THE ROAD TO OZ

Chicago: The Reilly & Britton Co, 1909. First printing. Near fine.. First edition of this joyfully printed Oz book, with gatherings of the paper in various colorful hues - lavender, pink, green, blue, and more - a beautiful, bright copy. THE ROAD TO OZ introduces the Shaggy Man, Button-Bright, and Polychrome into the Oz universe - and brings Toto back into the fantasy land. This entry is also unusual in the series for its publishers playing with the use of color paper instead of separately inserted color plates. This experiment was only attempted for the first printing, making true first editions of this title particularly compelling (and colorful) objects. 9'' x 6.5''. Original green pictorial cloth stamped in black, green, tan and red to both boards. "Reilly & Britton" on spine in upper and lower cases (Bienvenue binding A). Pictorial endpapers in black and red. No type damage on pages 34, 121, caption and numeral on page 129. No color plates as issued, but a profusion of black-and-white images throughout by Neill. Printed on sheaves of color-printed paper: off-white, lavender, gray, light blue, salmon, tan, light green, tan. Publisher's ads at rear. 261, [1], [2] pages. Mild bumping to corners, faint spotting to boards; touches of soil to a small number of pages. Bright, with strong hinges.