz? > 4. Is anyone else confused when Baum says in the Intro that "the > heartaches and nightmares are left out of the fairy tale"? I think there is > plenty of heartache when Dorothy leaves Oz and if the killing of the wolves > and crows doesn't scare some kids into a nightmare I'd be suprized. > These episodes are quite mild compared to the violence in the Grimm Fairy Tales. For example. The the "Cinderella " story, one sister cuts off her heel and the other her toe to try to fit in the glass slipper (the birds tell the prince that there is blood on the track. Later the birds pluck out the eyes of the sisters as they go to and from the wedding. It takes a strong stomach to read "Rapunzel." Disney's versions are pablum. Doug Parker: Thank you for the Gibsen material. Maybe I'll try to find some of her earlier books. Steve T. ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 02 Mar 1997 19:37:47 -0500 (EST) From: JSTEADMAN@loki.berry.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-02-97 I'm replying to both the Digest of the 1st and the 2nd here, as excessive work (and the lack of availability of a networked computer that was open) prevented me from replying yesterday. Dave: For the very first time, I'm plagued with "=3D" and "=20" all over the DIgest of the first. I was quite happy the other way but realize no one's to blame. Eleanor: So I'm not the only one with corny jokes, I see. (I'm referring to your citation of "Baum's first pun"--the Scarecrow's husky-voiced line. John White: Does a HICC story have any relation to the stories I've read that were just full of air (HICCUP stories)? On to the Digest of the 2nd: David Hulan: Re "a prince who enters [the bookstore] is likely to exit a pauper. (But with a lot of neat books)": that's the power of literature--it can practically turn lead to gold Pdlouykix: Yikes! I never noticed any such effect (the suicidal man) in the movie myself, but if you hang on I'll go check . . . Douglass: Re the China Country episode: if you want to see another twist on "just use of power" (and taking place in the same spot), see my THE EMERALD RING OF OZ, available from Buckethead. Until next time, Jeremy Steadman ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 02 Mar 1997 19:41:30 -0600 (CST) From: Robin Olderman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-02-97 David: In 1955 Reilly & Lee decided to try to update the look of the Oz books. Their first attempt at a totally redrawn Oz was Dale Ulrey's _Tin Woodman_. She also reillustrated WOZ for R&L in 1956. The reillustration attempt was apparently not a financial success. Book repairs: Herm's instructions are terrific. As you may have noticed, I really didn't want to get into the subject since I've seen so very many botched attempts at repair. Please, heed his caveat and practice on a discardable book before attempting to repair an Oz book. Use plain old Elmer's glue for your practice attempts. Save the expensive stuff for the real thing. ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 02 Mar 1997 22:22:05 -0600 (CST) From: atty242@mail.utexas.edu (Atticus) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-02-97 DAVID HULAN: i don't think it's true that most 4th or 5th graders are around four feet tall. i vividly remember being measured as 5 feet or so in fifth grade, and i was (and still am) of average height. interesting to see nine inch nails mentioned here; it's kind of odd for me because i associate them with my darker mental side that oz can't exist within, with all those nights i found myself in dark nightclubs hearing trent reznor's unmistakable vocals...by the way, reznor did the soundtrack for the new david lynch movie _lost highway_, which i saw last night. it was so bizarre and disturbing...i think i really liked it. the soundtrack is good for all you wackos who subscribe. actually, there's some rather decent jazz pieces on it. take care, atticus * * * "Beautiful girls Just primp But beautiful boys Do suffer." ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 03 Mar 1997 01:31:29 -0500 (EST) From: HermBieber@aol.com Subject: For Ozzy Digest AOL strikes again, or is it in Dave's transmission. The first sentence of my hinge repair item dropped out and should have started as : "To understand hinge repair let me first review the construction of a typical book. The book is printed on double sided stock, each sheet comprising two pages with four sides of print or B&W illustration. These are then folded into a gathering, typically 4, 8, 16 or 32 pages..........etc." Also the recent digests have been printed in 3D (literally), and some of the numerals, like phone numbers, come over in cipher. Oh, well! Herm Bieber ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 02 Mar 1997 22:47:29 -0800 From: serenadb@sos.net (Serena DuBois) Subject: Ozzy Digest 3/2 Another enjoyable read! I was glad to get the second lesson in rebuilding a book from Herm Beiber. I intend to print it out and lay it aside for future reference. And Doug Parker when you said >Wild invention (well, not in WOZ, but later) of unusual spots, parodic or satiric >places--this, for me, was the fundamental pleasure of Oz, I think; it was certainly >what set me to making the huge Oz map that swallowed a good part of my 13th year. >The plot was, I'm afraid, secondary; what I wanted was a series of realized >weirdnesses. you really touched a nerve. I have a strong memory of one summer vacation from high school or perhaps even college making an enlarged version of the map in side front cover of "Who's Who in Oz" and then rereading all the Oz books and putting all the little countries that were found on trips in each book. That map hung over my bed for years after I finished it. I think what has been called "Irrelevant episodes" have always been one of my favorite joys in Oz books (particularly if they meant the discovery of a new and strange country or people who might or might not bear a part later on in the story) along with the infamous puns and other bad jokes. The thing about irrelevant episodes is that sometimes they start out seeming to be irrelevant but end up being germaine to someone's growth or learning if not to the plot at hand. And some times of course they are just fun! Lynn Beltz: Hope the Oogaboo party went well! I am looking forward to another opportunity to come to one! I want to thank David Hulan for FINALLY satisfying my curiosity as they why the Del Rey Reprints stopped so abruptly. We were buying them for my dad as they came out and then they were none. Sighh. I started to say I'm surprised they didn't have bigger sales, but then again maybe not. I remember stories my mother told when I was growing up. The local librarians hated the Oz books because the kids kept going back and rereading them and not reading anything else was the way it went. Serena DuBois ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 03 Mar 1997 01:37:47 -0500 (EST) From: DIXNAM@aol.com Subject: Ozzy Digest 3-2-97 David: The dreaded hexadecimals are with us yet again! Herm: Thanks for "Book Repair 2. , but it appears that part of the first paragraph was zapped. I'm off to sunny (hopefully) Orlando, Fla. for a week or so at Walt's World, so I'll have some major catching up to do. Keep the Digest rolling! Dick ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 03 Mar 1997 09:49:26 +0100 From: Bill Wright Subject: FW: oz comics Oz Digesters. Please follow up directly with Ralph if you want to comment on his comic book. Bill in Ozlo >---------- >From: Ozgrif@aol.com[SMTP:Ozgrif@aol.com] >Sent: 1. mars 1997 20:17 >To: piglet@halcyon.com >Subject: oz comics > >Hi, > My name