1911-1919: Other Ventures, and Back to Oz

1911

• June 3 – L. Frank Baum files for bankruptcy, largely due to his debts from the Fairylogue and Radio-Plays. A September contract lists his assets as his clothing, a worn typewriter, and a reference book. More than 1,000 letters arrive from concerned children when Baum’s financial predicament becomes publicly known. Some offer to sell his books to their friends; others promise to buy anything he writes.
• Oct. – Baum’s short story “The Tramp and The Baby” is published in Ladies World.
• Dec. – Baum’s short story “Bessie’s Fairy Tale” is published in Ladies World.
• Dec. 26 – Baum writes a poem, “Santa Claus Was Good to Me,” which he sends to the Gage family in Aberdeen, S.D.
• Baum’s new children’s fantasy, The Sea Fairies, is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, with illustrations by Neill. With this title Baum attempts to launch a new fantasy series that he hopes will replace Oz. In its first year 12,401 copies are sold, and the demand for more Oz books doesn’t decrease.
• Baum’s novel for teenagers, The Daring Twins, is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, with illustrations by P.W. Batchelder.
• Baum’s next novel for girls, The Flying Girl, is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, using the pseudonym Edith Van Dyne, with illustrations by Joseph Pierre Nuyttens.
• Baum returns to his girl’s series with Aunt Jane’s Nieces and Uncle John. It is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, using the pseudonym Edith Van Dyne and with a frontispiece by Emile A. Nelson.
• Baum’s The Boy Fortune Hunters in the South Seas is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, using the pseudonym Floyd Akers.
• Baum’s The Twinkle Tales is reissued as a single volume called Twinkle and Chubbins. The book is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, using the pseudonym Laura Bancroft. Wright’s illustrations are retained.
• Baum’s Policeman Bluejay is reissued as Babes in Birdland by publisher Reilly & Britton, Chicago, using the pseudonym Laura Bancroft. A 1917 reprint will be the first version to credit Baum as the author.
• In The Christmas Stocking series (1905-1906), The Story of Peter Rabbit, with illustrations by John R. Neill, replaces Animal A.B.C. – A Child’s Visit to the Zoo.
• Baum buys a new car – a Hudson.
• Frances (Doolittle) Denslow, W. W. Denslow’s third wife, files for divorce, charging him with “desertion due to drunkenness.” He makes no defense, and the divorce is granted. She eventually marries a man with the last name of Foster.
• Denslow mortgages his private island to his friend Paul Tietjens.

1912

• Baum’s Sky Island is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, with illustrations by John R. Neill. This sequel to The Sea Fairies does not satisfy the young readers, who demand more Oz books.
• Baum’s sequel to The Daring Twins, Phoebe Daring: A Story of Young Folks, is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, with illustrations by Joseph Pierre Nuyttens.
• Baum’s The Flying Girl and Her Chum, a sequel to The Flying Girl, is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, with illustrations by Joseph Pierre Nuyttens. A third title, The Flying Girl’s Brave Adventure, is proposed but never pursued due to poor sales of the series.
• Baum’s Aunt Jane’s Nieces on Vacation is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, with a frontispiece by Emile A. Nelson. In it, Baum satirizes an incident from his Aberdeen days when he was challenged to a duel over a typesetting error. Sales of the Aunt Jane’s Nieces series are uniformly profitable.
• L. Frank Baum’s Juvenile Speaker is reissued by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, with the title Baum’s Own Book for Children.
• Nov. 11 – Frank Reilly writes Baum asking that he omit a chapter titled “The Garden of Meats” from his current Oz manuscript, The Patchwork Girl of Oz. He considers the chapter frightening and inconsistent with the Oz series, but adds that the book is one of Baum’s best efforts.
• Dec. – Baum’s short story “Aunt Phroney’s Boy” appears in St. Nicholas. This is a rewritten version of his earlier story “Aunt Hulda’s Good Time.”

