Originally published in The Baum Bugle, vol. 58, no. 1 (Spring 2014), pgs. 19–26
Citations
Chicago 17th ed.:
Berezin, Marc. “The Sincerest Form of Flattery: The Amazing Land of Wew and the Land of Oz.” Baum Bugle 58, no. 1 (2014): 19–26.
MLA 9th ed.:
Berezin, Marc. “The Sincerest Form of Flattery: The Amazing Land of Wew and the Land of Oz.” The Baum Bugle, vol. 58, no. 1, 2014, pp. 19–26.
(Note: This article’s text has been altered from its original published version; footnotes have been interpolated into endnotes, and renumbered, for a cleaner online presentation. In print, this article was also supplemented with illustrations, photographs, and vintage advertising that have not been reproduced here.)
The influence of L. Frank Baum’s work looms large over American popular culture, particularly the juvenile fantasy genre. Both a Baum Bugle article and an ongoing Internet blog[1] have reviewed early twentieth century books displaying clear Oz connections. However, one particular title published in 1954 by The Steck Company of Austin, Texas, shows a most distinct borrowing of Baumian themes, plots, and characterizations. This is John G. Kaufer’s The Amazing Land of Wew, whose monosyllabic name is reminiscent of both Oz and Baum’s non-Oz fairyland, The Enchanted Island of Yew.
John Gerard Kaufer was born on September 17, 1905 in Tacoma, Washington, and he began writing at a very young age. By the time he was in grade school, Kaufer already was writing his own private stories and taking a correspondence course for writers. According to the Wew dust jacket, he began composing the story “in sketchy form when he was still in his teens.” As a young man, he spent several years in Germany during the tumultuous 1930s and was stationed in the Aleutian Islands during World War Two. After the war, Kaufer returned to Seattle, Washington, where he worked as co-manager of his family’s Roman Catholic religious supplies business, which is still in existence today.[2] He died in Seattle on January 12, 1999.
The following synopsis highlights the major similarities between The Amazing Land of Wew and Oz (and related) stories:
Joen (i.e. “Jon” + “Joe”) Genal, a brave and handsome lad, lives on a South Texas ranch with his widowed mother. “Dearest to his heart [are] the old worn volumes of fairy tales [with] richly gold-embossed covers . . . six different volumes uniformly bound.[3] This description brings to mind the elaborate printings of early Oz books, such as Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz and The Emerald City of Oz. One night, Joen dreams of a fairyland character, the “Gentle Witch” Nazala, an “old lady” [holding] “a sparkling wand” “with flowing robes shining brightly.”[4] Nazala seems similar to the elderly Good Witch of the North in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, who wears “a white gown that hung in plaits . . . over it sparkled little stars that glistened like diamonds”[5] W.W. Denslow’s illustrations depict the Good Witch with a wand-like staff, as well.
Nazala informs the sleeping Joen that his upright character and faith in fairyland have earned him the privilege of entering the Forbidden Cave to experience great adventures. Accompanied by his pets, Nama, the timid lamb and Bill, the gruff and faithful dog, Joen enters the dark cave and plunges into an abyss. Like the whirlpool-trapped Trot in The Scarecrow of Oz, who is “almost sure that unseen arms were about her, supporting her and protecting her,”[6] Joen senses “soft hands [that] hold him gently.”[7] Upon settling on the firm ground of an underground cavern, the animals begin to speak, just as animals do in most Oz books, Toto and Hank the Mule being the exceptions.
Joen and his animal companions soon discover the metallic Jeweled Man. Like the Tin Woodman, Tik-Tok, and Captain Fyter, the Jeweled Man has been immobilized for many years in a remote place. A bit vain—like Nick Chopper in The Marvelous Land of Oz—he is embarrassed by his soiled condition. We also learn that his magical brains have been given an excess portion of “Elegance” and “Pride,” not unlike the extra “Cleverness” and other traits provided to Scraps by Ojo in The Patchwork Girl of Oz.[8] The Jeweled Man resembles another Oz character, Jack Pumpkinhead, in that he was constructed and brought to life by an evil sorcerer, in this case the magician Whifro. He had escaped from the villain’s lair, but was buried nearby by falling rocks. Searching Whifro’s abandoned chambers, Joen finds and pockets a key to the mysterious missing “Speaking Statue,” along with a handy Cloak of Invisibility.[9] (Such a cloak plays a small role in Ruth Plumly Thompson’s The Gnome King of Oz.) Whifro had been banished from the Land of Wew to this region, one of the “semi-magical countries,” where only some enchantments fully work. The semi-magical countries border Wew, just as other countries of varying degrees of magic border Oz on its continent.