is Ralph Griffith and I write a comic book called OZ for Calibur >Comics. I was wondering if any Oz fans have seen it? And is so what they >thought of it. I must admit it is quite a different take on the oz mythos but >we try to use many of > the original ideas with a few twists. I found your sight most impressive >and will be using it quite a bit as a source for ideas. Thanks for your time >and information. > ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 03 Mar 1997 10:30:12 -0500 (EST) From: jnw@vnet.net Subject: Oz Jeremy Steadman writes: > Well, now that we're on the subject of WIZARD, perhaps now's the time > to revive the debate (regarding the all-too-easy melting of the WWW). > Was it Baum's way of getting out of a tough situation without really > having to resolve things carefully? No, Dorothy just stumbled on the Witch's Achilles' heel. It's not as if Lurline showed up and melted the witch for Dorothy. Some of Baum's books do have that problem, though. DORWIZ and PATCHWORK GIRL both have the big problem solved by someone of overwhelming power stepping in and rendering all the efforts of the protagonists meaningless. E. City is similar in that the big problem is solved with no real effort on the part of the protagonists. The concept of an evil magic worker who has remained magically alive and who is susceptible to destruction by water is fairly common in fantasy role playing games. Such a being is usually called a "Lich", and its flesh usually rots off a bit leaving it with a skeletal appearance. These undead can be harmed by holy water, and after Lurline started the enchantment nearly all the water in Oz would be the equivalent of holy water, including the well water that Dorothy used. DavidXOE@aol.com writes: > And the Dread Hexadecimal Plague is back again! There seems to be a strong correlation between a digest being over 32k and people complaining about the "Hexadecimal Plague". I didn't see any hex stuff in the last digest so I don't think the problem is on the sending end. My suspicion is that a digest of more than 32k can cause some mail readers to go into a strange mode. > I think the first mention of deathlessness in Oz was in TIK-TOK. It was mentioned in E. CITY, too: "No disease of any sort was ever known among the Ozites, and so no one ever died unless he met with an accident that prevented him from living." > So how does one find a copy of that TIN WOODMAN illustrated by Dale Ulrey? Maybe Herm or Robin could help you. > Who published it, and when? I've never seen any Oz books that Neill > illustrated with illustrations by someone else. From the "Bibliographia OZiana" (1988): | ... in 1955 Reilly & Lee selected "The Tin Woodman of Oz" for an experiment | in modernization: a new, completely reset edition with illustrations by | Dale Ulrey was published. It was not successful, and plans for | re-illustrating the rest of the Baum Oz titles were abandoned after | only two Ulrey-illustrated Oz books were published (the other was | "The Wizard of Oz, 1956). In 1965, when the book was reprinted in the | uniform "white-cover" printings, the Neill illustrations and the original | typesetting were restored. My copy has a green cloth cover which (unlike the picture in the BIBLIOGRAPHIA) is printed only on the spine. Inside there is a page which says: THE TIN WOODMAN OF OZ... AN ORIGINAL OZ STORY BY L. FRANK BAUM ILLUSTRATIONS BY DALE ULREY ADAPTED FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY JOHN R. NEILL THE REILLY & LEE CO. CHICAGO All but the last line appears hand printed in various styles. The illustrations are similar in style to Neill, and most correspond to similar drawings in the Neill version. There are far fewer cutesy drawings in the pages before the story begins, though. As to how the illustrations compare, consider the illustration of the Woot-monkey escaping the jaguar by falling into the ground. In Neill's version the face of the jaguar is very expressive, but a real jaguar could probably not assume such an expression. In Ulrey's version the face is less expressive, but looks more like what a jaguar would actually look like. The re-illustrated WIZARD might be interesting, if the illustrations are redone in Neill's style, but I have never seen it. -- jnw@vnet.net (John N. White) ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 03 Mar 1997 10:59:23 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest Tyler Jones: In Dutch "van" and German "von" if the syllable becomes so much a part of the name as to be spelled in one word, it's usually capitalized, as in a Vandyke beard, but otherwise it's normally not capitalized -- except that in America families with such names often choose to capitalize the particle -- hence the Van Allen belt or Van de Graaff generator, but van der Waals forces (terms all in Webster's 9th New Collegiate Dictionary). Incidentally, the "van" and "von" mean "of" as in "lord of" and imply that the family claims to be of aristocratic birth. (The claim is not always factual, though.) With "ben," as Gili mentioned, the meaning is "son of"; the spelling, again, is what the person so named chooses. Jane Albright: William Lindsay Gresham wasn't an Oz Club member. I once asked Fred Meyer how the "Bugle" (Christmas 1960) came to publish Gresham's "Scarecrow to the Rescue" article, and he said that Gresham was a friend of Martin Gardner's, and it was Gardner who got the article for the Oz Club to print. You asked about the source of the statement that C.S. Lewis said he hadn't read any of the Oz books. That was the reprint (Autumn 1995) of Gresham's article: the editor put in a paragraph of background information, and mentioned that once when Gresham visited his sons in England, Martin Gardner asked him to ask Lewis if he'd read any of the Oz books. He did, and reported back that Lewis said he hadn't. Since it was in conversation, I suppose it's possible that Lewis might have read an Oz book or two and not remembered it clearly enough to recognize the name offhand, but Lewis was known for having such clear memories of everything he read that it doesn't seem likely. (And with such a brief question-and-answer, it seems likely that the Lewis-to-Gresham-to-Gardner-to-editor transmission is accurate in its account of what was said.) (And Nathan De Hoff wondered when the conversation would have taken place: looks as if it must have been sometime after December 1960 and before Lewis's death in 1963. I forgot to note down date of Gresham's death, but it was about the same time.) Barbara Belgrave: Yes, Baum chose Denslow as the artist for "Wizard of Oz." They'd already worked together on "Father Goose." // Del Rey didn't reprint entire Oz series because the sales figures weren't high enough to make it seem like a good idea. (If Judy Lynn Del Rey had lived a few years longer, she might have pushed for keeping it going.) // Death in Oz -- it really isn't until about the time of "Emerald City" that Baum decided there wasn't any death (or aging) there. There are various ways of trying to reconcile the inconsistencies that result. One possibility is to assume that the earlier references are in error. Another is to assume that there is no death by illness, but that death is possible (voluntary?) for someone living in intolerable pain (when torn in little bits, for example). // Heartache and nightmare -- aren't you thinking of the movie rather than the book in finding heartache in Dorothy's departure from Oz in "Wizard"? In the book, she seems only mildly regretful at leaving her new friends. Nightmare -- sensitive adults worry about the wolves and crows, but I doubt that any children do. I've known children to have nightmares over the witches and the Wizard as floating head (even those were perhaps more responses to the movie than to the book), but the general average of "scary" scenes is a good deal lower in the Oz books than in most of Grimm or Andersen. Doug Parker: Thanks for the additional information on Gibson. I'd imagine that Baum was partly influenced by her Gnome King in his use of gnomes and nomes, but there were a lot of Gnome Kings in 19th century operettas, notably in Wallace's "Lurline." My "Gnome Matters" Dunkiton pamphlet has more details about the development of gnomes. Ruth Berman ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 03 Mar 1997 13:27:38 -0500 (EST) From: RMorris306@aol.com Subject: Recent Ozzy Digests Hi! More Ozzy business... Barbara wrote: <> I doubt it, unless spirits can travel in time...since Disney was born in 1901, and Baum didn't die until 1919. <<1. Did Baum get to choose Denslow as an artist?