Dot and Tot of Merryland is a 1901 novel by L. Frank Baum. After Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, he wrote this story about the adventures of a little girl named Dot and a little boy named Tot in a world reached through a cave.

The world was called Merryland and was split by seven valleys. The book was illustrated by artist W.W. Denslow, who had illustrated three previous Baum books.

Unlike The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dot and Tot of Merryland contained no tipped in color plates, but was filled with colored text illustrations. There were four full page pictures. The book is far from Baum's best work, and is best known today as being the last Baum book that was illustrated by W.W. Denslow.

Dot and Tot of Merryland was first published by the Geo. M. Hill company of Chicago in 1901. A first edition of this title is currently worth about $300.

Books of Wonder reprinted Dot and Tot of Merryland with minor text alterations and new illustrations by Donald Abbott. The reprint contains no color illustrations, but Mr. Abbott styled his after the Denslow illustrations.

(From wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Read Dot and Tot of Merryland (1901) Online

Dot and Tot of Merryland
By L. Frank Baum
Pictures by William Wallace Denslow
The Bobbs-Merrill Company Publishers, 1901

Author's Note:

The success achived last year by "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" -a book that not only ran througn many large editions, but brought to the author hundreds of letters from interested little folks -has induced me to follow that tale with another, herein presented.

Should "Dot and Tot of Merryland" win the approval of my young friends, I shall indeed be pleased and contented.

In any event Mr. Denslow's quaint and merry pictures, which, I think, in this book excel all his previous work, will be sure to induce happiness in the heart of every beholder.

L. Frank Baum
Chicago. July 1, 1901

Lyman Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author, actor, and independent filmmaker best known as the creator, along with illustrator W. W. Denslow, of one of the most popular books in American children's literature, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, better known today as simply The Wizard of Oz. He wrote thirteen sequels, nine other fantasy novels, and a plethora of other works (55 novels in total, 82 short stories, over 200 poems, an unknown number of scripts, and many miscellaneous writings), and made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen.

William Wallace Denslow (May 5, 1856–March 29, 1915) – usually credited as W. W. Denslow – was an illustrator and caricaturist remembered for his work in collaboration with author L. Frank Baum, especially his illustrations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Denslow was an editorial cartoonist with a strong interest in politics, which has fueled political interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Born in Philadelphia, by the 1890s he was based in Chicago, where he met Baum. Besides The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Denslow also illustrated Baum's books By the Candelabra's Glare, Father Goose: His Book, and Dot and Tot of Merryland. Baum and Denslow held the copyrights to most of these works jointly.

After Denslow quarreled with Baum over royalty shares from the 1902 stage adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, for which Baum wrote the script and Denslow designed the sets and costumes, Baum determined not to work with him again.

The royalties from the print and stage versions of The Wizard of Oz were sufficient to allow Denslow to purchase an island off the coast of Bermuda, and crown himself King Denslow I. However, he drank his money away, and on May 27, 1915, died in obscurity, of pneumonia.

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