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Ruth Plumly Thompson
Ruth Plumly Thompson (27 July 1891 – 6 April 1976) was an American writer of children's stories, best known for writing many novels placed in Oz, the fictional land of L. Frank Baum's classic children's novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' and its sequels. Life and work An avid reader of Baum's books and a lifelong children's writer, Thompson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While in high school she sold her first fairy tale to '' St. Nicholas Magazine'' to which she continued contributing, along with ''The Smart Set''. In 1914 she took a job with the Philadelphia ''Public Ledger'', writing a weekly children's column for the newspaper. She had already published her first children's book, ''The Perhappsy Chaps'', and her second, ''The Princess of Cozytown'', was pending publication when William Lee, vice president of Baum's publisher Reilly & Lee, solicited Thompson to continue the Oz series. (Rumors among fans that Thompson was Baum's niece were untrue.) Between ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since 1854, the city has been coextensive with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the Delaware Valley, the nation's seventh-largest and one of world's largest metropolitan regions, with 6.245 million residents . The city's population at the 2020 census was 1,603,797, and over 56 million people live within of Philadelphia. Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by William Penn, an English Quaker. The city served as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony during the British colonial era and went on to play a historic and vital role as the central meeting place for the nation's founding fathers whose plans and actions in Philadelphia ultimately inspired the American Revolution and the nation's inde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David McKay Publications
David McKay Publications (also known as David McKay Company) was an American book publisher which also published some of the first comic books, including the long-running titles ''Ace Comics'', ''King Comics'', and '' Magic Comics''; as well as collections of such popular comic strips as '' Blondie'', ''Dick Tracy'', and ''Mandrake the Magician''.Patrick Scott Belk, "King Features Syndicate" in ''Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas'', edited by M. Keith Booker.Santa Barbara, California : Greenwood, 2014. (p.217-219). McKay was also the publisher of the Fodor's travel guides. History David McKay was born in Dysart, Scotland, on June 24, 1860. At the age of 11, he came to the United States with his parents. At the age of 13, he began working for J. B. Lippincott & Co., learning the bookselling trade. By the age of 21, he was placed in charge of the miscellaneous catalog of books by publisher Rees Welsh. One year later, upon hearing McKay had been offer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Pumpkinhead Of Oz
''Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz'' (1929) is the twenty-third of the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and continued by other writers; it is the ninth Oz book written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. It was Illustrated by John R. Neill. Synopsis A rainy day in Philadelphia means no baseball; Peter Brown, the child protagonist introduced by Thompson in ''The Gnome King of Oz'', mopes in his attic. He finds the sacks that were full of gold when he brought them back from his previous Oz adventure; and one of those sacks contains an odd gold coin. Toying with the coin and thinking of Oz, he wishes himself back in the magic land — and suddenly finds himself there, in the front yard of Jack Pumpkinhead. The sensible thing for Peter to do is to head for the Emerald City; and Jack is ready to act as his guide. They lose their way in the Quadling Country, where they blunder into Chimneyville and Scare City. By chance, Peter finds that his empty sack will fly from his hand and consume obj ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Giant Horse Of Oz
''The Giant Horse of Oz'' (1928) is the twenty-second in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the eighth written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. It was Illustrated by John R. Neill. Plot The tiny kingdom of the Ozure Isles, perched on five islands in Lake Orizon, surrounded by high mountains in a remote region of Munchkin Land, has little contact with the outside world—of Oz. The evil witch Mombi has turned her malice in the Ozure direction. After kidnapping Queen Orin, Mombi has left a fire-breathing lake monster named Quiberon in Lake Orizon to keep the natives prisoner. Even after Mombi was vanquished, Quiberon remains. Conditions grow worse when Quiberon orders the Ozurites to kidnap a mortal maiden to keep him company. Since Oz is a fairyland, the only mortal maidens are three American girls living in the Emerald City: Dorothy Gale, Betsy Bobbin, and Tiny Trot. Two Ozurites respond to the crisis in two separate ways. The heroic Prince Philad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Gnome King Of Oz
''The Gnome King of Oz'' ( 1927) is the twenty-first in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the seventh by Ruth Plumly Thompson. Like nineteen of the twenty previous books, it was illustrated by John R. Neill. Plot Patch is the country of the Quilties, a land of seamstresses and quiltmakers; it lies in the Quadling quadrant of Oz. Its people have a serious problem. Their queen, Cross Patch the Sixth, has gone to pieces—literally; small pieces too. To find her successor, the land's Chief Scrapper and Prime Piercer unwind the Spool of Succession, and follow where the golden thread leads. It leads, in this instance, to the Emerald City, where it selects Scraps, the Patchwork Girl of Oz (first introduced in her eponymously titled novel, the seventh Oz book by L. Frank Baum) to be the new queen. The two Quilties, used to resistance from Queens-to-be (it's not that good a job), kidnap Scraps. Meanwhile, Peter Brown, a boy from Philadelphia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Hungry Tiger Of Oz