>> Yes. They were friends and had previously collaborated on the successful FATHER GOOSE: HIS BOOK, so the book was written from the start on the assumption that he would be the artist. Baum and Denslow later quarrelled, but Baum always liked Denslow's art, preferring it to Neill's. <<2. Why didn't Del Rey continue and do all 40 FF books in paperbacks?>> The sales figures were low. And the death of the Del Rey editor who'd pushed the acquisition of the Thompson books (Judy-Lynn Benjamin, wife of imprint founder Lester Del Rey) left them with nobody to argue forcefully for their continuation. <<3. If there is no death in Oz, what about the Tin Woodman's parents and the wolves and the crows?>> This has been discussed in great detail; the amount of death in Oz seemed to gradually lessen, particularly after Ozma assumed the throne. (And it's never been established that it applies to animals, anyway...just to human beings.) <<4. Is anyone else confused when Baum says in the Intro that "the heartaches and nightmares are left out of the fairy tale"? I think there is plenty of heartache when Dorothy leaves Oz and if the killing of the wolves and crows doesn't scare some kids into a nightmare I'd be suprized.>> One never knows what will scare some kids, but on the whole I applaud Baum's intent of at least not trying to do so. Melody Grandy wrote: <> Unfortunately true, especially in the field of current comics (does anyone wonder why Eric Shanower left it?). I *would* draw a distinction, however, between killing a fictional character and killing a real person. I do think, however, that killing off other's people's characters is generally ill-advised and often mean-spirited. Max Collins, the writer of DICK TRACY at the time, justified his action for two reasons, one very flimsy and the other at least partially justifiable. He claimed that it had always seemed clear to him that Gould had been aiming for a romance between Junior and another regular character, Sparkle Plenty. Instead, Gould ultimately had Junior marry Moon Maid and Sparkle marry cartoonist Vera Alldid, and killing Moon Maid and divorcing Alldid was his way to restore what he saw as the proper state of affairs. (Which ignores the fact that it was Gould who had these marriages take place, and he was certainly entitled to do as he wished with his characters, or even change his mind about them. Many people who read Louisa May Alcott's LITTLE WOMEN thought Jo should have married Laurie; if Collins wrote a sequel to that book, would he have divorced Laurie from Jo's sister Amy, and killed off Jo's husband Professor Bhaer, in order to bring the two back together?) But Collins' other reason was that the strip, in Gould's final years, had ventured too far into the inappropriate realm of science fiction, and Moon Maid...who, as her name indicated, was a space alien from a colony established by her race on the Moon...was an unfortunate vestige of that, carrying the strip too far from its original concept of crimefighting featuring (relatively) realistic police heroes. To bring this back to an Ozzy context, it would be like a future Oz writer destroying the rather non-Ozzy Scalawagons in order to bring the country back toward what it traditionally has been, with travel being an adventure through unknown and fantastic lands rather than a short trip in a flying car. I wouldn't really want to destroy all the Scalawagons myself (they were thinking machines), but neither do I really want them in my Oz, FF or not. But there surely might be some way to get rid of them without destroying them...maybe there's an idea for a story there! Doug Parker wrote: <> Well, Uncle Henry's farm did have farmhands in OZMA, and Dorothy took a pet cat, rather than Toto, to Oz in DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD. But I'm not sure how much influence there was in either way, since children and adults very frequently, in fiction as well as fact, have pets, and dogs and cats have always been the most popular (though other animals sometimes follow trend; today there are a lot more pet gerbils, and a lot fewer pet monkeys, than 50 years ago). After all, even Lewis Carroll's Alice had a pet cat, Dinah, in ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND (who'd had kittens by the time of THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS). And I know this has been mentioned before, but I think the three farmhands in the MGM movie who become Dorothy's companions are traceable to the silent 1925 version of THE WIZARD OF OZ. In that film, a much older Dorothy (Dorothy Dwan) lives on a farm with her aunt, uncle and three farmhands: Larry Semon (who also produced and directed the film), Oliver Hardy (before he teamed up with Stan Laurel and stepped into comedy immortality), and G. Howe Black (whose horrendous name-pun was exceeded only by his even more horrendous stereotyping; he was a black actor in the Stepin Fetchit mode without any of Fetchit's comedic presence). These three became, respectively, the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion...not through a dream but through disguise (since *this* Oz had no real magic, but only its humbug Wizard). Very strange, but it evidently stuck in the MGM screenwriters' minds! Rich Morrissey ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 03 Mar 1997 12:04:28 -0700 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz All: The success of the Star Wars release has spurred interest in a rash of other classic releases. _The Wizard of Oz_ may be released in 2002 or a little later. --Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 03 Mar 1997 16:00:27 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@cord.iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-01-97 Barbara-- Fred is recovering at his sister's house and I have been corresponding with him for some time about my project with obscure Oz films. Del Rey stopped with the Oz books when Judy-Lynn Del Rey died. --Scott ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 03 Mar 1997 15:36:59 -0800 From: Bob Spark Subject: Oz (Compuserve members) I just came across this and knew that it had been a subject for discussion earlier: SEEING DOUBLE CompuServe has developed a new mail system that allows for personal, non-numeric addresses. Unfortunately, taking advantage of them takes some adjusting. In NavCIS 1.76, if you want to send e-mail to a CIS personal address, you will need to enter the personal address twice in the To: field. Bob Spark ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 03 Mar 1997 16:49:53 -0500 From: Richard Bauman Subject: Threeday's Oz Growls Scott - Just a friendly question. Isn't it possible for you to combine your