History Literature / LandOfOz

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: A frequent plot device of the later books especially is to either send the established quartet off on a quest through remote and uncharted corners of the land, or have the remote uncharted ''etc.'''s inhabitants quest off towards the Emerald City. The net result is an entirely new assortment of characters in each book, in most cases complete with backstories. Oz books written in years after Baum's death introduced still ''more'' characters this way.

* PopCulturalOsmosis: The Oz books arguably have more of a pop-cultural impact than the movie.

The book has had 39 official sequels published by Reilly & Lee, with the originals generally being called "The Famous Forty", 13 of the sequels being written by Baum, and 35 books illustrated by John R. Neill. L. Frank Baum wrote the second book only to capitalize on the success of the stage version of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''. Reilly & Lee convinced him to write an additional four books, and Baum attempted to end the series after book six, only to be forced to return to the series three years later after some poor theater investments and poor sales on his other fantasy series starring the characters Trot and Cap'n Bill (who were later imported into the Oz books). He wrote a total of 14 books before his death in 1919. With L. Frank Baum's widow Maud Baum's blessing, the series was continued by five different authors (with Ruth Plumly Thompson, the first to continue the series, eventually publishing more Oz books than even Baum). The books came out basically yearly until the output began to slow down in TheForties, after Thompson left the series and Neill's untimely passing. The last book was published in 1963, 63 years after the first book, with many unauthorised sequels and spinoffs coming afterward once the books began passing into the public domain, including a few by former authors of the Famous Forty, which some fans may consider at least as good as canon, but still unofficial. Here's a list of titles:

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: The Soldier With the Green Whiskers (aka Omby Amby) and the maid of the Emerald Palace Jellia Jamb are said to have green hair. This is common in the other quadrants of Oz as well, as Munchkins or Gillikins are occasionally said to have blue or purple hair or beards, respectively.

* WitchSpecies: ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' [[TropeMakers introduced this trope]], according to Martin Gardner. Apparently Creator/LFrankBaum wanted to avoid religious objections from parents on the grounds that witches are the result of a DealWithTheDevil and thus there cannot be good witches, so he made witchcraft an inherent trait and classified witches as good or evil based on how they used their magic, not the magic's origin.

* RomanticTwoGirlFriendship: Dorothy and Ozma. They kiss often, and by the sixth book Ozma makes Dorothy her Princess.

The first 20 books are now public domain in the United States. With the expiration of the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act, ''The Cowardly Lion of Oz'' entered the US public domain in 2019, and the next book, ''Grampa in Oz'', entered public domain in 2020. This will continue yearly unless another copyright extension law is passed. Thompson's final five books entered the public domain decades ago when the publisher failed to renew their copyright; this is also true of both of Jack Snow's books. Books that are still under copyright can be significantly harder to track down, with many of them being out of print.

However, these books are not necessarily PD in other countries. Since Baum died in 1919, all of his books are PD worldwide. For example, none of Thompson's books are PD in the EU or UK. Both entities base their copyright terms on the lifespan of the creator—to be exact, works enter the PD on the January 1 that follows the 70th anniversary of the creator's death. Because Thompson lived until 1976, her books won't be in the EU or UK PD until 2047.

* ''The Hungry Tiger of Oz'' (1926)

The first 19 books are now public domain. With the expiration of the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act, ''The Cowardly Lion of Oz'' entered the public domain in 2019, and the next book, ''Grampa in Oz'', entered public domain in 2020. This will continue yearly unless another copyright extension law is passed. Thompson's final five books entered the public domain decades ago when the publisher failed to renew their copyright; this is also true of both of Jack Snow's books. Books that are still under copyright can be significantly harder to track down, with many of them being out of print.

* ''[[http://manybooks.net/titles/thompsonrother07royal_book_of_oz.html The Royal Book of Oz]]'' (1921)
* ''[[http://dorothyozma.tripod.com/kabumpo.htm Kabumpo in Oz]]'' (1922)

* FunnyRobot: General Tik-Tok , a helpful [[ClockworkCreature a clockwork man]] and RobotBuddy to the other characters. Usually he's very serious, but he can be ''very'' funny when his brain winds down before his voice and movements do; without any actual thinking to govern it, he wanders aimlessly and blabbers nonsensically until someone winds up his thought mechanism.

