"YOURS VERY OZILY": THE EMERALD CITY OF OZ, FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED BY L. FRANK BAUM

BAUM, L. Frank. The Emerald City of Oz. Chicago: Reilly & Britton, (1910). Octavo, original light blue cloth, mounted cover illustration, pictorial endpapers; housed in a custom chemise and half morocco slipcase. $42,000.

First edition, first state, of the sixth Oz book, with 16 full-page color illustrations by John R. Neill, inscribed on the recto of the frontispiece, "Yours Very Ozily L. Frank Baum. Ozcot at Hollywood California. June 16, 1912."

Baum intended to conclude his popular series with this volume. By the tale's end, the sorceress Glinda has made the fairyland invisible to the outside world, and Dorothy and her aunt and uncle, facing eviction from their Kansas farm, have settled in the Emerald City to stay. Baum's own bankruptcy the next year, however, would mean he "had no choice but to call once more upon the magic of Oz in an attempt to restore his fortunes" (Eyles, 48). Neill's plates, embellished with metallic green ink, make first editions of this title particularly notable. First edition, with all first state points. Without very rare dust jacket. Greene & Hanff, 61-62. Tipped in above the page inscribed by Baum is a slip (possibly clipped from a magazine) with a photograph of a garden and the caption "The Garden at 'Ozcot,' Hollywood, Cal. In the central pavilion L. Frank Baum writes his famous fairy tales."

Drawing opposite chapter listing colored in in pencil and purple crayon by a young reader, interior otherwise fine; general light wear to cloth and mounted cover illustration, a bit heavier at spine ends. A near-fine copy, quite rare inscribed.