dozen messages into a single message? You are taking up a rather inordinate amount of space with your repeated addresses. Dave - Please note it is David who broke your rule. :) Eleanor - I also bought one of those Sandman books that was supposed to be the greatest thing since Carl Barks. It was titled: "The Sandman - Season of Mists." I'm sorry, the art was "OK" but the story line was pathetic. Maybe someone could give me a better example of Gaiman's work. About Dorothy wanting Em. This seems really obvious. Haven't you ever heard a small child who is upset wailing, "I want my mommy!" Smaller children are usually more closely bonded to mommy. Although Em is not mommy, she is the surrogate as far as Dorothy is concerned. Once more with Bear's Used Book Theory - The used book stores in the East I have searched have been full of ragged junk. Really used. People must read alot back there. Hey, the weather is so bad, what else can they do besides hang out in the house. :) I don't think people move to the West without their favorite books. However, when they get here they see the sun shining and decide to go out and do it. The heck with books. So they sell them. As a result, the used book stores out here are filled with excellent books of all genres. I don't know where you got the idea that we are short on books? There are always going to be bookstores that think they have gold when it is only silver or brass. If they do this long enough, displaying books, rather than selling them, they go out of business and someone who is less greedy buys their stock and moves it. Prices in my area are quite reasonable and there are at least a dozen good stores that I hit from time to time. I love it! So, bad weather folks, keep on truckin those books out here. Bookishly, Bear (:<) ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 03 Mar 1997 16:03:55 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@cord.iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-01-97 Doug Parker: Hey! You're not the one who was the Wizard in that goofy Tinmanator anime, were you? ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 04 Mar 97 23:58:28 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things "HEXED" DIGESTS: Does anyone besides John see a correlation between long (over 32k) Digests and getting hex codes in the Digest? If so, then I think this is further evidence that my cheesy "free" version of Eudora doesn't like messages over 32k, in which case I may have to start dividing large Digests into two parts (Whee! Funtime for your Digest editor!) GRAPHIC NOVELS AND KILLINGS OFF: Rich M. wrote: > Unfortunately true, especially in the field of current comics (does anyone >wonder why Eric Shanower left it?). Might comic editors, insistant on "dark" fantasy, explain the somber mood (vindictive Zurline and all) of the Shanower graphic novels? >Many people who read Louisa May Alcott's LITTLE >WOMEN thought Jo should have married Laurie; if Collins wrote a sequel to >that book, would he have divorced Laurie from Jo's sister Amy, and killed off >Jo's husband Professor Bhaer, in order to bring the two back together?) Speaking as an Alcott fan, she clearly had good reason for marrying everyone as she did, and Jo says as much when Laurie proposes to her...Laurie needs a social life with high society...Something which Amy loves and Jo despises. On the other hand, Jo and the Professor have a mutual compatibity with wanting a quiet, modest existance running an idyllic school! BEWARE THE WRATH THAT IS TO COME :) : (The following comments are from Jellia Jamb who asked me to insert them... -- Dave) Ozgrif@aol.com wrote: > My name is Ralph Griffith and I write a comic book called OZ for Calibur >Comics. I was wondering if any Oz fans have seen it? Oooo...*Have* we ever! :) >And [also] what they thought of it. Hang on...I think I'm gonna have to fetch the mop... :) >I must admit it is quite a different take on the oz mythos but >we try to use many of the original ideas with a few twists. Pretzels anyone? :) >I found your sight most impressive >and will be using it quite a bit as a source for ideas. You can't make *me* into an evil nightmarish monster...My union is very clear on that point! :) >Thanks for your time and information. And thanks to Dave for allowing a modest maid like me to post here...He says he's going to start letting us Emerald City folks post more regularly to the Digest...(YAY!) ( And Dave asked me to remind everyone that Mr Griffith is not a member of the Digest so please reply to him privately, although I'm dying to hear what you all have to say myself! :) ) ====================================================================== ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 5, 1997 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 04 Mar 1997 10:09:50 -0800 From: "Stephen J. Teller" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-04-97 > (Sorry there was not 3/3/97 Digest...You humble editor > has had a bad cold... -- Dave) You made up for it by sending the 3-4 digest three times. > > From: Barbara Belgrave > > > You mention, and I have heard others mention "Oz Christmas Cards of Fred > > Meyers". What cards are these? Did I somehow get missed from the IWOC > > Christmas Card List? Boo Hoo!!!! Fred said they go to the entire IWOC membership mailing list, but sometimes there are glitches (Eric Shanower didn't get one!) A letter to him will get you a late card. However, past cards are probably not available. > > > How's Fred Meyer doing these days? I haven't heard anything of him in a > > few months. He seems to be about the same. He does plan to attend the Ozmapolitan Convention this year. If discussion of THE [MARVELOUS] LAND OF OZ is beginning, an opening shot: Baum only decided to write a second Oz book after the success of the musical WIZARD OF OZ, his greatest financial success. He planned the second book to be stage adapted (the result, THE WOGGLE-BUG, was a flop). This esplains the army of Girls and the many excurciating puns. Stage audiences adored them. Do other traces of staginess show up in this book? Neill's illustrations for LAND are much stiffer than in later books. The Griffin Monbi is magnificent, however. Steve T. ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 04 Mar 1997 14:01:03 -0500 (EST) From: Mark K DeJohn <103330.323@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-04-97 From: Barbara DeJohn Hello everyone !!! I know that we are kind of past this topic but I also had dreams of finding Oz books. This was when I was missing alot of RPT books. I haven't had this dream for a while so maybe it's because I now have sources for new Oz books. Dick - I'm sure you will be back from Disney by the time we get there. We are leaving on March 17th. I am sooooo excited !!! Dave - I received three copies of today's Digest. Are you still interested in having me research the t-shirt and buttons? Do you need my address again? Barbara DeJohn 103330.323@compuserve.com ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 04 Mar 1997 20:38:32 -0500 From: Richard Bauman Subject: TODAYS OZ GROWLS HOPEFULLY Prof Steve - I'd hate to be your child. You would probably expect me to eat prime rib before I had teeth. So maybe you can consider Disney's stories "pablum." A lot of Grimm's tales were written when they had public executions too. Thank goodness that Disney does produce some gentler and kinder fare. Don't we have enough blood, gore, depravity, cruelty, etc. in current media to satisfy your tastes? There is sure more than is healthy for today's youth. Tyler - What I saw was an article indicating that the next big Star Wars-type epic