The Magical Mimics in Oz - A New "Royal Historian"

A New "Royal Historian"

Jack Snow was the fourth official chronicler or "Royal Historian" of Oz, after Baum himself, Ruth Plumly Thompson, and long-time Oz illustrator John R. Neill. Snow made a conscious attempt to return to Baum's inspiration for Oz; in both of the Oz books he wrote, The Magical Mimics and The Shaggy Man of Oz (1949), he deliberately avoided using any characters introduced by Thompson or Neill. Snow crammed Magical Mimics with Baum's characters, sometimes presented in long rosters. Little room was left for original characters; Snow's main creations were his Mimic villains, plus the fairy Ozana, her kitten Felina, and her wooden puppet people the Hi-Los.

Snow's approach was controversial among fans of Thompson's and Neill's works; yet it had the virtue of workability. Prior to their acceptance of Snow as an Oz author, publisher Reilly & Lee had solicited veteran children's-book writer Mary Dickerson Donahey for the job. Dickerson Donahey turned the publisher down, however, since she judged that "it would be too much of a struggle to keep track of all the characters and plots in the series."

Snow drew upon a range of Baum's books for hints and inspirations. A talking Toto, for example, is important in Snow's narrative; Baum first made Toto speak at the end of Tik-Tok of Oz. Yet the work that Snow relied upon most heavily for Magical Mimics was Baum's sixth Oz book, The Emerald City of Oz.