The shelf

The Oz Books in Order

Twenty-four of the forty canonical Oz books are here, in the order they were written, along with Baum's Little Wizard Stories: his fourteen novels, beginning with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900, and then Ruth Plumly Thompson's, from The Royal Book of Oz in 1921 onward.

Publication order is the order to read them in. Baum wrote them as a sequence and each one assumes the last; Thompson picks the thread up where he left it. There is no second reading order to follow — for everything that happens on the page, the shelf is the chronology.

What the shelf does not give you is the history that happened before the first book opens: the enchantment that made Oz a fairyland, the witches who broke up the kingdom, the balloon that came down in it. All of that is told in flashback, scattered across books published decades apart, and the timeline is where it is assembled — with the chapter that establishes each piece.

Every book here is in the public domain in the United States, free to read in full. The other sixteen of the forty are listed below with the January each one becomes free: one a year from 2027 to 2038, then the last four at intervals, ending with Merry Go Round in Oz in 2059.

• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz L. Frank Baum, 1900 · W. W. Denslow 24 chapters ›
• The Marvelous Land of Oz L. Frank Baum, 1904 · John R. Neill 24 chapters ›
• Ozma of Oz L. Frank Baum, 1907 · John R. Neill 21 chapters ›
• Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz L. Frank Baum, 1908 · John R. Neill 20 chapters ›
• The Road to Oz L. Frank Baum, 1909 · John R. Neill 24 chapters ›
• The Emerald City of Oz L. Frank Baum, 1910 · John R. Neill 30 chapters ›
• The Patchwork Girl of Oz L. Frank Baum, 1913 · John R. Neill 28 chapters ›
• Little Wizard Stories of Oz L. Frank Baum, 1913 · John R. Neill 6 chapters ›
• Tik-Tok of Oz L. Frank Baum, 1914 · John R. Neill 25 chapters ›
• The Scarecrow of Oz L. Frank Baum, 1915 · John R. Neill 24 chapters ›
• Rinkitink in Oz L. Frank Baum, 1916 · John R. Neill 24 chapters ›
• The Lost Princess of Oz L. Frank Baum, 1917 · John R. Neill 26 chapters ›
• The Tin Woodman of Oz L. Frank Baum, 1918 · John R. Neill 24 chapters ›
• The Magic of Oz L. Frank Baum, 1919 · John R. Neill 23 chapters ›
• Glinda of Oz L. Frank Baum, 1920 · John R. Neill 24 chapters ›

• The Royal Book of Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1921 · John R. Neill 24 chapters ›
• Kabumpo in Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1922 · John R. Neill 22 chapters ›
• The Cowardly Lion of Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1923 · John R. Neill 22 chapters ›
• Grampa in Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1924 · John R. Neill 22 chapters ›
• The Lost King of Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1925 · John R. Neill 21 chapters ›
• The Hungry Tiger of Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1926 · John R. Neill 20 chapters ›
• The Gnome King of Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1927 · John R. Neill 20 chapters ›
• The Giant Horse of Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1928 · John R. Neill 20 chapters ›
• Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1929 · John R. Neill 21 chapters ›
• The Yellow Knight of Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1930 · John R. Neill 20 chapters ›

• Pirates in Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1931 free in 2027
• The Purple Prince of Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1932 free in 2028
• Ojo in Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1933 free in 2029
• Speedy in Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1934 free in 2030
• The Wishing Horse of Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1935 free in 2031
• Captain Salt in Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1936 free in 2032
• Handy Mandy in Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1937 free in 2033
• The Silver Princess in Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1938 free in 2034
• Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1939 free in 2035
• The Wonder City of Oz John R. Neill, 1940 free in 2036
• The Scalawagons of Oz John R. Neill, 1941 free in 2037
• Lucky Bucky in Oz John R. Neill, 1942 free in 2038
• The Magical Mimics in Oz Jack Snow, 1946 free in 2042
• The Shaggy Man of Oz Jack Snow, 1949 free in 2045
• The Hidden Valley of Oz Rachel R. Cosgrove, 1951 free in 2047
• Merry Go Round in Oz Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren McGraw Wagner, 1963 free in 2059