1913

• Mar. 31 – The Tik-Tok Man of Oz stage play opens at the Majestic Theater in Los Angeles. This is the produced version of an earlier Baum script, Ozma of Oz (1909). Its musical numbers generate a popular series of song sheets published by Jerome H. Remick & Co., New York/Detroit, and by John Franklin Music Co., New York. Piano rolls and a record of one song, “Ask the Flowers to Tell You” (released by Victor), also become available. The cast includes James Morton (Tik-Tok), Lenora Novasio (Betsy), Fred Woodward (Hank the Mule), Frank Moore (Shaggy Man), Josie Intropedi (Queen Ann Soforth), Vera Doria (Ozma), Dolly Castles (Polychrome), and Charles Ruggles (Private Files). Producer Oliver Morosco (known for Peg O’ My Heart and, later, Abie’s Irish Rose) closes the show while it is still profitable. Music is written by Louis F. Gottschalk. A book of song selections and 14 pieces of sheet music are published by Jerome H. Remick & Co.
• April 1 – The Los Angeles Times’ favorable review of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz states, “It is seldom that a musical comedy is presented with eight changes of scenery of beautiful effects and of such great complexity.”
• June 25 –The Patchwork Girl of Oz is granted copyright; Baum has returned to writing Oz books.
• July 1 – Baum’s The Patchwork Girl of Oz is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, with illustrations by John R. Neill. It is promoted with character cutouts of the Patchwork Girl and a doglike creature called the Woozy.
• Nov. 16 – A Patchwork Girl of Oz musical scenario featuring music by Louis Gottschalk is prepared, although it is never published or produced.
• Frank Reilly becomes president of Reilly & Britton. William F. Lee, a bible salesman from the A. J. Holman Co., joins the firm.
• Baum’s Aunt Jane’s Nieces on the Ranch is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, using the pseudonym Edith Van Dyne. The frontispiece is by an anonymous artist.
• Baum’s Little Wizard Stories are published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, as six small books with illustrations by John R. Neill. The titles are Jack Pumpkinhead and the Sawhorse, Ozma and the Little Wizard, The Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger, The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, and Tiktok and the Nome King. (In this instance, Tik-Tok is spelled as one word).
• Denslow moves to New York and struggles to support himself. He does some work for the Rosenbaum Studios and, with engraver Alcan Moss, forms the Denslow Company on Fifth Avenue. Unsuccessful and drinking heavily, he pawns possessions, including his rare book collection.
• Illustrator W. W. Denslow’s only son, W. W. Denslow III, dies at age 30, leaving a wife, Annalia Delemmo, and daughter Anna Maria (later the wife of Dr. Charles Sesso).