Next, the travelers visit Tishto City, which is inhabited by Fairy Birds with detachable wings. The Fairy Birds are reminiscent of the less-friendly Wooden Gargoyles of Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. As in many such communities in the Oz books, they have their own peculiar customs and idiosyncrasies. For example, they peck greedily on their plates and view any pause in the meal as a terrible breach of etiquette. During their visit, the Jeweled Man remarks what an inconvenience it is to have to eat. His speech will remind anyone familiar with the Oz books of comments made by assorted “non-meat” personalities about how troublesome it is to need to eat and sleep.
Joen and friends borrow the Tishto’s wings and ascend to the surface, where Nazala herself greets them. She is stationed at the forefront of hundreds of magic-mechanized flying golden chariots. The Gentle Witch informs the boy that he is the answer to recently uncovered prophecies that a new prince of Fairyland would be discovered among the humans of the outside world.
Via chariot, Joen, Nazala, and their companions reach the City of Jewels, which is a veritable stand-in for the Emerald City, full of sparkling gems and happy citizens, although it is not the capital of Wew. The similarity to the Emerald City is not the only parallel between Wew and Oz. For example, the beautiful Land of Wew is hidden by an invisibility spell almost identical to that cast by Glinda at the conclusion of Emerald City. Also, Wew citizens resemble Oz inhabitants in that they do not age. (However, Kaufer tells his readers that the people of Wew may choose to age by temporarily moving to the lands over the border, a sort of logical idea that Baum never mentions.)
Joen’s chariot is drawn by Ruth and Rebecca, fierce-looking, but playful, dragons, whose function is similar to Ozma’s use of the Cowardly Lion and Hungry Tiger. Bill and Nama learn that there are no dogs or sheep in Wew, just as there apparently are no dogs or horses in most of Baum’s Oz books. When they arrive at the palace, all are greeted by an Ozma-like fairy enchantress, the lovely Nin; a cheerful elephant named Molly; and Cala, the spoiled canary. With the exception of Cala, all these animals are childlike and playful, much like the “celebrities” of Thompson’s Oz. The palace courtyard sports ice cream sundae trees, much like the meal and object bearing trees of Oz, Ev, and Mo.
Cala, alas, turns out to be the evil magician Whifro in disguise! He transforms the assembled banqueters into metal statues (see The Patchwork Girl of Oz, Ozma of Oz and elsewhere for similar occurrences) and absconds with many of Nin’s magic tools (like Ugu in Lost Princess). Joen uses the Cloak of Invisibility to elude the villain and assists in restoring his friends. (Nama the lamb can now move and think, but remains metallic.) Using a Magic Picture-like projector, the Wew people spy Whifro speeding toward the capital Royal City, which is ruled by Tazoen, a Glinda/Lurlinesque fairy queen, who along with Nin, “has lived since the earth was young…with the first band of fairies.”[10]
Nin and Nazala head a delegation to battle Whifro in the Royal City, but to no avail—the magician casts a Black Magic spell upon the capital, clouding the minds of Nin and Nazala and secreting away Tazoen (again like Ugu in Lost Princess). The villain has conquered Wew, something the Nome King can only aspire to in Emerald City and other books. (Thompson’s villains tend to have better luck.)
At this point, the story becomes a quest. The royal wizard Atscap—a clever and resourceful personage resembling the post-humbug Wizard of the later Oz books—determines that they must collect several missing ingredients to break the enchantment over the Royal City. As in Patchwork Girl, the quest involves a tour of various peculiar locations where the necessary materials may be found. The questing party takes off in a flying chariot, fortified with magical implements such as a Concentrated Dinner Basket, which contains tiny concentrated meals akin to Prof. Wogglebug’s Square Meal Tablets, but more appetizing.
