The Shaggy Man of Oz
Author | Jack Snow |
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Illustrator | Frank Kramer |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Series | The Oz Books |
Genre | Fantasy |
Publisher | Reilly & Lee |
Publication date | 1949 |
Media type | print (hardcover) |
Preceded by | The Magical Mimics in Oz |
Followed by | The Hidden Valley of Oz |
The Shaggy Man of Oz (1949) is the thirty-eighth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the second and last by Jack Snow.[1] It was illustrated by Frank G. Kramer. The book entered the public domain in the United States when its copyright was not renewed as required.[2]
In The Shaggy Man of Oz as in his previous book, The Magical Mimics in Oz (1946), Snow returned to the Oz books of Baum for his inspiration and his conceptual framework. He avoided all use of characters and plot elements introduced in the Oz books of Ruth Plumly Thompson and John R. Neill, his predecessors in the post of "Royal Historian of Oz."
Plot
Abbadiah and Zebbidiah Jones are twins from Buffalo, New York; they prefer to go by their nicknames, Twink and Tom. The twins enjoy watching cowboy serials on the family TV set, customized by their scientist father with its own wall-sized projection screen. While the twins are watching the TV one afternoon, the normal picture changes into a strangely beautiful scene with a castle in the background. They are confronted by a living toy clown, a duplicate of the familiar toy they have named Twoffle. This living version, who calls himself Twiffle, persuades them to walk into the screen before them; the two children find themselves magically transported into the scene.[3]
Twiffle explains that he is a third cousin of the twins' toy, Twoffle; the two have had long conversations about Twink and Tom while the children have slept. Twiffle serves a sorcerer named Conjo;
Meanwhile, a problem has arisen in the Emerald City in Oz; the love magnet (introduced by Baum in his fifth Oz book, The Road to Oz) had been hanging above the city's entrance gate, but has now fallen from its nail and broken in two. Princess Ozma consults with the Shaggy Man, who first brought the talisman to Oz; they determine that the magnet can be repaired only by the magician who created it — none other than Conjo. In the Magic Picture, they watch Twink and Tom approach Conjo's castle with Twiffle. Surprised at the presence of two human children, Ozma decides to send Shaggy there immediately to investigate. Ozma equips Shaggy with a magic compass that will return him to Oz whenever he chooses. (Ozma herself will be unavailable, sequestered with Glinda the Good as they work on deep magics.)
Ozma transports Shaggy with her
They reach a sky country called Hightown, and the Airmobile is inadvertently lost, stranding them. They learn they can leave Hightown merely by swimming and walking down through the air, since gravity does not function in the place's vicinity. They next find their way to the Valley of Romance, where they stumble into a nightmare of incompetent amateur theater. Shaggy and Twink are bewitched into serving as cast members in an inept stage play. Tom and Twoffle manage to free them and break the spell of the place, by showing the love magnet to the Valley's king, queen, and assembled lords and ladies. (In Snow's narrative, the magnet has to be displayed to have its effect.)
Traveling again, the four encounter the King of the Fairy Beavers.
Development
Shaggy Man and John Dough
For his first Oz book, Snow had relied heavily upon Baum's
Modernizing
Though Snow relied on Baum's forty-year-old book for inspiration, he also faced a need to update the Oz enterprise. His first Oz book, launched in the post–World War II world, had not been a commercial success; "Oz books appeared oddly old fashioned and less compelling in an era of rocket engines and atomic bombs."[7] The second book stands in marked contrast to the first in terms of its trappings of modernity. The child protagonists are a contemporary American boy and girl; their father, Professor Jones, teaches physics at a university. The professor owns an early-model television set, and moreover has modified it with a large projection screen of his own design.[8] Conjo the magician has an aircraft — which flies not merely by "magic" but by anti-gravity plates. The episode in Hightown provides further consideration of gravity.[9]
Reception
In the judgement of one critic, Snow's Shaggy Man of Oz "is more credible plotted and developed than Neill's books, but it is deficient in Ozian exuberance and humor."[10]
Legacy
Eric Shanower borrows Twink and Tom, and refers to Snow's book, in his short story "Abby."[11]
References
- ISBN 978-1-47210-988-0. Retrieved 10 February 2024.
- ^ US Copyright Office. http://www.copyright.gov/
- ^ Jack Snow, Who's Who in Oz, Chicago, Reilly & Lee, 1954; New York, Peter Bedrick Books, 1988; pp. 217, 222-3.
- ^ Who's Who in Oz, p. 44.
- ^ Who's Who in Oz, p. 121.
- ^ David L. Greene and Dick Martin, The Oz Scrapbook, New York, Random House, 1977; p. 79.
- International Wizard of Oz Club, 1900; Afterword, p. 250.
- ^ The Shaggy Man of Oz, Chapter 1.
- ^ The Shaggy Man of Oz, Chapters 6-8.
- ^ Katharine M. Rogers, L. Frank Baum, Creator of Oz: A Biography, Cambridge, MA, Da Capo Press, 2003; p. 251.
- ^ Eric Shanower, "Abby," Oz-story Magazine, No. 2 (1996), pp. 37-65.
External links
- The Shaggy Man of Oz: Empty-Grave Retrofit Edition
- Shaggy Man of Oz public domain audiobook at LibriVox
- On The Shaggy Man of Oz
- The Shaggy Man of Oz title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
The Oz books | ||
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Previous book: The Magical Mimics in Oz |
The Shaggy Man of Oz 1949 |
Next book: The Hidden Valley of Oz |