1914

• Jan. 9 – A new Baum grandson, Frank Alden Baum, is born to Frank Joslyn and Helen Louise (Snow) Baum in Los Angeles.
• Feb. 14 – Baum’s son, Robert Stanton, marries Edna Ducker. The two have been friends since meeting in Macatawa in 1901.
• The Oz Film Manufacturing Company is formed in Los Angeles. Baum is president, and Louis F. Gottschalk is vice president. The venture is supported by Will Rogers, George Arliss, Hal Roach, Harold Lloyd, and Darryl Zanuck. They establish a studio on a seven-acre lot opposite the Universal Film Company. Frank Baum Jr. serves for a time as general manager. Other employees include Clarence H. Rundel, secretary; Harry F. Haldeman, treasurer; James A. Crosby, camera man; and J. Farrell MacDonald, film director.
• May 19 – Denslow rewrites his will, leaving his estate to a friend, Dorothy Federlein, in Buffalo, N.Y.
• June 19 – Baum’s Tik-Tok of Oz is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, with illustrations by John R. Neill. The story is based on his 1913 musical.
• June 23 – Baum’s son Kenneth Gage Baum marries Dorothy Hilda Duce at Ozcot, the family’s California home.
• July – The Oz Film Manufacturing Company begins filming its first production, The Patchwork Girl of Oz, using elements of a proposed Patchwork Girl of Oz musical (1913) that was never produced. The film is noted for special effects, such as a scene using stop-action animation in which the pieces of the Patchwork Girl appear to assemble themselves. Pierre Couderc, a 17-year-old French acrobat, plays the title role. Fred Woodward is a mule and the Woozy. Hal Roach and Charles Ruggles have minor roles. J. Farrell MacDonald directs.
• July 24 – Baum’s Little Wizard Stories of Oz are published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, in a single volume with their original illustrations by John R. Neill.
• Aug. 6 – The Oz Film Manufacturing Company shows its five-reel feature film version of The Patchwork Girl of Oz at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
• Aug. 14 – The Motion Pictures Patents Co. files suit against five small film production companies, including Oz. They allege that no one but the patent holder can use Edison’s patented equipment. The suit is settled out of court.
• Aug. 30 – Ruth Plumly Thompson begins writing the children’s page for the Philadelphia Public Ledger. She receives 500 letters from children in response to the new page, which she will continue to write until April 25, 1921.
• Sept. 28 – Paramount distributes the Oz Film Manufacturing Company’s production of The Patchwork Girl of Oz.
• Oct. 5 – The Oz Film Manufacturing Company premieres its next feature film, His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz. The show is attended by 3,500 people. The five-reel film has a cast of 130 and costs $23,500 to produce. Materials designed to promote the Oz films include posters, heralds, slides, and still photos. The Motion Picture News of Oct. 24 also reports small Woozy toys.The cast includes Violet MacMillan (Dorothy), Frank Moore (Scarecrow), Pierre Couderc (Tin Woodman), Fred Woodward (Cowardly Lion and other animals), Raymond Russell (King Krewl), Arthur Smollet (Googly-Goo), J. Charles Hayden (Wizard of Oz), Todd Wright (Pon), Vivian Reed (Princess Gloria), Mai Wells (Mombi), and Mildred Harris (Button Bright). J. Farrell MacDonald directs.Vivian Reed also appears as Ozma in the company’s credits. Mildred Harris is the same actress who later marries Charlie Chaplin.
• Oct. 5 – Baum copyrights the description and 328 prints from the film version of The Patchwork Girl of Oz under his own name.
• Dec. 7 – The Oz Film Manufacturing Company’s new feature, The Last Egyptian, is released by the Alliance Film Company. The story is based on the anonymously written Baum novel of the same name (1908). It stars J. Farrell MacDonald as Kara and Vivian Reed as Aneth Consinor.
• The Los Angeles Athletic Club holds a “big 49ers outing,” featuring a production of Somewhere by the Sea in which Baum plays a gambler. He also writes lyrics for songs to be sung by the “Whooping Cough Quartet.” Circa 1914.
• The Oz Film Manufacturing Company completes production of its final five-reel feature, The Magic Cloak. The story is based on Baum’s Queen Zixi of Ix (1905). Violet MacMillan is King Bud of Noland and Mildred Harris has the role of Princess Fluff. Other characters are played by Vivian Reed (Quavo the minstrel) and Fred Woodward (Nickodemus the Mule). Soon, the company sells the studio to the Universal Film Company.
• Baum’s Aunt Jane’s Nieces Out West is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, using the pseudonym Edith Van Dyne. The frontispiece is provided by James McCracken. The plot describes the rise of the motion picture industry.
• The Uplifters forms; Baum was an Excelsior (member of the board of governors) of this men’s organization in California. He makes up similar titles for the other officers, including Grand Muscle (president) and Elevator (vice president). Will Rogers and George Arliss are members.

