On the trail of the Wizard of Oz
Fred Trust grew up in the former Soviet republic of Azerbajian, but was no stranger to the story of the Wizard of Oz. He was captivated by the tale, and after coming to the U.S., became a collector of Oz books. The Owings Mills resident loaned about 50 of his books to the Geppi Entertainment Museum for its Wizard of Oz exhibit, which also includes games, dolls and toys; it runs through January. We asked Fred to tell us about his passion. Here's his guest post:
The Wizard of the Emerald City is one of the favorite children's book titles in the former Soviet Union. However, very few people are aware of its real author and origin. The Russian writer Alexander Volkov translated L. Frank Baum's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and also changed the names of most characters, removed some elements of Baum's novel, and added some new ones. The story was a favorite of mine as well as of many other children growing up in the former Soviet republics.
When my own children were born and I was looking for good children's books to read to them, I decided to find out if by any chance The Wizard of the Emerald City was translated from Russian to English. To my surprise I discovered that the book was initiated and originally published in this country in 1899! Although at the time I obtained an inexpensive replica of the book to read to my kids, I set myself a goal to obtain the earlier copy of the Wizard of Oz.
Through my research I quickly learned that obtaining the first edition of Wonderful Wizard of Oz would be a challenge since this title was selling for over $10,000 at that time. Diving deeply into
In 2009, there has been a resurgence of interest in the Wizard of Oz. For example: Andrew Lloyd Webber plans to produce the Wizard of Oz play on Broadway; two animated Wizard of Oz movies are in works; MGM and Sony Pictures announced a remake of The Wizard of Oz; and Oscar nominee Anne Hathaway has signed on to star in the Weinstein Company’s biography of famous singer and actress Judy Garland.
The Wizard of Oz story is so deeply imbedded in American culture that almost on a weekly basis I find some ties to it through the media. For example, in conjunction with death of Michael Jackson, it was indicated repeatedly that he played a Scarecrow in the movie "The Wiz" in 1978. The best-selling author Michael Connelly in his most recent book "The Scarecrow" uses various facts from the Oz series, such as Denslow Associates (William Denslow illustrated the Wizard of Oz title), Fred Stone (appeared in the first Broadway musical in 1902), references to a character Dorothy from Kansas, etc.
Currently, the Geppi Museum through its exhibit celebrates the 70th anniversary of 1939 Wizard of Oz movie and I was honored to lend a number of my books to that exhibit. All 40 famous Oz titles that can be seen on the display in this exhibit are around 100 years old, rare and very hard to find in this pristine condition. It should also be noted that L. Frank Baum wrote over 70 other books outside of Oz series and many of them can also be seen in the museum.
Comments
As the worlds largest L. Frank Baum collector of his first edition and first state books, I know Fred personally and admire his passion and absolute dilligence in collecting. He is tireless and works hard at what he does and should be admired for that alone.The Baum books are clearly the best books to collect for none come close overall for price and rareness since the last book by Baum was written in 1919 and very few of his books exist today.
Posted by: Mark Shapiro | July 10, 2009 8:51 AM
The 70th birthday of Wizard of Oz has really caught the eye of producers recently. They seem to be cropping up all over the place - films, musicals, TV - I even did a Wizard of Oz personality test the other day - http://www.uktickets.co.uk/quiz/wizard-of-oz - the original story is a classic - I hope some of the remakes can live up to it's reputation.
Posted by: Wizard of Oz Quiz | July 27, 2010 6:56 AM
as the worlds largest collector of l. frank baum books with over 450 first edition and first state books, I am glad that the wizard of oz resurgence is on the way for the next generation.wizardofbaum on google.
Posted by: mark shapiro | September 17, 2010 10:02 AM