was going to be Lord of the Rings. Not a crummy animated version either. What a disappointment that was. I'll bet Robin is ready to go down and help them get going on it. It is still in the talking stage. The owner of the movie rights is Saul Zaentz, who produced The English Patient. The article I read mentioned that over 25 million copies of the trilogy have been sold. In any event I don't get the release of WOZ. It is released. Please explain. Dave - On Compuserve, when your Digest is "large" which I think is over 30K, it arrives as a notice and has to be "retrieved." This process is actually faster than simply downloading a long message, required about a second per 1K. I have made no correlation between the "hex" and length. FWIW. Regards, Bear (:<) ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 04 Mar 1997 19:05:29 -0700 (MST) From: estelle@usa.net (Estelle E. Klein) Subject: Oz Jeopardy As a joke, in response to the final Jeopardy topic this evening- which was Literature- Rebecca and I yelled out, of course, "WOZ"- before we even saw the answer... well, as some of you may have seen, here was the answer... "The book published in 1900 whose 8th chapter is entitled, The Deadly Poppy Field." Mild hysteria rang from my family room... ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 04 Mar 1997 21:09:08 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Something seems to be going on here. The Hexidecimal curse came back for a short time, posts are disappearing, mails bomb in mid-send, and many web pages cannot be accessed. Does anybody have any facts/rumors, etc? Nathan: MY Ozzy Proejcts are going on at a super-slow rate. Whenever I can, I work on them, and someday some of them may actually get publised. My paper "The Seven Ages of Oz" needs a lot of work, given the amount of discussion and new information revealed on the Ozzy digest, but I'm trying... :-) Web Page: CompuServe seems to be slow lately. Hopefully, this problem will resolve itself, and people will be able to access my newly-done web page soon: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/tylerjones If I did not mention it before, I noted that Jinnicky owns slaves, and his Ozzy associates do not seem to mind very much. February: The Ozzy Digest for Feb. 97 has been fully archived. Jeremy: I'm glad you finally got through to my we page! It looks like the Nomes are no longer messing around with CompuServe. If you mean that Baum took the easy way out in the situation with the WWW by having her killed, you may be right. Certainly, it would have required extra work on the part of Dorothy and crew to either convert her into a friend or to render her powerless, although their quest the whole time was to kill her, and not to take her broomstick, as so many MGM-fans believe. Even that may not explain it all, as her death was accidental, and I doubt very much that Dorothy could have cold-bloodedly plotted her murder. Perhaps this was a convenient way out: The witch was out of the picture and nobody had to deliberately do anything cruel. Eleanor: family. Prior to her permanent move to Oz, she mentioned several times that the only reason she wants to leave Oz is to go back to Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, meaning that "home is where the heart is". As for her mention of Aunt Em only, I would imagine that her aunt and uncle have taken the place of her parents, physically and emotionally, and people (especially at that age) tend to think of their mother first when they are lost and want to go home. Nit-Picking: California has ALMOST, but not quite, the combined population of Texas and New York, although the gap between 1 and 2 is far greater than any other gap if you list the states by population. Barbara: I can answer only one of your questions. Del Rey discontinued the FF since sales were disappointing. This is unfortunate, of course, since I naturally believe that the Oz books are far superior to all current children's literature. However, parents usually choose the books their kids read, and maybe Oz wasn't good enough for them. Age: My great-grandfather walks a little stiffly, but he's less than a year away from 101, so he's allowed, although most would consider that age old :-) Death in Oz: I believe that there is ample evidence that death occured prior to Ozma's ascension to the throne and even after, in very special cases. Slavery: How do we know that Ozma is opposed to slavery? Her agents forced Krewl to change his name to Grewl and to become a gardener, presumably for the rest of eternity. Depending on your sensitivities, you can imprison someone, fine them, exile them, or even execute them, but this sounds a little like slavery to me. Also, the gypsies in _Ojo_ were transformed into farmers, and it seems to me that there were other cases in and out of the FF in which people (mainly former villains) were forced into some sort of service forever. Craig: That is a good observation. On some occasions, people have wished themselves to be in Oz, and then wound up in some less-than-perfect part of Oz. In Ryan Gannaway's new book, our heroine realizes this and wishes herself to the Emerald City. Jeremy: On the contrary, HICC books are often very well written stories, they just don't jibe with the FF. Of course, some people will say nasty things about them that aren't true, but they are good nonetheless. Death in Oz: One theory is that deathlessness was a slow process, beginning with Lurline's enchantment and culminating with Ozma ascending the throne. _Emerald City_ is the first of the FF to take place mostly in Oz after Ozma began her rule. Using Michael Patrick Hearn's theory of the enchantment having full effect only after Ozma's rule combined with my MOPPeT of Ozma's enchantment messing up the schedule combined with Aaron's MOPPeT about magical hotspots such that the enchantment may have taken effect faster in some areas and slower in others, and you have ample explanation of seeming inconsistencies. Of course, the implication is that people can still be destoryed if the magic is powerful enough. --Tyler Jones ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 04 Mar 1997 22:31:07 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: The End of the Scalawagons of Oz? 1) Rich, I've always presumed that something happened which got rid of the scalawagons (I really hate that term; think about what it means) between the periods of Royal Historianship of Neill and Snow, mostly because they never show up again (except in Laumer's work) and also because I didn't like the idea of a sentient vehicle which was manufactured as a slave in the first place and didn't think such a thing belonged in any version of Oz. If you care for a nonoffensive hypothesis of what happened to them, I suggest that after talking to pets, who in Oz choose their own human companions, the scalawagons decided that they were getting a lousy deal and petitioned Ozma for their freedom. Not wanting to have to listen to Prof. Wogglebug, the standing prosecutor of Oz, recite yet another high-faluting and lengthy speech, especially as the Tin Woodman refused to act as defender again in court, she granted their wish and gave them an uninhabited island in the southern Nonestic. There the scalawagons promptly set up an agrarian society and had a bumper crop of gasoline and motor oil the following spring. 2) Tyler, I'd much prefer if they remade _The Wizard of Oz_ from scratch, this time making something faithful to the book, than if they rereleased the original. Imagine what they could do with a computer-animated Scarecrow and Tin Woodman! Come to think of it, they'd probably have to animate the Cowardly Lion to unless they could teach a real lion to act... Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 05 Mar 1997 07:01:15 -0800 (PST) From: earlabbe@juno.com (Earl C. Abbe) Subject: Ozzy Digest Submission In the 3/2 Digest DavidXOE asks, I found my copy in a second hand book store. The spine says "Reilly & Lee" but the book carries no dating other than the 1918 dates of the original. The illustrations by Dale Ulrey "adapted form original drawings by John R. Neill" are clean and nice, but not up to the originals. Polychrome is depicted as a lithe, attractive young woman. Please excuse me while I drool for a moment. ;-) This from the 3/1 "USA Today" Life section, in the article on the success of the Star Wars movies reissue: ... "Executives at various studios say they also are looking at possible reissues of _The Wizard of Oz_, _Funny Girl_, _The Way We Were_, _Casablanca_, _Dr. Zhivago_ and the first three _Superman_ movies. ... "After _2001_, Reardon says, _The Wizard of Oz_ will follow, though again it's too early to say in what form." ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 05 Mar 1997 08:33:01 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest Warren H. Baldwin: I don't think the "Vicomte de Bragelonne" quotation you found, referring to "the roar of a hungry tiger or an impatient lion," is really likely to have influenced Baum. It might be different if you found a pattern of many parallels between Baum or Dumas, or biographical evidence to indicate that Baum was a devoted Dumas fan, but just by itself the parallel is not a particularly close one. Tigers are proverbially hungry, and "impatient" in this sense is not likely to have anything to do with "anxious" ("inquiet," "agite," "plein d'inquietude" I won't try for accent markings) much less with "cowardly" ("poltron," "lache," "craintive"). I can't see that an English translator would be at all likely to hit on "impatient" for anything in that range. English "impatient" means almost exactly the same as French "impatient," and in this context I'd assume that it is the precise term and means "impatient to be fed," i.e., as hungry as the tiger. (Then, too, Baum didn't initially think of the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger as a pair the Lion showed up in "Wizard," and the Tiger not until "Ozma," the third book.) Herm Bieber and Robin Olderman: Thanks for the information on bookhealing= . Dave Hardenbrook: Hope you're over your cold, or on the way. Rich Morrissey: I think it's slightly incorrect to describe JudyLynn Benjamin as merely the wife of Lester Del Rey, and Lester as the imprint founder of Del Rey books. They were both the founders of the imprint, and she (as a longtime Ballantine Books editor) was perhaps somewhat more the founder of the imprint than he (until then primarily known as a writer) was. Ruth Berman ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 05 Mar 1997 17:35:57 +0100 From: Bill Wright Subject: oz digest Barbara: Your question in the 1 MAR Digest: >You talked sometime back about a .fif file. Can we download a fif viewer >from the address you gave us and do you have the Oz pics to view with it? That is a .gif and .jpg file, the two basic types on the internet today. If you have a web browser and go to my website, you will find Oz illustrations on many of the pages. Your web browser automatically displays them so you don't need a special viewer or other software. Hope this helps. (BTW ----- they display much better in Netscape than Microsoft IE. For some reason I have yet to delve into, MS does funny things to the colors, appearing not to use all of the color table that down loads with each image.) Bill in Ozlo ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 05 Mar 1997 12:51:00 -0800 (PST) From: "Koupal, Nancy" Subject: Oz Digest item Ruth Berman and Doug Parker--Thank you so much for the information about Eva Katherine Gibson--it has resparked my interest in her. I apologize for not responding earlier, but I am working long hours just now and not able to read my email for long stretches of time. What few sources I can locate indicate that Clapp is Gibson's maiden name--she married a Dr. C. B. Gibson in 1892. In addition to the books you list from the National Union Catalogue, she also wrote Songs of Red Rose Land, Patriotic Song, and Famous Lovers. But I had never seen the subtitle to a Woman's Triumph listed before, so that gives me hope that it will produce some clues about her western experiences, if any. I have asked the library here to interlibrary loan that title. If I discover anything interesting, I'll let you know. Thanks also for the tip about Bowling Green. When my workload settles down, I will try to follow up on that. Cordially, Nancy Tystad Koupal ======================================================================== Date: Wed, 05 Mar 97 13:39:16 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things Earl wrote: >Polychrome is depicted as a lithe, attractive young woman. >Please excuse me while I drool for a moment. ;-) I'm always glad to see that there are other Oz fans who aren't ashamed of their "drooling"! :) :) :) -- Dave ======================================================================== ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 6, 1997 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 05 Mar 1997 19:22:02 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-05-97 Richard: Re "the next big Star Wars-type epic" being Lord of the Rings--I'd like to see them get around to doing another Oz-based epic someday! One that rectified the errors Return to Oz created. (Unfortunately for Chris, Ms. Balk--I can't spell her first name--will be too old for the part . . .) By the way, I'm curious as to what you mean by "Today's Oz growls hopefully". I'm not at all keen on Oz starting to growl . . . Tyler: I think that the WWW is sending the hexidecimal plague from her grave. After all, she could send wolves and crows and bees and Monkeys after Dorothy and company--what makes us so sure that just because Dorothy melted her, she can't send hexidecimals too? Okay, perhaps we'd have a little consistency problem--after all, we've not seen hide nor hair of her since WIZARD--but still . . . By the way, I tried your page again today and was unsuccessful. Whatever that implies. Okay, now what are HICC books? I realize we all have our hiccups and downs, but I'd really like to know. Ruth B.: What's with the smiley faces? I think my computer translated some of your hyphens/dashes in an odd way--it didn't happen with anyone else's posting. Still, Oz well that ends well . . . --Jeremy Steadman jsteadman@loki.berry.edu ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 05 Mar 1997 20:21:42 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Bear: I meant that it was going to be re-released on the big screen, as apparantly are many other classic movies. I don't see "E.T." doing as well as "Star Wars", however. Estelle: Did any of the contestants correctly guess the response to the Ozzy answer? Aaron: Don't tease me. I have been praying for a movie/cartoon based more closely on the book for most of my life. There was some attempt at that a while back, but it appears to have fizzled. --Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 05 Mar 1997 20:31:57 -0500 From: Richard Bauman Subject: Today's Oz Growls Aaron >this time making something faithful to the book.... Is that what Tyler meant? Aaron, the day ANY movie is made that is "faithful" to the book is the day all the screen writers will jump off a bridge, hand-in hand. I know the arguments about written and visual