 | |
| Author | Rachel Cosgrove (Payes) |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Dirk Gringhuis |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Oz Books |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Reilly & Lee |
Publication date | 1951 |
| Media type | print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 313 pp. |
| Preceded by | The Shaggy Man of Oz |
| Followed by | Merry Go Round in Oz |
The Hidden Valley of Oz (1951) is the thirty-ninth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors. It was written by Rachel R. Cosgrove and illustrated by Dirk Gringhuis. [1]
Jonathan Andrew Manley, nicknamed Jam, is a boy from Ohio, the son of a biologist. At the start of the story, he is building a "collapsible kite" from plans he found in a popular magazine. Rather than cutting the pieces of his wooden frame to match the plans, however, he scales up the kite to match the size of his wood, yielding an extra-large result. The size of the thing inspires him to try to fly on it; he attaches a shipping crate, and gathers up three of his father's experimental animals (two guinea pigs and a white laboratory rat). A strong gust of wind lifts kite, crate, and passengers into the sky; Jam is on his way to the Land of Oz.
Kite and crate thump down the next day, in the purple landscape of the Gillikin Country. Jam is amazed to find that his animals can now talk; the guinea pigs call themselves Pinny and Gig, while the white rat introduces himself as Percy. Jam meets some of the inhabitants, who inform him of local conditions. This remote valley of Oz is dominated by a wrathful 50 ft. giant called Terp the Terrible, who enslaves the common people to work in his vineyards and his jam-making factory. Terp captures Jam, and is struck by his name; the giant threatens to spread the boy on his breakfast muffins the next day, and eat him. Terp imprisons the boy and his animals in the highest tower of his castle.
The courtyard of Terp's castle contains a magic muffin tree, guarded by a fierce monster. In the night, Percy is able to help Jam and friends escape the tower, with the aid of a handy grapevine. Jam and his pets flee, though Percy doubles back to steal one of the magic muffins. On the Gillikin plains, Jam and friends are menaced by the Equinots, hostile centaurs; Percy frightens away the Equinots when he eats some of the magic muffin, and grows to ten times his normal size.
A local farmer and his wife provide shelter for the night; Pinny and Gig, who have little taste for adventure, decide to stay at the farm as pets of the farmer's children. Another kite flight takes Jam and Percy to the tin castle of the Emperor of the Winkies, the Tin Woodman. There, the party is soon joined by Dorothy Gale, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, and the Hungry Tiger. [2] After hearing Jam's tale, the assembled party decide to defeat Terp and free the oppressed Gillikins.
Their path from the Winkie Country to the Hidden Valley in Gillikin Country leads through a wilderness; a commotion in the jungle brings them a new friend on their quest in the form of the Leopard with the Changeable Spots who is an outcast to his fellow leopards. They nickname him "Spots". They enter Bookville, where a hostile King and his royal court condemn them to be pressed into books. Percy gnaws the travelers a way out of their bookshelf prison during the night. Another disagreeable adventure awaits them in Icetown which is inhabited by snowmen. To escape an igloo prison, the Scarecrow volunteers his stuffing as kindling for a fire.
The travelers, with a re-stuffed Scarecrow, eventually reach the Hidden Valley in Gillikin Country. Percy's shrinking-and-growing experiences with the magic muffin have made them realize that Terp needs a steady supply of muffins to maintain his giant stature. Jam and company, with local collaboration, lure Terp away from his castle and hypnotize the guardian beast into harmlessness. The Tin Man chops down the magic tree, killing it. Terp is trapped in the smokestack of the jam factory until he shrinks to his normal size.
The party travel to the Emerald City, where Jam is welcomed as a hero. After a celebratory banquet, Ozma and the Wizard send the boy home to Ohio once more. Percy remains in Oz and convinces the Wizard to enchant him into his large size permanently.
Cosgrove originally intended to have Jam travel to Oz by rocket, but the publishers informed her that that had already been done in The Yellow Knight of Oz . The revised first chapter is believed to be the work of Francis Joseph O'Donnell, one of Reilly & Lee's main editors. Cosgrove's original opening was published posthumously in an issue of Oz-story Magazine . [3] She later gave an account of how she wrote and revised Hidden Valley and worked with the personnel at Reilly & Lee. Her article appeared in The Baum Bugle , [4] and was later included as an Afterword in the 1991 edition of Hidden Valley. Among the trivia she remarked on in this article was that the editors had added in Jam's catchphrase "Golly" and Percy's catchphrase "Kiddo," both of which she initially disliked.
Cosgrove created Percy the white rat based on her experience in laboratory work; she considered lab rats "fascinating" and "clever." [5] Percy, who calls himself "the personality kid," is an extrovert, a classic American wise guy; he calls everyone "kiddo." Cosgrove liked the character enough to use him again, in her second Oz book, The Wicked Witch of Oz , and in a short story, "Percy and the Shrinking Violet." [6]
Cosgrove used the Leopard again in her story "Spots in Oz." [7]
Cogrove began work on a second Oz book soon after finishing the first; but Reilly & Lee declined it, due to low sales for Oz books in the 1950s. The work would finally appear in print forty years later as The Wicked Witch of Oz .
