List of Oz books
The Oz books form a book series that begins with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and relates the fictional history of the Land of Oz. Oz was created by author L. Frank Baum, who went on to write fourteen full-length Oz books. Baum styled himself as "the Royal Historian of Oz" in order to emphasize the concept that Oz is an actual place on Earth, full of magic. In his Oz books, Baum created the illusion that characters such as Dorothy and Princess Ozma relayed their adventures in Oz to Baum themselves, by means of a wireless telegraph.
After Baum's death in 1919, publisher Reilly & Lee continued to produce annual Oz books, passing on the role of Royal Historian. Ruth Plumly Thompson took up the task in 1921, and wrote nineteen Oz books. After Thompson, Reilly & Lee published seven more books in the series: three by John R. Neill, two by Jack Snow, one by Rachel Cosgrove Payes, and a final book by Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren Lynn McGraw. The forty books in Reilly & Lee's Oz series are called "the Famous Forty" by fans, and are considered the canonical Oz texts.
Books by L. Frank Baum
''Oz'' books
Story collections and other works
In addition to the canonical Oz books, several of Baum's works that are not Oz stories are nevertheless nominally set in the same fictional universe as the Oz books, and include several character crossovers. These are: Dot and Tot of Merryland, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, The Magical Monarch of Mo, The Enchanted Island of Yew, Queen Zixi of Ix, John Dough and the Cherub, The Sea Fairies and Sky Island.The rest of the "Famous Forty"
Following Baum's death, publisher Reilly & Lee continued publishing annual Oz books, selecting new Royal Historians to record the latest Oz doings. These books, together with Baum's original fourteen novels, form the "Famous Forty", and are considered the canonical books of the series.Ruth Plumly Thompson's style was markedly different from Baum's. Her tales harked back to more traditional fairy tales. She often included a small kingdom, with a prince or princess who saves his or her kingdom and regains the throne or saves Oz from invasion.
Books by Ruth Plumly Thompson
Thompson wrote two additional novels in the 1970s which are not included in the "Famous Forty": Yankee in Oz and The Enchanted Island of Oz, both List of Oz books#Books published by the International [Wizard of Oz Club|published by the International Wizard of Oz Club].Books by John R. Neill
Illustrator John R. Neill's vision of Oz is more manic than Thompson or Baum's. Houses often get up and do battle, and everything can be alive. His entries take Oz's color scheme to an extreme, extending it to sky and skin colors.Books by Jack Snow
Jack Snow was a Baum scholar, and even offered to take over the series at age twelve when Baum died. Snow's books lack any characters created by Thompson or Neill, although he did create his own.Book by Rachel Cosgrove Payes
Book by Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren Lynn McGraw
Additional books
Books published by the International Wizard of Oz Club
Books recognized by L. Frank Baum's Family Trust
Additional books by the earlier writers
Books by other writers
Some are in line with the originals, while others deviate in various ways.Short stories
Stories by L. Frank Baum
Stories by other writers of the "Famous Forty"
Alternative ''Oz'' books
Below are some books that deal with alternate versions of Oz, which do not follow the Oz canon originally established by L. Frank Baum.Books by Gregory Maguire
American novelist Gregory Maguire explored Oz themes in Wicked Years">Wicked (Maguire novel)">Wicked Years series between 1995 and 2011, then extended that work with his Another Day series starting in 2021.| Title | Year | Notes |
| Wicked | 1995 | It is a parallel novel written by Maguire and illustrated by Douglas Smith. Based upon the writings of L. Frank Baum, it is a revisionist look at the land and characters of Oz, drawing primarily from Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. The novel was adapted to a Broadway musical in 2003, and a two-part film released in 2024 & 2025. |
| Son of a Witch | 2005 | A sequel to Wicked, focusing on Elphaba's son Liir. |
| A Lion Among Men | 2008 | The third book in "The Wicked Years", telling the life story of the Cowardly Lion. |
| Out of Oz | 2011 | The fourth and final volume in "The Wicked Years", focusing on the life of Rain, daughter of Liir and granddaughter of Elphaba. The story also includes Dorothy's return to Oz, as well as the appearance of Tip and Mombi from The Marvelous Land of Oz. |
| Tales Told in Oz | 2012 | A collection of five short stories exploring the folklore of Oz in "The Wicked Years." |
| The Brides of Maracoor | 2021 | The first volume in the series "Another Day", set after "The Wicked Years" and centered on Rain, Elphaba's granddaughter. |
