I was just reading a book of trivia lists by a British author. One of the items he included was the results of a 1997 BBC on the ten best children’s novels. But I was surprised by the omission of what I’d regard as one of the most famous children’s books; The Wizard of Oz.
Then I considered it is an American book set in an American background. Maybe it’s just well known in the United States.
So, how well known is The Wizard of Oz (and its sequels) in the United Kingdom? A classic; something you’ve heard of; a book you know because of the movie; an American thing; or an obscure novel you know nothing about?
I don’t know about the situation in the UK, but I doubt that *The Wizard of Oz * would make it into any list of the Top 10 children’s books here.
I’ve always thought of it mainly in terms of the old film. I did actually read a copy as a child and wasn’t especially impressed. I didn’t realise that there were sequels until a few years ago when I saw other Oz titles in a bookshop.
I grew up in the UK, and although I was aware of the Oz books, I never read any (neither, as far as I knew, did any of my friends). I probably saw the 1939 movie on TV as a kid (although perhaps not), but it didn’t register as iconic.
When I became seriously involved with my first American girlfriend, and mutual cultural immersion took place, the 1939 movie (not the books) was at the very top of the list of hoops for me to jump through. After the first serious viewing, a discussion took place (this was in France, among ex-patriots) involving me and a bunch of Americans, to test whether or not my understanding of the movie was sufficient to continue dating her. Something like the premarital football test in Diner (1982). [I passed.]
The equivalent test in the other direction was that she had to read the Lewis Carroll “Alice” books and the A.A. Milne “Winnie the Pooh” books, in order to realize that they weren’t original Disney creations, and that the WD movies suck compared to the books.
[The next cultural requirement for me was It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). Go ahead, ask me questions about TWoZ or IaWL!]
Erratum in the last line of the previous post:
That should read TWoO, not TWoZ.
I’ve just reread The Annotated Wizard of Oz. It’s sad how far the fame of these books have fallen. They were once immensely popular. It was the fame of the books that made the 1939 movie a success, not the other way around. Stage spectaculars featuring TWoO were sellouts and made the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodsman household figures decades before the MGM movie, which was far from the first film based on Baum’s boooks. Baum wrote something like twenty books, and the series was continued after his death by Ruth Plumly Thompson (and after hers by some guy whose name I can’t recall. Martin Gardner and Philip Jose Farmer have written Oz books, too.)
One interesting point the annotator makes is that, although we often attribute the best kids’ books to the UK (Peter Pan, The Hobbit, Beatrrix Potter, Harry Potter, etc.), the Oz books were a rare case of extremely popular books by an American author. I don’t recall what he said about the popularity of the books outyside the US, but I’d wager it was pretty high.
Nowadays the popularity even in the US has slipped, bt not completely vanished. Back around 1980 Del Rey published all of the Oz books in paperback. The fact that they’re not still in print is, I think, significant. Nevertheless, Dover still has the first ten or so in print, and in exotic colored type, with colored illustratioons. Worth looking p.