Baum biographer Katharine M. Rogers says that this book "recaptures the humor and inventiveness of [Ruth Plumly] Thompson." [8]
The Tin Woodman of Oz: A Faithful Story of the Astonishing Adventure Undertaken by the Tin Woodman, Assisted by Woot the Wanderer, the Scarecrow of Oz, and Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter is the twelfth book in the Oz series written by L. Frank Baum and was originally published on May 13, 1918. The Tin Woodman is reunited with his Munchkin sweetheart Nimmie Amee from the days when he was flesh and blood. This was a back-story from Baum's 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz is the fourth book set in the Land of Oz written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by John R. Neill. It was published on June 18, 1908 and reunites Dorothy Gale with the humbug Wizard from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). This is one of only two of the original fourteen Oz books to be illustrated with watercolor paintings.
The Magic of Oz is the thirteenth book in the Oz series written by L. Frank Baum. Published on June 7, 1919, one month after the author's death, The Magic of Oz relates the unsuccessful attempt of the Munchkin boy Kiki Aru and former Nome King Ruggedo to conquer Oz.
Nick Chopper, the Tin Woodman, is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. He first appeared in his 1900 book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and reappeared in many other subsequent Oz books in the series. In late 19th-century America, men made out of various tin pieces were used in advertising and political cartoons. Baum, who was editing a magazine on decorating shop windows when he wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was inspired to invent the Tin Woodman by a figure he had built out of metal parts for a shop display.
The Land of Oz is a magical country introduced in the 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow.
The Good Witch of the North, sometimes named Locasta or Tattypoo, is a fictional character in the Land of Oz, created by American author L. Frank Baum. She is the elderly and mild-mannered Ruler of the Gillikin Country. Her only significant appearance in Baum's work is in Chapter 2 of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), in which she introduces Dorothy Gale to Oz and sends her to meet the Wizard, after placing a protective kiss on her forehead. She makes a brief cameo appearance at Princess Ozma's birthday party in The Road to Oz (1909), but is otherwise only mentioned elsewhere in the series.
Mombi is a fictional character in L. Frank Baum's classic children's series of Oz Books. She is the most significant antagonist in the second Oz book The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904), and is alluded to in other works. Mombi plays a very important role in the fictional history of Oz.
Handy Mandy in Oz (1937) is the thirty-first of the Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the seventeenth written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. It was illustrated by John R. Neill.
The Magical Mimics in Oz (1946) is the thirty-seventh in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the first written by Jack Snow. It was illustrated by Frank G. Kramer. The book entered the Public Domain in the United States, when its copyright was not renewed as required.
The Shaggy Man of Oz (1949) is the thirty-eighth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the second and last by Jack Snow. It was illustrated by Frank G. Kramer. The book entered the public domain in the United States when its copyright was not renewed as required.
The International Wizard of Oz Club, Inc., was founded during 1957 by Justin G. Schiller, a then thirteen-year-old boy. The sixteen charter members, some of whom continue to make valuable contributions to the club, were garnered from the mailing list found among the papers of the recently deceased Jack Snow, with whom Schiller and the others had discussed the work of L. Frank Baum.
Bungle, the Glass Cat is a character in the Oz books of L. Frank Baum.
Jellia Jamb is a fictional character from the classic children's series of Oz books by American author L. Frank Baum. She is first introduced in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), as the head maid who works in the royal palace of the Emerald City which is the imperial capital of the Land of Oz. In later books, Jellia eventually becomes Princess Ozma's favorite servant out of the Emerald City's staff administration. She is also the protagonist of Ruth Plumly Thompson's 1939 novel Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz. Her name is a pun on the phrase "Jelly or jam?"
Rachel Ruth Cosgrove Payes, also known as E.L. Arch and Joanne Kaye was an American genre novelist, and author of books on the Land of Oz.
The Wicked Witch of Oz is a novel by Rachel Cosgrove Payes. Written in the early 1950s but not published until four decades later, the book is a volume in the series of Oz books by L. Frank Baum and his successors.
The Rundelstone of Oz is a novel by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. It is a volume in the series of fictional works about the Land of Oz, by L. Frank Baum and his successors.
The copyright status of The Wizard of Oz and related works in the United States is complicated for several reasons. The book series is very long-running, and written by multiple authors, so the books often fall on opposite sides of eligibility for copyright laws. There have also been multiple adaptations across many different media, which enjoy different kinds of copyright protection. The copyright law of the United States has changed many times, and impacted Oz works every time. As of 2024, twenty-nine Oz books and five films are in the public domain. Starting in 2019, an Oz book has entered the public domain every year. Barring another extension of copyright terms, all of the Famous Forty will be in the public domain by 2059.
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