1915

• Jan. 14 – Baum writes the book and lyrics for the first Uplifters outing. Stagecraft, the Adventures of a Strictly Moral Man is performed in Santa Barbara, Calif. Music is written by Louis F. Gottschalk.
• Feb. 13 – The Alliance Film Corporation releases His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz using the title The New Wizard of Oz. Moving Picture World advertises the new Oz film on this date.
• Denslow illustrates a full-color cover for Life magazine and sells three illustrations to a children’s magazine, John Martin’s Book.
• Mar. 29 – William Wallace Denslow dies in the Knickerbocker Hospital in New York City. He had developed pneumonia after drinking for two days – his celebration of a $250 check from Life magazine. Denslow is buried in an unmarked grave in Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, N.Y.
• April 1 – The Oz Film Manufacturing Company reopens with the name Dramatic Features Co., under the management of Frank Jr. They produce The Gray Nun of Belgium, a film written by Baum about the war in Europe. Catherine Countiss has the title role, and Betty Pierce is Mother Superior. Francis Powers directs.
• During editing of The Gray Nun of Belgium, a one-reeler, Pies and Poetry, is filmed.
• June 10 – The Oz-Toy Book is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago. Without Baum’s knowledge, it promotes Oz with Neill illustrations to cut out.
• July 15 – Life magazine publishes the cover illustration Denslow completed just prior to his death.
• July 16 – The Scarecrow of Oz is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, with illustrations by John R. Neill. Baum’s introduction mentions that Oz Reading Societies are popular with children. Promotional material for the book includes distribution of Scarecrow cutouts and buttons.
• Aug. 10 – In a letter to his editor Baum describes a book he is writing, Father Goose’s Party, as “practically complete.” It is never published, and no manuscript survives.
• Sept. 10 – The Oz Film Co.’s short subject The Country Circus is released by Universal. The story is based on one of Baum’s American Fairy Tales.
• Sept. 29 – Baum’s new grandson, Robert Allison Baum, is born to Robert Stanton and Edna Drucker Baum in Joliet, Ill.
• Oct. 22 – The Oz Film Co.’s short subject The Magic Bon-Bons is released by Universal. The story is based on one of Baum’s American Fairy Tales. Like its predecessor, The Country Circus, this film was released under the umbrella title Violet’s Dreams. Four of the one-reel films were shot; only two were released while the Oz Film Manufacturing Company was in business.
• Oct. 23 – Baum’s play The Uplift of Lucifer, or Raising Hell is featured at the second Uplifters outing in Santa Barbara, Calif. The book and lyrics are written by Baum, with music by Louis F. Gottschalk. Dave Hartford stages the production.
• Dec. 10 – Eloise Jarvis McGraw is born in Houston, Texas. As an author, she will co-write Merry Go Round in Oz (1963) with her daughter, Lauren Lynn McGraw Wagner.
• Elsie G. Barrows is granted a divorce from John R. Neill.
• Baum’s Aunt Jane’s Nieces in the Red Cross is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, using the pseudonym Edith Van Dyne. The frontispiece is by Norman P. Hall.
• The Oz Film Company’s feature The Magic Cloak of Oz is released in Great Britain as two separate films, each being two reels long. They are titled The Witch Queen and The Magic Cloak.
• An article by Baum urges Hollywood residents to support local merchants. Titled “Our Hollywood,” it survives only as an unidentified clipping from this period

1916

• Maud’s niece Matilda Gage spends a year with the Baum family. Maud’s other nieces, Leslie Gage and Magdalena Carpenter, also are close to the family, but Matilda is a favorite.
• June 4 – Baum’s first granddaughter, Frances Ozma Baum, is born to Kenneth Gage and Dorothy (Duce) Baum in Hollywood, Calif.
• June 20 – Baum’s Rinkitink in Oz is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, with illustrations by John R. Neill. It was originally a non-Oz story; Oz characters are added to the ending to allow the book’s inclusion in the popular series.
• Dec. – Baum begins and possibly completes the book and lyrics for Snow White, a musical comedy that is never produced. The sets were to be designed by Maxfield Parrish.
• Sumner C. Britton sells his interest in Reilly & Britton to William F. Lee.
• Four volumes of Baum’s short stories are published individually as The Snuggle Tales by Reilly & Britton, Chicago. They are Once Upon a Time, The Magic Cloak, The Yellow Hen, and Little Bun Rabbit. All have illustrations by Neill or Maginel Wright Enright, and covers by Julia Dyar Hardy. These short stories are excerpts from Baum’s Juvenile Speaker (1910) and other, longer fantasies.
• Baum’s success with girls’ books prompts a new series he names after his sister. The first title, Mary Louise, is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, using the pseudonym Edith Van Dyne. A frontispiece is provided by J. Allen St. John, well known for his illustrations in the Tarzan series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
• Baum’s Mary Louise in the Country is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, using the name Edith Van Dyne. J. Allen St. John again provides the frontispiece.
• Baum writes another play, The Uplifters’ Minstrels, for the third annual Uplifters outing at Del Mar, Calif. The music is written by Byron Gray.
• Baum’s Babes in Birdland (1911) is reprinted by Reilly and Britton, Chicago, with an introduction by Baum and Baum’s own name replacing the pseudonym Laura Bancroft. Maginel Wright Enright’s illustrations are retained.
• Neill meets actress Margaret Carroll in New York.
• Baum writes a new short story, “The Littlest Giant,” though it is not published until 1975.

