With the success these past two weeks of the new movie, Oz, the Great and Powerful, I am reminded of several Oz-related books held in the Rare Book Collection in the Special Collections. Unfortunately, we do not hold a first edition of the original 1900 book by L. Frank Baum, nor any subsequent titles from the series, but we do have a more recent publication of this timeless classic, as imagined by noted artist and UTC alumnus Barry Moser. Published in 1986, and titled, L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Moser illustrated this story with his wood-etchings, giving us another visual perspective to the colorful characters in the story, and quite a departure from those in the classic 1939 film.