Ingredient number one is a “pure white snowflake,” which they procure in King Opal’s snow-covered White Land, one of the provinces of color. (As in Oz, some lands around Wew are color-coded.) While in White City, Atscap finds the needed snowflake and preserves it with a spell of perpetual cold. Just for the fun of it, Joen uses the “Liquid of Life”—which had previously animated the Jeweled Man—to vivify a snowman. This is reminiscent of both Baum’s Powder of Life and, perhaps, the live snowmen from the Hidden Valley of Oz. Acting on the sage advice of the king’s White Owl, the group heads to Wooden City to obtain the next ingredient: a “piece of blackest ebony from the forehead of a fairy queen.”
There then follows a sequence closely paralleling the adventures in the Vegetable Kingdom of the Mangaboos in Dorothy and the Wizard, as well as its remake, the Rose Kingdom in Tik-Tok of Oz. The wooden folk know nothing of Tazoen, acknowledging only “His Shiny Majesty, King Doow.” (Spell it backwards.) The denizens of Wooden City likely would remind many Oz readers of the many isolated inhabitants of Oz’s hinterlands who are ignorant of Ozma’s reign. As with the Mangaboos and Roses, reproduction in Wooden City is accomplished via replanting, in this instance using acorns from the cracked foreheads of the recently expired. After the sudden death of Doow, Joen accidentally causes a servant to throw the royal acorn into a kitchen grinder, which crushes it together with acorns of lesser lineage. Joen plants this mixture, and a beautiful young Queen named Wooda emerges. She is similar to the princesses of the Mangaboos and Roses in that she is female and lovely (although kindhearted, unlike the Mangaboo Princess), but unlike her potential subjects she is a mixture of various woods. The new sovereign bears the ebony locks needed for the disenchantment spell, but unfortunately, she runs afoul of local prejudice. Just as Baum’s Roses refuse to accept a female ruler, the Wood people reject any leader of less than purebred ancestry. The population grows menacing. Using a spell reminiscent of the Shaggy Man’s Love Magnet (along with more invisibility magic), Atscap helps the group to escape with the Queen from threatened destruction.
Next is a (mostly) “irrelevant episode” (as such are called by some Oz scholars). Joen and company spy a colony of civilized fairy ants. The good ant witch Tana shrinks them down to the size of insects. With her assistance, the feeble ant queen Wanda is rescued from both the intrigues of a usurping lady-in-waiting and an incipient civil war.
The fourth stop on the tour of Wew is the splendid undersea realm of Queen Zyra, reminiscent of The Sea Fairies and other mer-people tales from over the centuries. It is guarded by the sea monster Colossus—a less benign relation of The Sea Fairies’ King Anko—who only defers to the magic Key to the Sea. Nama impulsively dashes ahead, accidentally breaking the venerated, immortality-ensuring Magic Plant of the Mystic Depths. This act somehow restores the lamb to its original form, but it also ensures that they enrage a hosting community for the third time.
Fortunately, the irate Zyra is mollified by Joen’s royal status. She summons King Neptune, who originated the Magic Plant long ago, and he helpfully replaces it. As a favor to Tazoen and Nazala, Zyra graciously donates a pearl from her crown, thus providing the final ingredient needed to break the enchantment over the Royal City.
En route to the City of Jewels, the chariot mistakenly veers into the semi-magical region of Limba (limbo?) where immortal Wew people go to “put on years.” Insufficient magic disrupts the animals’ speech, the use of the vehicle, and the well being of the Snowman. Using a semi-magical vehicle, which operates using a combination of mechanics and magic passwords, they are able to make their way back to a far corner of Wew proper.
There, they discover that disaffected women—in the spirit of Jinjur and her Army of Revolt in Marvelous Land—have chased their husbands and children away. The unlucky men have since been enchanted and imprisoned by the evil Green Witch, who belongs “to the rare vegetable race…akin to the toadstool family.”[11] This vegetable connection brings the Mangaboos to mind yet again. The Witch also is periodically nurtured by connection with the ground, which is reminiscent of Trot and Cap’n Bill’s predicament on the Magic Isle in The Magic of Oz, although the latter suffer from their connection rather than benefit from it.
