Oz is not the only otherworld out there!

Continuity notes: L. Frank Baum collaborated with Prince Silverwings author Edith Ogden Harrison on a 1904 musical extravaganza (which never came to pass), a stage-play that saw the beginnings of the Nome King, Trot, Polychrome, and the premise of three Oz books.  It seems appropriate then to consider this work as part of the Ozian universe. 

There is one seeming contradiction, however.  In "The City of the Sea King," Harrison establishes that the Mer-folk were first established by the marriage of a mortal Princess Selpan to the Sea King, which is how the mermaids came about.  In The Sea Fairies, however, Clia says, "But the mermaids lived before fishes and before mankind."  Harrison's story can be viewed as such: the Sea King did take a mortal princess to be his bride, but she wasn't the first mermaid, as mermaids existed prior to humans, but rather the first of a certain kind of mermaid.

The stories included in this volume appear to describe a much older time period, perhaps taking place in a Borderlands country like Yew or Ix, or even a pre-Oz Oz.  In one story, the land is called the Happy Valley. 

Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (includes Jabberwocky)

Zauberlinda, the Wise Witch

History: This well written story by Eva Katherine Gibson takes place in what could be termed “nature’s fairyland,” and more closely resembles what Baum would later do with his Twinkle Tales and Policeman Bluejay.  It has been wrongly denigrated as an Oz imitator, in part because its layout resembles Denslow’s work on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and there is a little girl from the Black Hills of South Dakota who goes on an adventure to a fairy land with her pet cat, and a Good Witch who wields a wand with a ‘Z’ on it, remarkably like the ‘OZ’ wand seen held by the Good Witch of the North, but her role serves a different purpose. There is also a megalomaniacal “Gnome King” with his underground dominion, but he precedes Baum’s by at least three years. 

The Pumpernickel Press edition contains articles by Phyllis Ann Karr and Sean Duffley, which discuss the similarities and departures, as well as the many merits of this story.  An adaptation was published by the South Dakota State Historical Society Press (who also did two Baum adaptations The Discontented Gopher and the Enchanted Buffalo) called The Prairie Dog Prince.

Continuity notes:

Circus: While Annie says it's the "greatest show on earth," which would seem to be a reference to Ringling Bros & Barnum & Bailey Circus," there are several factors to consider, not least of which is that it appears that they never came to her town.  She notes the date as June 21st (the date of her birthday).  But there is no Cave City known by that name in South Dakota, although, South Dakota is home to several of the world's most extensive cave-systems, so perhaps the author was using an older tribal name, or a colloquial name for one of the nearby cities.  Annie says she lives near Wind Cave (which does exist) and the closest city to her is Hot Springs, which seems to be where the circus comes, as the trip her friend Pete makes to the city is within a day's time by wagon, as he leaves in the morning and is back by evening.  The only circus that appears to have visited Hot Springs (or really any nearby city) was the Lemen Bros on May 19th, 1898 (they came to Rapid City the day before), who with 20 cars, featured a three-ring circus with an elephant, lions, tigers, white horses, lady riders and other descriptions that Annie reads about in the flyer. See here:

Ringling Bros did pay a visit to Huron, South Dakota on June 21st, 1897, but as Huron is five hours away from Wind Cave by automobile, it appears that the author conflated the two circus visits, merging them for her "Cave City."  In view of the story, it can be either assumed that Annie also conflated the two, missed the nearby May 19th circus, and had her adventures on June 21st, the date another circus was visiting her state.

Connections: The link between Oz, Pix-Sylvania and the Enchanted Wood, the Wise Witch Zauberlinda, the Great Shamaness, the Tah-Tipuu of Oz, the Gnome King Goldemar, the Gnome King Kwytoffle (of Prince Silverwings) and the Nome King Roquat, and other links will be established in an upcoming work.  Goldemar might be king at this time due to the fact that Roquat was turned into a lizard by Glinda in 1893 (see Cory in Oz).

Yama Yama Land

Story: Sylvia's 10th birthday is marked by the departure of her uncle Jack to the North Pole, and an earthquake which takes her into an interior world.  There, she meets a kind Yama named Bibbo who guides her through several strange places.

Continuity Notes: The date is April 18, 1906, as the story is set in motion by the San Francisco earthquake.

Considered an Oz imitator, author Boylan's hollow-earth story was based on a popular song ("The Yama Yama Man") of the time.  Boylan was a friend of Baum and Gibson (Zauberlinda the Wise Witch). 

History: From 1902 to 1905, Baum intended to produce a stage-production of an earlier version of The King of Gee-Whiz (of which a scenario of the story has been published in Alla T. Ford's The Musical Fantasies of L. Frank Baum) that was first called Montezuma, then The Son of the Sun, and finally The King of Gee-Whiz, which never came to pass. Hough eventually decided to rewrite the story and publish it as a book, which he did the following year in 1906. As Baum had worked with author Emerson Hough on this project, it seems appropriate to consider this story as taking place in Baum's larger universe. 

Story: Forthcoming

Continuity notes:

History: This 21 page pamphlet, published by Eldridge Entertainment House in 1913, and written as a play by Elizabeth F. Guptill, has been cited as one of several attempts to cash in on the success of the Oz phenomenon, but any connections are purely tenuous 

Story: Dorothy—not Dorothy Gale; has an adventure with her brother, named Reginald. Tote—not Toto—is a child from Mars, and there are bad fairies called “Winkies”—not Winkies from Oz. In the story, Santa takes wandering children back to Earth.

Continuity notes

(aka. The Little White Bird, or Adventures in Kensington Gardens)

Peter and Wendy

Synopsis and continuity notes: Forthcoming

The Mysterious Island

Synopsis and continuity notes: Forthcoming

Tales of the Magic Land