The Woggle-Bug Book
Chicago: Reilly & Britton Co., 1905. 1st ed. with 1st State cover. Paperback. color illustrations (by Ike Morgan), 48p. Flexible illustrated paper cover backed in green cloth. First state cover with background field in gray-green. 39cm. Upper right corner reattached on front; the covers are otherwise intact but with some staining, spotting, wrinkling and other wear. A minor bit of gnawing on bottom edge. Contents generally sound and appealing despite a few edge tears, a bit of soiling and some minor offsetting. Upper right corner of the title-page discolored where the cover corner was detached. Now protected in a green cloth-covered clamshell box with a color photocopy of the title-page mounted on front. The Woggle-Bugs were not mentioned in any of the standard published Oz books. Their existence was revealed by Baum in "Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz," a series of 27 weekly stories that were published in various Sunday newspapers in 1904. These stories were not collected and published in book form until 2009. This rare book recounts the subsequent non-Oz adventures of Mr. H. M. Woggle-Bug after he becomes separated from his companions. See Bibliographia Oziana, by Greene and Hanff at pages 78-80 (in the Revised 1988 edition) for more about this book and detail as to how copies with this gray-green background field were established as the 1st State contrary to previously accepted cover priority. Good. Item #85651
Price: $2,500.00