TIK-TOK OF OZ by Baum, L. Frank - 1914

Chicago: The Reilly & Britton Co, 1914. Very good. First edition, first state of this eighth Oz book, starring the politest mechanical man in literature, with the best mustache. This installment in Baum's Oz series was based on the 1913 stage production "The Tik-Tok Man of Oz," with music composed by Louis F. Gottschalk, to whom the book is dedicated. Tik-Tok, the clockwork automaton first introduced in 1907's OZMA OF OZ, was one of literature's early and notable proto-robots, with a genteel mustache and spherical shape made iconic by Neill's illustrations and a popular appeal that other mechanical men could only dream of.

Full of original material not found in the stage show, TIK-TOK notably features several of Baum's typically megalomaniacal little girls who yearn to bestride this narrow world like a Colossus; Baum, relative-by-marriage of numerous women's suffragists and reformers, looked on his many little Caesars with an eye alternately satirical and admiring. 9'' X 6.75''. Original pictorial boards. Inserted (as issued) endpapers illustrated in color with maps of Oz and surrounding nations. 6 book listed in ads on verso of half title. Illustrated with 12 full-page color plates and numerous black-and-white images. [2], 272 pages. A bit of residue on verso of front endpaper. Only faint rubbing to boards, gentle toning to spine.