Celebrate the Wizard of Oz at the Baldwin Library in song, and film. Get free downloadable Oz book E-Books that are yours to keep!

During the election many advocates in favor of  the library millage spoke of the library as a family experience that they remembered from their childhood and wished to share with their children. This December  their wish  comes true as the Baldwin Library hosts a Wizard of Oz  festival . It starts this Sunday with Over the Rainbow: The Music of Harold Arlen.  Initially The producers wanted to eliminate  the song believing it slowed down the pace of the movie. Luckily they were talked out of it.

There is  much more to OZ than the " Wizard Of ....  ". Like Shakespeare,  Frank Baum the creator of Oz  has a "canon" of  14 Oz books. The first was The Wizard of Oz which published in 1900. The last was Glinda of Oz, the last written by Baum but published after his death in 1920. In between Baum wrote  The Marvelous Land Of Oz 1904,Ozama of Oz 1907, Dorthy and the Wizard in Oz 1908, The Road to Oz, 1909, The Emerald City of Oz,1910,The Patchwork Girl of Oz, 1913, Tik-Tok of Oz, 1914,The Scarecrow of Oz, 1915, Rinkitink in Oz, 1916, The Lost Princess of Oz, 1917, The Tin Woodman of Oz, 1918, and The Magic of Oz, 1919.



In the last 90 years many other "Oz" books have been written but they differ in style,and quality and often present an "Oz" different from that of Fran Baum. One lady Ruth Plumly Thompson wrote 19 "Oz" books for Baum's original publisher but her style is markedly different  and she irritated purists by respelling the kingdom of "Nome" as "Gnome."

In good condition the first edition set of the original 14 Frank Baum "Oz" books is probably worth a lot of money. If you will accept them electronically you may have 13 of the 14 titles free of charge. The only one not available to you is the first one, The Wizard of Oz (the one where Dorthy and Toto  are carried away by a tornado to the Land of Oz (we're not in Kansas anymore) and meet the scarecrow, cowardly lion, and tin woodsman, before following the yellow brick road to the Emerald city .No doubt you have seen the movie. This book is unavailable probably because it it is still under copyright. The other 13 are in public domain. To obtain your E-copies go to the upper right hand side of this page. Under the heading "Baldwin Library" click on the third  listing down which begins with the words "Click Here." The look at the lower left hand corner of the page for a box that looks like this

To get  your free E Oz Books. 

1. First consult the list of Frank Baum OZ titles listed above so you know what your looking for. There are thirteen of the fourteen titles available. The best list I have seen is the one linked to Frank Baum in red type three paragraphs back. That one lists all the titles in order, provides cover illustrations, and a short plot synopsis.
2. Armed with the titles you may now go to the upper right hand side of this page. Under the heading "Baldwin Library" click on the third  listing down which begins with the words "Click Here." Then look at the lower left hand corner of the page for a box that looks like

1. Click on the Download Now. A page with a with many book icons will appear. At the top of the page is a search engine box. You will need to make two separate searches. one for Frank Baum and another for Oz.  By doing so you will be able to get all 13 titles. The book icons have the Title of the book, the author's name and below each book is the word Download Click on this and the book will automatically download to the download file on your computer.No special software is required. You do not need a library card . Just a desire to own or read the books With a fast computer you can do all thirteen titles in five minutes. If your computer is slower than molasses in January it might take an hour .There are five pages of Frank Baum and three pages of Oz to paw through. 

The Oz books are some of  thousands  available here for free downloads. The many benefits of this service will explained in detail in a future post.