Aunt Jane's Nieces - Popular Success

Popular Success

In their era, the Aunt Jane's Nieces books were as successful with their target audience as the Oz books were with younger children. In 1911 the six titles then in print sold 22,569 copies. Indeed, toward the end of Baum's life they outsold the Oz books. (The books were popular as grammar-school graduation gifts for girls.) After the 1920s the books were largely forgotten for the rest of the century, except for Baum enthusiasts and a small but growing coterie of Baum scholars. By the turn of the 21st century, however, the trend of re-evaluation and re-publication of Baum's works reached the series: nine of the ten books were reprinted between 2005 and 2007.