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Baumian dragons tend to be extremely long-lived (the dragonettes in ''Literature/DorothyAndTheWizardInOz'' are mere hatchlings but are said to be 66 years old, while their mother is over two thousand), hibernate underground for long periods of time (the dragons Woot the Wanderer meets in ''Literature/TheTinWoodmanOfOz'' sleep for a hundred years and only awaken to eat), and have very long bodies (like Quox in ''Literature/TikTokOfOz''). They're generally not friendly to humans.

* ''The Lost King of Oz'' (1925)

* TransAudienceInterpretation: Princess Ozma of the Land of Oz series grew up as a young boy named Tip, but she was born female, this was a spell cast on her as a baby by the witch Mombi to hide her identity. The spell was undone, and not much more was ever said about it in the original books (not surprisingly since they were written in the early 1900s). Modern fan fiction writers however often have Ozma’s transition be much less seamless than it appeared, making her either a TomboyPrincess, or giving her even more severe gender identity issues. Whether or not she still feels more like the boy she grew up as inside or identifies as a female varies.

The first 18 books are now public domain. Most recently ''The Cowardly Lion of Oz'' entered the public domain in 2019, and the next book, ''Grampa in Oz'', entered public domain in 2020. This will continue yearly unless another copyright extension law is passed. Thompson's final five books entered the public domain decades ago when the publisher failed to renew their copyright; this is also true of both of Jack Snow's books. Books that are still under copyright can be significantly harder to track down, with many of them being out of print.

* LineOfSightName: "Oz" was named after a file cabinet labeled "O-Z" in Baum's office. (Or so Baum claimed after the fact, his wife Maud was among those who disputed this statement.)

* GodCreatedCanonForeigner: Trot, Cap'n Bill and Button-Bright all originally appeared in a separate series created by Baum, but got shifted to Oz after said series failed to catch on commercially. Santa Claus is technically an example as well, originally appearing a Baum-written book detailing his life and adventures before making a cameo in the Oz books.

* LineOfSightName: "Oz" was named after a file cabinet labeled "O-Z" in Baum's office.

* NoNameGiven: The "shaggy man", who is indeed shaggy and unkempt. He first appears in ''The Road to Oz'' when he runs into Dorothy in Kansas and winds up wandering into Oz with her, turning into her guardian and companion. He is never named.

* PumpkinPerson: The series has a rare ''non''-evil version with Jack Pumpkinhead, who is introduced in ''Literature/TheMarvelousLandOfOz'' and shows up in several of the later Oz books (eventually getting one named after him: ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Pumpkinhead_of_Oz Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz]]''), as well as appearing as a character in ''Film/ReturnToOz''. He is basically a wooden scarecrow with a carved pumpkin head brought to life by a magic powder. His pumpkin heads eventually rot, so he keeps a pumpkin patch to replenish them, and Ozma carves him a new face. The old heads are buried in a graveyard at his house.

* SignatureHeadgear: Princess Ozma usually wears a tall gold crown, a tiara with the OZ symbol (a large “O” with a “Z” inside), and big red poppies over both ears like earmuffs. John R. Neill was the first to illustrate her this way, as Baum doesn't mention it in the text.

* TheUnreveal: The parentage of Button-Bright, the little boy that Dorothy randomly encounters in ''The Road to Oz''. He has no idea what his name is or who his parents are. When Dorothy meets Santa Claus towards the end of the book, she asks where Button-Bright comes from, but Santa doesn't tell. In the end, Santa sends Button-Bright home in a magic bubble. Where he comes from or why he was just sitting by the side of the road when Dorothy and the Shaggy Man encountered him is never explained.

** The Dicks of Dicksy Land are "queer" about their shoes and their diets. The puns are enough to make one ponder if Thompson really was GettingCrapPastTheRadar.

* TheHerosJourney: Most of the books follow this plotline. The first book in particular is one of the textbook examples held up in modern times.