Fortunately, Atscap is able to summon the hag and neutralize her magical offensive. It turns out that she is in possession of the Speaking Statue, whose controlling key Joen just happened to find early in the story in Whifro’s quarters. Of course, possession of the key ensures the Witch’s final defeat.
The magically powerful Statue transports Joen over to the City of Jewels. Once everyone joins the boy, Atscap compounds the magical ingredients Wizard of Oz style. The Statue informs them that they must disperse the resulting formula over the city, so that all the bewitched victims will be touched by it. Since the Black Magic practitioner Whifro has invited the evil King Ynobe (spell it backwards) of the Black City to join him, the latter’s “natural enemy,” the White King Opal, is summoned to oppose the pair.
Hidden under the Cloak of Invisibility, Joen arrives at the Royal City, where he disenchants Nin and Nazala. As the populace rises up, Atscap and Opal defeat the two villains; Whifro reveals that Tazoen has been transformed into an insect and hidden in the Black City. This is similar to the royal transformations into inconspicuous, insignificant things in both Ozma and Lost Princess. This spell is particularly difficult to break, so the fellow insect, Tana the ant witch, assists (thereby justifying the otherwise unneeded presence of the fairy ants in the book). Tazoen has been turned to a honeybee, but she is quickly retrieved from Ynobe’s domain and restored to her former self. Readers will recall that Trot and Cap’n Bill briefly became bees in Magic, while the latter was a grasshopper in Scarecrow.
With the quest fulfilled, all agree that, royal status notwithstanding, it is best for Joen to return home. While Joen’s mother Mrs. Genal has listened to a fairy messenger sent to relieve her of her worries—a courtesy that Oz writers never provide to the guardians of their child heroes—she still is “a practical and unbelieving American” and remains “confused and rather unhappy.”[12] It is decided that each month after the boy’s return, a Wew messenger will visit and enquire whether he is ready to return to the fairyland. Faithful Nama and Bill choose to lose their power of speech so they can return home with their master. The refugee fairy ants are increased to human size, which is not unlike the Highly-Magnified Wogglebug.
Joen thus departs tearfully from his new friends, à la Dorothy in Wonderful Wizard. Like the Silver Shoes and the Magic Belt in later books, the Speaking Statue is able to transport Joen home, and thanks to the considerate fairies, Mrs. Jenal has anticipated her son’s return. Joen has promised to return to Wew, and readers are assured at the conclusion that he indeed does so, accompanied by his mother and pets. This, of course, is a final nod to the Oz canon, since readers know that Dorothy returns to Oz with Uncle Henry and Aunt Em in Emerald City.
***
So what to make of this blatant pastiche? Oz writer and translator Gili Bar-Hillel (Semo) has opined that “there are lots and lots of similarities [to Oz]…but it’s a pretty good book nonetheless. Less whimsical and humorous than the Oz books, but maybe a little more carefully plotted and suspenseful.”[13] Kaufer’s book indeed makes an effort to address the sorts of difficulties and loose ends found in many Baum books, such as clarifying the aging process amongst immortals and having Mrs. Genal aware of her son’s whereabouts. But the Land of Oz, inconsistencies and all, remains a more “real” and original creation, unlike the synthetic, imitative Land of Wew. Kirkus Reviews considered Wew “a flat fairy tale…a series of predictable adventures out of Arabian Nights, or perhaps Oz or The Hobbit . . . [It is] unexcitingly written and lacks the grace and originality of style needed to put it over.”[14]
Another criticism was expressed in a recent review by Anil Tambwekar, who faults the story for the “large number of unnecessary (or sometimes redundant characters).”[15]
The Amazing Land of Wew was published in both trade and library bound editions, and illustrated with thirteen full-page color illustrations and eleven color chapter headings by Texas artist Warren Hunter (1904-1993).[16] While attractive, they don’t compare to the fantasy-infused work of Denslow and Neill (although the illustration of Nama breaking the Magic Plant is reminiscent of Marc Chagall’s surreal paintings). Critics might also say that the drawings are flawed, since Nazala is depicted as looking younger than she is described in the text.
