The Oz books, 1900–1920
by @timescrolly1900 – 1920136 items
booksfantasyozFourteen books, each in the year it appeared
L. Frank Baum wrote fourteen books about the Land of Oz, from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900 to Glinda of Oz in 1920, which appeared after his death. Each book here is a period, and its main events sit inside it, linked to the characters, places and peoples they name.
Baum gives no dates for anything that happens in Oz, so every event is placed in the year its book appeared. Within a year the events run in the order the book tells them, spread from January to December; the month only says how far into the book an event is. This is fiction, drawn from Baum’s own books and nothing later.
“It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.” L. Frank Baum, introduction to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, 1900
What to try
The map view places events on John R. Neill’s 1914 map of the countries round Oz. The map swaps east and west, so the Munchkin Country is on its left.
Entities: open Ozma, Glinda or the Nome King to see what rules, joins or opposes them.
Layers: in The Emerald City of Oz, The Lost Princess of Oz and The Magic of Oz, layer 1 follows the heroes and layer 2 the plot against them.
Links between events, some across books: Dorothy’s belt, the Powder of Life and the Water of Oblivion each come back years later.
Tags: filter by journey, magic, witches, monarchy, war, companions or arrivals. Every event cites the Project Gutenberg edition by chapter.
Dorothy’s own five visits to Oz are on a second timeline, which follows her route across the same map.
Items
A cyclone lifts Dorothy’s house off the Kansas prairie
The house falls on the Wicked Witch of the East
Dorothy lifts the Scarecrow off his pole
Dorothy oils the Tin Woodman
The Cowardly Lion joins the party
The party crosses the Deadly Poppy Field
The Wizard sends them to kill the Wicked Witch of the West
Dorothy melts the Wicked Witch of the West
The Winged Monkeys carry the travellers back
Toto uncovers the Great Humbug
The Wizard leaves by balloon without Dorothy
Glinda sends Dorothy home in the silver shoes
- ≈ 3 years
Tip carves a pumpkin man and Mombi brings him to life
Tip runs away and wakes the Saw-Horse
Jack Pumpkinhead meets the Scarecrow King
Jinjur’s Army of Revolt takes the Emerald City
The Scarecrow finds the Tin Woodman nickel-plated
The Woggle-Bug tells how he was highly magnified
The Gump flies the party over the walls
Glinda marches on the Emerald City
Mombi confesses that Tip is Ozma
Ozma takes the throne of the Emerald City
- ≈ 2 years
A storm sweeps Dorothy overboard on the way to Australia
Dorothy and Billina wash up in the Land of Ev
Dorothy winds up Tiktok
Princess Langwidere locks Dorothy in a tower
Ozma crosses the desert on Glinda’s magic carpet
Ozma loses the Nome King’s game of eleven guesses
Billina’s egg undoes the Nome King
Dorothy takes the Nome King’s magic belt
Dorothy gives the magic belt to Ozma
An earthquake swallows Dorothy’s buggy at Hugson’s Siding
The Wizard drifts down into the Mangaboo country
Dorothy and the Wizard pick the Mangaboo Princess
The Mangaboos wall the animals into a glass mountain
In the Valley of Voe the damas make you invisible
A bonfire holds off the Wooden Gargoyles
Ozma uses the Magic Belt to bring the castaways to Oz
Eureka is tried for eating a piglet
Dorothy goes back to Kansas and Zeb to California
The Shaggy Man asks Dorothy the way to Butterfield
King Dox gives Button-Bright a fox’s head
Polychrome joins the party
King Kik-a-bray gives the Shaggy Man a donkey’s head