| The Oracle of Maracoor | 2022 | The second volume of "Another Day". |
| The Witch of Maracoor | 2023 | The third and final volume of "Another Day". |
| Elphie: A Wicked Childhood | 2025 | A prequel to "The Wicked Years" centered on Elphaba. |
| Galinda: A Charmed Childhood | 2026 | A prequel to "The Wicked Years" centered on Glinda. |
Books by Alexander Volkov">Alexander Volkov (writer)">Alexander Volkov
Alexander Volkov was a Russian novelist who published his own series of Oz novels called the Magic Land books, for readers in Soviet Russia, China and East Germany. His first book, published in 1939, was a translation and adaptation of Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but the further books that he wrote in the 1960s and 70s were entirely Volkov's invention.| Title | Year | Notes |
| The Wizard of the Emerald City | 1939, 1959 | Volkov's original adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Ellie, 9, and her puppy Totoshka are carried in a hurricane to the Magic Land. After the first shock of the beauty of the land and Totoshka's sudden gift of wise speech, they meet the Fairy of the Yellow Land, Villina, who tells them that she has allowed their house to be taken by the wind to land on the head of Gingema, the Wicked Witch of the Blue Land, and kill her. Now Ellie is called "The Fairy of the Killing House" and is worshipped by the people around. Villina tells Ellie to follow the Yellow Brick Road to find Goodwin, the Great and the Horrible, the ruler of the Magic Land, who lives in the Emerald City. He is supposed to bring Ellie back home to her parents if she fulfills the greatest wishes of three creatures that she will meet on the way. They set off, Ellie wearing the silver shoes that Totoshka has found in Gingema's house. They meet Strashila the scarecrow, who dreams of having a brain, The Iron Woodman, who dreams of a heart, and the Cowardly Lion, who dreams about courage. This novel is nearly the same as the original, with a few changes and additions. |
| Urfin Dzhus and His Wooden Soldiers | 1963 | The first of Volkov's sequels, all of which have nearly nothing to do with Baum's. In this one, set one year after the events in the first novel, Urfin Dzhus, a former servant of Gingema, discovers a magical powder that brings things to life. He then creates an army of wooden soldiers and sets off to conquer the Magic Land. On her farm in Kansas, Ellie meets a crow bearing a pictured message: Strashila and The Iron Woodman behind bars. Ellie and her uncle, the wooden-legged seaman Charlie Black, set off through the desert and the mountains to help their friends. |
| Seven Kings of the Underground | 1964 | Trapped in a huge cave after a collapse, Ellie, now 11, Totoshka and Ellie's cousin Fred are forced to move further into the cave. They end up in the underground of the Magic Land, in the Land of the Seven Kings of the Underground, which is currently caught up in a serious political crisis. The people recognize Ellie as the Fairy of the Killing House and keep her hostage, forcing her to use her magical powers to restore the Magical Spring of Sleepy Water that keeps the order in the country. It is up to Fred now to find a way out to seek help from Ellie's friends. |
| The Fiery God of the Marrans | 1968 | Urfin Dzhus deceives the backward marrans, who until then did not know how to control fire, with the help of the injured eagle Karfax, whom he nursed back to health, and the lighter of the one-legged sailor Charlie Black. He persuaded them to wage war against the winkers and the Emerald City. With the help of Ellie's sister Ann, her boyfriend Tim O'Kelli, Arthur, a grandson of the dog Toto and two mechanical ponies and a grandiose volleyball game, the heroes succeed in defeating Urfin this time as well. |
| The Yellow Fog | 1970 | A giant witch named Arachna wakes up after a 5,000 years' sleep. She wishes to rule the Magic Land, but seeing that the people would not surrender, sends on them an eerie Yellow Fog that threatens to bring eternal winter and poison all the people, eventually causing mass death and destruction. The people of the Magic Land Once seal rooms to hide inside and use the leaves of a certain tree as gas masks, but this cannot last forever. Annie, Ellie's younger sister, her friend Tim, and Artoshka, Totoshka's grandson, accompanied by Charlie Black, rush to the rescue. Charlie builds a giant piloted robot who defeats the witch. |
| The Secret of the Abandoned Castle | 1976, 1982 | This time the people of the Magic Land have to deal with an alien invasion. The inseparable Annie and Tim, now 12 and 13, along with Fred the engineer, arrive to help their friends. They discover that the aliens are not united: some of them, the Arzaks, are enslaved to the Menvits through their hypnotic eyes. The guests from the Outer World discover that the Magic Land may hold the key to the Arzaks' freedom. |