media. Hmmmm. Well, let's be fair. Can anyone think of examples that were seriously "faithful" to the book? No fair slipping in something that was a movie first, like "Willow." Regards, Bear (:<) ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 05 Mar 1997 20:59:42 -0500 From: "Melody G. Keller" <104270.2374@compuserve.com> Subject: Ozzy Digest, 03-04-97 Rich: The science fiction element in "Tracy" did seem out of place--still I hated seeing Moonmaid violently killed. You're right--the death of a fictional character is not the same as a real one (and I had a really nice supervisor who was also murdered by a bomb rigged to explode in her van! I was furious that anyone could do a thing like that.). Still, one wonders if people who like to see innocent fictional characters die are equally bloodthirsty when it comes to innocent real people. And your comparison of getting rid of Amy and Dr. Baer in "Little Woman" so Jo and Laurie could get back together was excellent. As a child, I wanted Jo to marry Laurie, too. Only when I saw the latest remake of "Little Women" did I understand Jo's choice--Laurie did not understand how much her writing meant to her ("If you marry me, you won't have to write unless you want to), and Bhaer did. I hated to see Amy get Laurie, 'cause she's the one who burned Jo's stories. Melody Grandy ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 05 Mar 1997 21:00:58 -0500 From: "Melody G. Keller" <104270.2374@compuserve.com> Subject: Ozzy Digest, 03-04-97 >> 4. Is anyone else confused when Baum says in the Intro that "the > heartaches and nightmares are left out of the fairy tale"? I think there is > plenty of heartache when Dorothy leaves Oz and if the killing of the wolves > and crows doesn't scare some kids into a nightmare I'd be suprized< Stephen Teller is right. Also, in the Lang fairy books of different colors, I don't remember a single animal story that wasn't violent in the extreme. The animal characters eat each other, burn each other, and are really, really treacherous. Innocent characters are often on the receiving end of the mayhem. Baum is tame compared to the ancient predecessors featured by Lang. Melody Grandy ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 06 Mar 1997 00:36:11 -0500 (EST) From: HermBieber@aol.com Subject: For Ozzy Digest Book Repair - III A GLUEING SHORT CUT Glue takes time to dry, and you shouldn't rush things. But if you are really in a hurry you can accelerate the drying in a microwave on the low setting. But this is tricky. If you use too much power or leave it on too long, the whole book will cook. It will first brown, then char, and finally catch fire. Use small time increments and feel the book. Don't let it get too hot to hold. CORNERS Corners of book receive a lot of stress, and eventually get flexed enough so that the underlying cardboard delaminates. Then the corners become soft and may show a permanent bend. Such books are termed "bumped" in the trade. To fix this, slice the cloth along the center of the cardboard edge on both sides of the bumped portion. Peel the cloth back to reveal a triangle of cardboard. You can flex this portion to reveal the individual delaminated "leaves" of cardboard. With a toothpick, put some flexible glue between each loose leaf and also on the outside of the cardboard. Replace the cloth, and squeeze the "sandwich" with the fingers. Wipe off some of the excess glue that squeezes out. Carefully wrap the cloth around the cardboard edge so that the cut edges butt together. There should be enough glue left on the outside to hold these cut edges. Wrap a piece of wax paper tightly around the glued corner to make sort of a triangular pocket. This will also serve to hold the cloth edges in place while the glue is drying. Place a 2" square of Masonite or stiff plastic on each side of the corner and hold in place with a clamp under moderate pressure. The idea here is to have the glued up corner the same thickness as the adjacent whole cardboard. When dry, the corner will be as sharp as a new book. On many well-used books, the cloth will have worn through at the corner so there is no need to razor blade it. Follow the same proceedure. By pulling on the cloth, it should be possible to cover most or all of the cardboard except maybe along the edges. The finished product may look a little rounded at the corners because of abrasion of the cardboard, but the corner will be stiff again, and further delamination into the cover will have been halted. If you are a purist, you can build up the rounded corner to be square with thin fragments of cardboard or paper mache, and use bits or threads of matching cloth to replace any cloth missing at the edges. (get these materials from an Oz breaker; in fact, if you are ever throwing out an Oz book that is beyond hope, save the boards and spine, the end papers [if any], any blank pages, the first and last printed pages, and, of course, any plates. These are the parts most likely to be needed to restore "reading copies", and most useful for other repairs.) SPINES a) spine end wear Spines also get bumped and worn, especially at the top and bottom edges. In making the spine, the cloth is generally folded over to make a smooth, and also stiffer, edge. (This folded over portion is termed "F" below.) Sizing is also used to make the cloth more sturdy. Sort of like a cuff on a starched shirt. There may also be flexible paper glued to the inside of the spine to stiffen it. The idea is to keep the spine flexible, yet not so weak that it will pucker, bulge or crack when the book is opened and shut. book about 170o. This will move the gatherings (backing) away from the spine. Slip a narrow rectangle of wax paper between the spine and the gatherings. This rectangle should obviously be as wide as the spine and somewhat longer than the book. You can now operate on the spine without fear of gluing it to the backing. Cut a one inch strip of matching cloth to be as wide as the spine. Fold it in half. If the fold isn't sharp, iron it. If the spine end cloth is not worn through all the way across, cut it across the top with a small scissors, and also cut away the old inner flap (F) by cutting down along the hinge. (Be careful not to cut the outside spine cloth along the hinge.) Glue the cloth strip (new "F") to the spine cloth making sure the folded edge is even with the top of the book. to avoid pucker, slip a curved thin ruler or a curved strip of plastic between the wax paper and the spine to serve as a temporary backing while pressing things together. This shim should match the natural curve of the spine cloth as much as possible. This new "F" must also be draped over any stiffening paper, if present. (If the paper was removed with the old "F", then it can be built up again by gluing new paper to the old futher down inside the spine. Use knitting needles or a curved spatula to manipulate. Finally, glue the 1/2 " edges of "F" to the old cloth & cardboard in the hinges. Again a knitting needle is useful. Finally, after all is dry, turn the book over and do the other side. This is all not as complicated as it sounds. Again, the best way to learn is to first try it on a book that isn't an heirloom. b) Spine outer hinge repair Spine cloth torn or worn along the hinges is repaired by cutting a 1/4" wide rectangle of gauze (from a book repair firm) that is as long as the crack. Using wax paper backing, glue the cloth stub attached to the cover cardboard onto the gauze. If there is no stub, e.g. if the tear is flush with the cardboard edge, use an Exacto knife to lift 1/8" of the cover cloth off the cardboard, and glue the gauze between the