The Scoodlers throw their heads at the travellers
Johnny Dooit builds a boat that sails on sand
The Truth Pond restores the travellers’ heads
Ozma’s birthday draws guests from every fairyland
The Nome King swears to take back his belt
Uncle Henry has thirty days to pay the mortgage
Ozma moves Uncle Henry and Aunt Em to the Emerald City
General Guph recruits the Whimsies, Growleywogs and Phanfasms
Dorothy’s family tours Ozma’s country
Dorothy, lost in a forest, lunches with the Rabbit King
Ozma refuses to fight for her kingdom
The Nome army tunnels under the Deadly Desert
The invaders drink at the Forbidden Fountain
Glinda’s spell cuts Oz off from the world
- ≈ 2 years
The Historian reaches Oz by wireless telegraph
Ojo and Unc Nunkie set out for the Crooked Magician
Margolotte sews the Patchwork Girl
A spilled liquid turns Unc Nunkie to marble
Ojo meets the Woozy
Ojo picks a six-leaved clover and is jailed
The Tin Woodman refuses to let a butterfly be hurt
The Wizard breaks the spell on the marble statues
Queen Ann of Oogaboo marches to conquer Oz
Betsy Bobbin and Hank are shipwrecked on the Rose Kingdom’s shore
The Rain King spills his basin and Polychrome loses her rainbow
The Army of Oogaboo meets Tik-Tok and the exiles
Ruggedo drops the travellers down the Hollow Tube
The Jinjin sentences Ruggedo
Quox breaks the Nome King’s charms
Kaliko becomes King of the Nomes
Ozma sends the Oogaboo army home and Betsy comes to Oz
A whirlpool swallows Trot and Cap’n Bill’s boat
The Ork carries two shrunken castaways
Blinkie the Witch freezes Princess Gloria’s heart
Glinda reads of strangers in Jinxland
The Scarecrow deposes King Krewl
The Scarecrow shrinks Blinkie with Glinda’s powder
Gloria is crowned and Krewl becomes the gardener
Trot and Cap’n Bill are welcomed to Oz
King Rinkitink visits Prince Inga on Pingaree
Warriors from the twin islands destroy Pingaree
Inga recovers his father’s three pearls
Inga turns Gos’s army out of Regos
Rinkitink throws Inga’s shoe at a cat
Inga lends Rinkitink the Pink Pearl
Dorothy and the Wizard come to Kaliko’s cavern
Ozma’s banquet welcomes Pingaree’s royal family
Ozma vanishes from the Emerald City
Glinda’s book and Cayke’s dishpan are stolen the same morning
Search parties set out in four directions
Dorothy’s search party crosses the Merry-Go-Round Mountains
The Frogman and Cayke meet the Lavender Bear
The two search parties meet below Ugu’s wicker castle
Ugu the Shoemaker explains his plan
Ugu the Shoemaker is turned into a dove
Ozma is found in a peach pit
Woot the Wanderer asks the Tin Woodman about his heart
Mrs. Yoop turns the travellers into animals
Ozma restores the travellers at Jinjur’s ranch
Woot meets Captain Fyter, a tin soldier
The Tin Woodman finds his own head in Ku-Klip’s cupboard
Nimmie Amee keeps her husband Chopfyt
Ozma declines to blame Ku-Klip
Kiki Aru finds his father’s secret word
Ruggedo and Kiki Aru plot to conquer Oz
Ozma’s friends plan her birthday presents
Trot and Cap’n Bill are stuck fast on the Magic Isle
Kiki Aru turns the Wizard and Dorothy into a fox and a lamb
The Wizard overhears the Magic Word
The Wizard’s magic fails, and the Magic Word turns two castaways into bees
Dorothy has the plotters drink the Water of Oblivion
Glinda’s Book of Records tells of a war between the Skeezers and the Flatheads
The Su-dic of the Flatheads shows Ozma his cans of brains
Ozma and Dorothy reach the Skeezers’ Magic Isle
Coo-ee-oh sinks the island
The Su-dic turns Coo-ee-oh into a Diamond Swan
Dorothy’s ring rings Glinda’s alarm bell
Glinda lowers the lake and Ozma raises the island