1917

• April 20 – Dave Montgomery, the Tin Woodman from the Wizard of Oz Broadway show (1902), dies in Chicago. His partner, Fred Stone, accompanies the body to New York for burial in Woodlawn Cemetery.
• June 5 – Baum’s The Lost Princess of Oz is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, with illustrations by John R. Neill. He dedicates the book to his one-year-old granddaughter, Ozma.
• Aug. 6 – Like Babes in the Woods, a film originally shot by the Oz Film Manufacturing Company with Violet’s Dreams, is released by Universal. This film joins two previously released shorts from 1915, The Country Circus and The Magic Bon-Bons.
• Jack Pumpkinhead and The Gingerbread Man are added to Baum’s four-volume The Snuggle Tales (1916). Both are published by Reilly and Britton, Chicago, with illustrations by John R. Neill.
• Baum reportedly is “taken ill” in the fall.
• The Oz Film Manufacturing Company’s five-reel feature The Magic Cloak of Oz (1914) is released by the National Film Corporation. The story is from Baum’s Queen Zixi of Ix (1905).
• Baum’s Mary Louise Solves a Mystery is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, using the pseudonym Edith Van Dyne. A frontispiece is provided by Anna B. Mueller. Harry Neal Baum, Frank’s son, may have written at least part of this book.
• Baum writes the book and lyrics to The Orpheus Road Show for the Uplifters’ fourth outing at Coronado Beach. Louis F. Gottschalk writes the music.

1918

• Feb. – Baum has an operation on his gallbladder, and his appendix is removed. He returns home after five weeks in the hospital with a nurse to assist him. His lifelong heart problem gets worse, and he is stricken with tic douloureux, an excruciatingly painful condition that affects his face frequently and without warning.
• May 13 – Baum’s The Tin Woodman of Oz is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, with illustrations by John R. Neill. Publishers Weekly writes, “There is one country where no shadow has been cast by the war; it is the Land of Oz.”
• July 5 – Baum’s poem “Mister Doodle” is printed in a newspaper, although surviving clippings from the period offer no additional identification.
• Sept. 2 – Robert Baum is serving as an officer with the Engineer Corps, and Frank Baum Jr. is an officer of Heavy Artillery in France. Baum’s letter to Frank Jr. reads, “My dear son, Your last letter from ‘somewhere in France’ was very welcome, for it let us know you were still in good health. Your descriptive account of recent army activities is fascinating and vital – and gives an extremely vivid picture of what goes on around you. In descriptive writing you do a job far superior to anything I have ever done or am capable of doing.“We were sorry to learn of your great disappointment in certain phases of your military assignment. But do not be too down- hearted, my boy, for I have lived long enough to learn that in life nothing adverse lasts very long. And it is true, that as the years pass, and we look back on something which, at the time, seemed unbelievingly discouraging and unfair, we come to realize that, after all, God was at all times on our side. The eventual outcome was, we discover, by far the best solution for us, and what then we thought should have been to our best advantage, would in reality have been quite detrimental.“Continue to be self-confident, honest and faithful in performing your assigned duties to the best of your knowledge and ability as you have always been. Be loyal to your superior officers and ever vigilant of the lives and welfare of your soldiers. Through such actions God will be on your side, and as you put your reliance on Him and trust in His guidance, you can not fail to have a happy, complete and worthwhile life.“I have lately been much improved in health and trust that before many weeks the doctors will allow me to leave my bed and at least move about the house. We all send you much love and I continually pray for a speedy end to this terrible war and your safe return to our beloved country. Your loving and devoted, Dad.”
• Sept. 10 – Ruth Plumly Thompson’s The Perhappsy Chaps is published by P. F. Volland Co., Chicago, with illustrations by Arthur Henderson, the staff artist who illustrates her children’s page for the Philadelphia Public Ledger.
• Sept. 22 – Richard “Dirk” Gringhuis is born in Grand Rapids, Mich. Following his professional training at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, he will illustrate The Hidden Valley of Oz (1951).
• Nov. l. – Publisher Frank K. Reilly writes Baum that in reading the manuscript of The Magic of Oz, he objected that, in Chapter 9, Baum had left the Kalidah staked out on the riverbank, an inappropriate detail for a children’s book. Baum responds to Reilly, “Leaving the Kalidah ‘staked out’ was an oversight on my part, and I’m glad you caught it. In a day or two, you’ll get a paragraph or so fixing up the matter to the satisfaction of the youngsters.”
• Dec. 5 – William Niles Baum is born to Harry Neal and Mary (Niles) Baum in Madison, Wisc. The baby lives just one day.
• Baum’s Mary Louise and the Liberty Girls is published by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, using the pseudonym Edith Van Dyne. A frontispiece is provided by Alice Carsey. It includes references to the prejudice shown toward German immigrants.
• Baum’s Aunt Jane’s Nieces in the Red Cross (1915) is reprinted by Reilly & Britton, Chicago, using the pseudonym Edith Van Dyne. The original frontispiece is by Norman P. Hall. Recent events of the war in Europe prompt Baum to add four new chapters to the end of the book. Originally, one of the girls is injured and they return home after three months. In the revised story, a cameraman is injured, and the nieces stay overseas to help with war relief.
• Ruth Plumly Thompson launches the Santa Claus Club in Philadelphia to provide Christmas toys for needy children. The Club is a tremendous success and serves 15,000 children in the years ahead. In fact, the local post office begins to deliver all its Santa Claus mail to Thompson’s home.