''The Hungry Tiger of Oz'' (1926) is the twentieth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the sixth written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. It was illustrated by John R. Neill. Plot summary Thompson begins with a usurping tyrant, Irasha the Rough, the Pasha of Rash, a tiny kingdom in the southwest of Ev. The Pasha has a problem: his prison is too full to cram any more Rashers in. His Vizier's solution is to obtain a ferocious animal from nearby Oz to devour the luckless prisoners. Travelling to the Emerald City by his magical "hurry cane", the Vizier lures the Hungry Tiger (first seen in ''Ozma of Oz'') to Rash. As might be expected from his history, however, the Hungry Tiger is too tenderhearted to eat prisoners. Meanwhile, through an unfortunate series of events involving a winding road and a pair of Quick Sandals, Betsy Bobbin (introduced in ''Tik-Tok of Oz'') and her new acquaintance, Carter Green, the Vegetable Man, end up in Rash, and no soone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Lost King Of Oz
''The Lost King of Oz'' (1925) is the nineteenth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the fifth written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. It was Illustrated by John R. Neill. The book went into the public domain on January 1, 2021. Thompson's approach As she sometimes does in her books, Thompson exploits a detail in Baum's work to generate her story. Baum mentions Pastoria, Ozma's father and former ruler of Oz, only briefly in the twentieth chapter of ''The Marvelous Land of Oz'' (1904); Thompson spins Baum's hint into a full tale of Pastoria's exile and rescue. Thompson dedicated ''The Lost King of Oz'' to her invalid mother. She suggested to her publishers that the dedication be made in the form of a crossword puzzle — but Reilly & Lee rejected the idea. Plot summary Old Mombi, formerly the Wicked Witch of the North, is now a cook in the land of Kimbaloo. One day she comes across Pajuka, the former prime minister of Oz, transformed by Mombi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grampa In Oz
''Grampa in Oz'' (1924) is the eighteenth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the fourth written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. Plot Things are going from bad to worse in the dilapidated kingdom of Ragbad; even the rag crop is failing. To top it all off (or not), King Fumbo's head is blown away in a ferocious storm (with "ten thousand pounds of thunder"). Prince Tatters of Ragbad, and Grampa, a former soldier and the bravest man in the kingdom (population 27), set out on a three-fold quest: for King Fumbo's lost head, a fortune to save the bankrupt kingdom, and a princess for Tatters to marry. They are joined by Bill, an iron weathercock A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ... from Chicago, who was brought to life by an electrical storm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Cowardly Lion Of Oz
''The Cowardly Lion of Oz'' ( 1923) is the seventeenth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the third written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. It was illustrated by John R. Neill. Plot The story opens with Mustafa of Mudge, a turbaned desert monarch with blue whiskers, who collects lions. Mustafa demands one more lion — he already has nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine and a half lions, but there are no more lions in Mudge, and Mudgers are forbidden by Ozma, on penalty of death, to travel beyond the desert borders of Mudge. However, when Notta Bit More, a clown from the circus in Stumptown (somewhere in the humdrum backblocks of the United States of America), and a serious-minded orphan boy called Bobbie Downs (but renamed as Bob Up, by the cheerful Notta) drop into Mudge together, this seems to Mustafa to be his chance to send a non-Mudge person out to bring the famous Cowardly Lion to be the ten thousandth lion in Mudge. Using a magic rin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kabumpo In Oz
''Kabumpo in Oz'' (1922) is the sixteenth Oz book, and the second written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. It was the first Oz book fully credited to her. (Her first, ''The Royal Book of Oz'', was credited to L. Frank Baum on the cover.) Plot summary During Prince Pompadore of Pumperdink's eighteenth birthday celebration, his birthday cake explodes, revealing a magic scroll, a magic mirror, and a doorknob. The scroll warns the prince that if he doesn't wed a "proper princess" within seven days, his entire kingdom will disappear. The prince, along with the kingdom's wise elephant Kabumpo, set off on an adventure to the Emerald City so Pompa can marry Princess Ozma, the only "proper princess" the Elegant Elephant can think of as worthy of his prince. Meanwhile, Ruggedo the Gnome King (Thompson "corrected" Baum's spelling of "Nome") finds Glegg's Box of Mixed Magic while tunnelling under the Emerald City The Emerald City (sometimes called the City of Emeralds) is the capital city of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Royal Book Of Oz
''The Royal Book of Oz'' (1921) is the fifteenth in the series of Oz books, and the first to be written after L. Frank Baum's death. Although Baum was credited as the author, it was written entirely by Ruth Plumly Thompson. Beginning in the 1980s, some editions have correctly credited Thompson, although the cover of the 2001 edition by Dover Publications credits only Baum. The original introduction claimed that the book was based on notes by Baum, but this has been disproven. Supposedly based on Baum's surviving notes, known as "An Oz Book" are known from four typewritten pages found at his publisher's, but their authenticity as Baum's work has been disputed. Even if genuine, they bear no resemblance to Thompson's book. Plot summary The Scarecrow is upset when Professor Woggle-bug tells him that he has no family, so he goes back to the corn-field where Dorothy Gale found him to trace his "roots." When he fails to return, Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion set out to search for hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Enchanted Island Of Oz
''The Enchanted Island of Oz'' is a children's novel written by Ruth Plumly Thompson and illustrated by Dick Martin, and first published in 1976. As its title indicates, the book is an entry in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors. It is the last (and shortest) of Thompson's 21 novels about the Land of Oz.The International Wizard of Oz Club published ''The Cheerful Citizens of Oz'', a short collection of Thompson's Oz poetry, in 1992. Written as a standalone novel, unrelated to Oz, around 1948, Thompson revised it as an Oz tale at the request of Oz Club president Fred Meyer. Thompson's book tells the story of David Perry, a boy from Pennsylvania who, on a visit to a circus, wishes that a camel could talk. He is amazed when his wish is granted. (Only later does David learn that he possesses a magic wishing button, which enables and empowers the action of the story.) David nicknames the talking camel Humpty Bumpty; together the boy and camel embark on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