cloth and the cardboard. The idea is to have a flexible gauze stub to which the spine cloth can be glued. After the stub is dry, glue the spine cloth onto the gauze, making sure to butt it against the opposing cloth so that the gauze doesn't show in the crack. Use a curved shim between the spine and the backing to maintain the right curvature in the spine, and also wax paper so the spine does not adhere to the backing. Often the finished repair looks lighter along the crack because of thread wear in the cloth. In this case touch it up with the appropriate permanent ink. CLOTH TEARS This is usually a problem with the back panel. Some little monsters are taken to slashing covers with knives, and cats can do a good claw sharpening job on your Handy Mandy. Using an Exacto knife or razor blade, cut under the rear fixed end paper about 1/2" on all three side where it overlaps the cloth, or as far as the cloth overlap extends under the end paper. Cut the cloth on a straight line 1/8" away from the edge of the cardboard on the spine side, also extending the cut around into the inside cloth overlap. Then carefully peel the rear panel cloth away from the cardboard. Use a razor if the cardboard sticks substantially to the cloth and begins to tear. Also remove the rear cloth from a matching Oz breaker that has a sound rear panel. However in this case make the spine cut inside the hinge crease, close to the spine. Spread glue onto the rear cardboard panel being repaired, but not on the 1/8" cloth stub along the hinge. Carefully position the "new" cloth, making sure to align the overlap creases properly. Let dry thoroughly under pressure so things don't warp. Then glue the three overlap edges onto the inner cardboard side and let dry under pressure. Put wax paper between the overlap and the loosened endpaper during this step. Finally glue down the loosened endpaper edges onto the new cloth. Place a full page size piece of wax paper over the margins so the opposing (free) endpaper won't stick to the repair. Close the book and put a substantial weight on the book while it is drying. The last step is to put glue under the small cloth flap on the hinge side. Work this into the crease with a knitting needle or small dowel. With a little care, the cloth hinge will look normal, and the cloth edge is hidden in the crease. END PAPER REPAIR a) Free endpapers Free endpapers are either loose or missing. Loose endpapers are tipped in the same as plates. Missing endpapers must be replaced with the like from another book. When cutting out endpapers, cut close to the front cover cardboard, so you have enough page material to form the new paper hinge, and also to hide the edge in the hinge crease. If you inherit an endpaper that is too narrow, you can still use it to build a hinge, but the endpaper will be short on the outer side, a problem that doesn't look too offensive. A more elegant technique is to use a half inch wide strip of Reilly & Lee paper from the blank margin of an Oz page and glue this to the fixed endpaper as in hinge repair. use wax paper under the stub left over after making the hinge, so any errant glue doesn't stick it to the wrong place. Let dry. Then put glue onto the open face of the stub and overlap the too narrow endpaper onto the stub, keeping the free side of the endpaper flush with the other pages. Keep the wax paper underneath the stub, and place a second creased wax paper over the stub and endpaper. Close the book carefully and let dry under pressure. b) Fixed endpaper. The is rarely missing, but it may be crayoned, stained, or otherwise disfigured. It is almost impossible to remove a glued in endpaper in one piece, so use a free endpaper from another book for repairs. Note that the rear free endpaper is the same as the front fixed endpaper and vice versa. The easiest method is simply to trim the new endpaper on the torn or cut side, and then glue it over the old endpaper. If the thickness offends you, you can first sand off the old endpaper. Do not try to soak it off, as the dyes in many R&L covers can run. PAPER LABEL REPAIR a) Scratches Scratches readily penetrate the ultrathin colored image leaving white lines. These can be filled in with indelible ink pens of the appropriate color. Some earlier books such as Emerald City and Dorothy and the Wizard had labels with a thick transparent plastic over the image. This solt plastic scuffs easily and, even if the image is not scratched, the label's appearance can be quite distressing. This can be fixed by placing the book flat on an old newspaper, label up, and using a carpenter's level, carefully level the book with paper shims. Then use masking tape to protect the cloth edges and the page edges undeneath. Do NOT get the masking tape on the label; it will not release and tear the label when you later try to remove it. Use a clear polyurethane spray can, like Krylon, and spray the cover label until it is just wet. The idea here is to use the minumum, but it has to be wet so the paint runs into the low (scuffed) regions. When thoroughly dry, run a blade lightly around the mask edges (do not cut into the cloth!), and carefully peel off the tape. This is not as easy as it sounds; again, PRACTICE before you spray your Dorothy first state. b) Total Labelotomy It is extraordinarily difficult to soak a label off one book to transfer it to another. Not only may the cloth color run, but the glue used was superb. The only intact labels I've seen came off from books that had been stored in very high humidity for years. Maybe the bacteria ate the glue! The best source of labels are the book jackets of later printings. You can cut these to size (you even get two cover labels per jacket!). Then either glue them over the old label or sand it off first. That usually suffices, but purists may note that the original labels had more "shine" than the dj images. That can be remedied by LIGHTLY spraying with Krylon as above. (But don't be carried away with this knowledge. A dealer once tried to sell me a 2nd edition Hidden Valley with a gorgeous cover label. He didn't realize that the 2nd edition never had a paper label!) PAGE REPLACEMENT The best course is to find an Oz discard and transfer the missing or damaged page as in tipping in a plate. Unfortunately all editions do not have the same size page, and the page you are tipping in may be too small. Larger pages can, of course be trimmed. The other method is to Xerox the image onto drawing paper, which has texture close to Reilly and Lee paper. Then cut to size and tip in. The page will be too white, compared to the aged paper in the book, but if you just want to fix a book to sell as a reading copy, that's probably good enough. For a better look, you must "age" the replacement page to match the browning of the adjacent pages. This can be done in a 250oF. oven or a microwave set on medium. You will need to make several copies, and then "heat soak" them for various times to achieve the closest color match. If you are a real master of Xerox positioning, you can xerox onto a blank page from an old Oz book, In this case, the paper color may well match the aged look of the rest of the pages. -------- The methods above are all labor intensive, and many are not feasible for use by dealers trying to make a living (except for a few high-end books). Rather it is a labor of love for one's own collection, or just for personal satisfaction. I have several times been asked to restore well loved childhood Oz books. The owner could have bought fine copies for less, but she had a sentimental attachment to those books. ====================================================================== Da