Book Patrol

Tag: The Wizard of Oz

Denslow’s OZ

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      Of the 14 books in L. Frank Baum's beloved Wizard of Oz series only one was illustrated by W.W. Denslow. As it turns out, it was a big one. For it was Denslow that illustrated the first volume, Wizard of Oz, published in 1900, and visually introduced us to Dorothy and the gang.   Though many of us think of John R. Neill when thinking of Oz illustrators it was Denslow's  "depictions of Dorothy, Toto, and all the other creatures and landscapes of Oz have become so iconic as to be inseparable from Baum’s story."1    ...

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Art Students Rework The Wizard of Oz

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Type designer and illustrator Jessica Hische came up with this project for her students at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia:"I decided to assign one main project with multiple components — book cover design + endpapers, titlepage, and bookplate for a special edition novelization of The Wizard of Oz.""This was literally the first time some of the students had worked with type, so I was expecting to have to do a lot of hand-holding. But, after a very brief lesson, they returned the following week with shockingly amazing type treatments!"You can see more cover designs and all the corresponding...

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Urgent Dispatch to Oz: Emerald City Library Needs Cash

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The Seattle Public Library, one of the crown jewels of "The Emerald City" will be closing its doors, both real and virtual, for an entire week beginning Monday, August 31. The fact that one of the most book-friendly cities in the United States cannot keep its libraries open due to lack of funding is distressing in the extreme, and does not bode well for other municipalities.Nationwide, public libraries are being used more than ever according to the American Library Association. The trend is evident at the San Francisco Public Library which reports increases of 30% in customers, and 15% in...

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