What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

OK, this is slightly different, but hopefully not too off-topic! I am looking for a specific set of Wizard of Oz books that a childhood friend had, 20 or more years ago. They were large hardcovers, either all in one color, like green, or possibly in several similar colors. They probably had a color illustration inset on the front cover. I seem to remember gold embossing, but I may be confusing them with the encyclopedias I was also borrowing from her at that time (strange how the mind works). I believe that all of the Oz books were represented in this set. They were extremely nice and I was always jealous of them and would like to have them for myself, even now! The problem is that I have no idea of the publisher or publishing date, so it makes it hard to Google for it... I hope someone else remembers these! Many thanks and much appreciated.

EDIT: ok, by "all books" I mean the original 14 books by Baum. :)

I remember seeing these at the public libarary. They were all green with a different color highlighting the title, etc.. on the spine. I have no other info, but would suggest going to the library and asking about different editions.

W.W. Denslow did the classic illustrations of the Oz series, with the Cowardly Lion with the bow on top of his head. I think that there is a series with his illustrations that are bound in green, with either black screen printed illustrations on the covers, or set in color illustrations.

Reilly & Britton published a really early set of the books with John R. Neill's illustrations, but those are published in different colors, with different full color illustrations on the fronts.

Hope this helps!

That does sound right, although none of the libraries I've been to have had this particular set. Was it recently enough that I could contact the library you went to for info?

*sigh* No. This was back when I was like 12. It was the Milcreek Library in the Salt Lake County Library System though. They MAY still have it.

This may be a shot it the dark, but is this what you are looking for? http://cgi.ebay.com/Wizard-of-Oz-Thir...

Not to be pedantic, but Denslow only illustrated two books (Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Scarecrow and Tin-Man of Oz); all other Baum Oz books were illustrated by Neill.

There is an International Wizard of Oz Club (http://www.ozclub.org/) and you may be able to learn more about the various versions there.

Thanks for your info, Heron! (I forgot to include that last time.)

The ebay book looks like the edition I already have! Funny. I'm pretty sure it's much older than the set I'm looking for; the way I remember the set, it may have been bound in a more "traditional" way so that it looked older than it really was. If that makes sense. But thanks for thinking of me!

Thanks for the link to the club, Lazygal! I'll check it out. (And I'm fascinated with the stuff I'm learning about the Oz books as I'm researching this; although, unfortunately, I don't remember the illustrations from my set at all, so they could be completely new, for all I know!)

There is a white cover edition I've seen before that includes the entire set, but other than all of the volumes being the same color, I'm not really sure if it sounds like what you're describing. You should also check out the inventory at www.rareozbooks.com, if you haven't already. There are pictures of lots of different editions of the books.