It would have been difficult for anyone to succeed L. Frank Baum as the Royal Historian of Oz, but Ruth Plumly Thompson did so admirably. As she was quick to admit, Thompson, in writing nineteen to Baum's fourteen Oz books, created more characters and adventures than did her predecessor, and she earned a following nearly as large and ardent as Baum had. While her books may lack the philosophical and imaginative depth of Baum's best stories, Thompson's tales nevertheless consistently possess a zest, a vitality noticeably wanting in Baum's more somber interludes in his Oz books. She characterized her fairy tales as always "full of amusing adventures, curious countries, and comical characters." Consequently, her books ramble from incident to incident; the author herself once said that when she began a book, she never knew where it was heading.

As her friend Daniel P. Mannix has explained, Thompson "wrote...