Steck made some effort to promote the book, with advertisements for it (and other titles) in The New York Times Book Review. It also placed ads in smaller periodicals, such as the Southwest Review. The advertisement in the latter claimed “the best way to combat the comic-book [sic] menace is to give books like The Amazing Land of Wew.” Sales figures for Wew, if they survive, are not accessible. Archives of the Steck Company at the University of Texas do not include material for the relevant years. While the conclusion of the story is a clear set up for Joen’s further adventures, and the dust jacket states that the author “is now working on a sequel to the story,” no more news was heard from Wew. The Amazing Land of Wew soon went out of print. Perhaps the publisher was not big enough to sell the books adequately.
Kaufer reportedly left behind many unpublished writings, perhaps including the aforementioned sequel.[17] His only released book has remained in virtual obscurity over the years, even among Oz scholars and collectors of Oz imitations. The exceptions are the online “Ozzy Digest” comments made by Bar-Hillel in 1996, 1997, and 2000, and the recent Tambwekar review. This article appears to be the first discussion of Wew ever in The Baum Bugle. However, Wew was recently uploaded to Archive.org. It can be accessed there via the restricted DAISY format used for copyrighted works. (See http://archive.org/details/amazinglandofwew00kauf for instructions.) Perhaps one day we might see a more mainstream commercial release. In the meantime, interested readers will have to avail themselves of the online access or seek out an original copy of this out-of-print book to decide for themselves the worthiness of Wew.
The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Ed Sinclair of Kaufer’s Religious Supplies, and especially that of the late Betti Norton.
[1] Barbara Koelle, “After the Wizard: The Influence of the Best Loved Fairy Tales On Other Fantasies for Children” in The Baum Bugle 33, no. 1, (Spring 1989); Holly Dennis-Lucas, Wannabe Wonderlands: Outside of Oz, ilex-wannabewonderlandsoutsideofoz.blogspot.com.
[2] Betti Norton, email message to author, July 14, 2010; Paid obituary, The Seattle Times, January 17, 1999: B8; The websites for different branches of Kaufer’s Religious Supplies are www.kaufersonline.com, www.kaufers.com, and www.kauferco.com. [Note: As of 2023, only the last of these three URLs is functional.]
[3] John G. Kaufer, The Amazing Land of Wew (Austin, TX: The Steck Company, 1954), 3.
[4] Kaufer, Amazing Land, 4.
[5] L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Chicago: George M. Hill Co., 1900), 20.
[6] L. Frank Baum, The Scarecrow of Oz (Chicago: Reilly & Britton, 1915), 22–23.
[7] Kaufer, Amazing Land, 8.
[8] The Jeweled Man is later called “a brilliant and polished gentleman,” the same punning description used to describe the Tin Woodman in Ozma (page 248) and Tik-Tok in Road (page 220).
[9] Cloaks and other invisibility providing implements have existed in mythology, folklore, and literature from the Greek myths, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and “Jack the Giant Killer” to the recent Harry Potter series.
[10] Kaufer, Amazing Land, 56.
[11] Kaufer, Amazing Land, 191.
[12] Kaufer, Amazing Land, 228.
[13] Gili Bar-Hillel, The Ozzy Digest, January 28, 2000, www.put.com/oz/ozdi/200001.txt. [Note: As of 2023, this is URL is defunct.]
[14] Kirkus Reviews, 1954, www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/john-g-kaufer/the-amazing-land-of-wew.
[15] 20 Day; “The Amazing Land of Wew,” blog entry by Anil Tambwekar, November 17, 2013, 20day.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-amazing-land-of-wew-by-john-g.html. Tambwekar also notes the Jeweled Man’s fear of tarnishing (like the Tin Woodman) and the Snowman’s fear of heat (akin to the Scarecrow’s aversion to fire).
[16] Hunter also illustrated eight other publications of the Steck Company in the 1950s, including a 1949 adaptation of Gulliver’s Travels. For more on Hunter see www.warrenhunter.com. For the history of the Steck Company and its publishing spinoffs, see www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/aushc/00169/ahc-00169.html#bioghist. [Note: As of 2023, this last URL is defunct.]
[17] Tambwekar mentions that, “it would have been interesting to see what else Kaufer could have come up with and if he would have developed a more personal voice.”
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