1919

• Jan. 11 – Publisher Reilly & Britton becomes Reilly & Lee.
• May 5 – Baum suffers a stroke.
• May 6 – Lyman Frank Baum dies at home in Hollywood. He is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, Calif. His last words, “Now we can cross the shifting sands,” refer to the barrier that separates this world from the Land of Oz. During his lifetime he had written 73 books – 36 using pseudonyms, 14 about Oz. His New York Times obituary reads, “Though the children cannot clamor for the newest Oz books, the crowding generations will plead for the old ones.” And Publishers Weekly writes, “Frank Baum lives immortal as long as childhood lasts.” “It is all so sad,” writes Maud Baum in a letter to her sister, “and I am so forlorn and alone. For nearly thirty-seven years we had been everything to each other, we were happy, and now I am alone, to face the world alone.”
• June 7 – Baum’s The Magic of Oz is published posthumously by Reilly & Lee, Chicago, with illustrations by John R. Neill. Baum had written the manuscript in the garden at Ozcot.
• Aug. 22 – Frances Eugenia “Jean” Starkel is born in St. Louis, Mo. In 1991, she and her daughter Angelica will have their Baum biography, L. Frank Baum: Royal Historian of Oz, published.
• Sept. 4 – Evelyn Copelman is born. In 1944, she will illustrate the first unabridged English-language edition of The Wizard of Oz to replace the edition with W. W. Denslow’s original illustrations.
• Twelve-year-old Jack Snow writes Reilly & Lee suggesting that he continue the Oz series. He also begins “collecting” Oz books – a term previously unused in relation to the children’s series.
• Michael J. Lyons of Philadelphia, Pa., renews the copyright of the Oz Manufacturing Company’s film version of The Patchwork Girl of Oz as The Ragged Girl of Oz. The film is not known to have ever been released with this name.
• Baum’s Mary Louise Adopts a Soldier is published posthumously by Reilly & Lee, Chicago, using the pseudonym Edith Van Dyne. A frontispiece is provided by Joseph W. Wyckoff. Records from this period indicate that Baum earned about $2,000 per year on his Aunt Jane’s Nieces and Mary Louise titles.
• Author Emma Speed Sampson is asked by Reilly & Lee to add three more Mary Louise titles to the Baum series as Edith Van Dyne. They are Mary Louise at Dorfield (1920), Mary Louise Stands the Test (1921), and Mary Louise and Josie O’Gorman (1922). She also will write Josie O’Gorman (1923) and Josie O’Gorman and the Meddlesome Major (1924) using the Baum pen name.
• Neill and Margaret Carroll marry in New York. They have three daughters, Natalie, Annrea, and Joan. Neill already had illustrated Margaret into an Oz book; she is seated at the table in the end-papers of The Tin Woodman of Oz (1918). Her initials are clearly embroidered on her gown.
• The Wonderful Stories of Oz serializes the Oz books in newspaper installments.