by L. Frank Baum
Magical Monarch of Mo was written in 1900 by L.Frank Baum and published just after the original Wonderful Wizard of Oz book. Unlike the Oz books or any of the other Baum books that we have presented thus far, this is not a book-length story, but an anthology of a series of stories. It is a collection of 14 “Surprise” stories about the magical kingdom of Mo, its king, and its people.Mo, besides being a two letter name, is a lot like Oz. It is an enchanted land where marvelous things happen, where animals talk, and where people do not die. If you remember the happenings in the Scarecrow of Oz book, Trot and Cap'n Bill discovered that Mo is a land where chocolates grow on trees, snow is popcorn, and rain is lemonade. By the way, notice the alliteration in the title is a lot like the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Magical Monarch of Mo. This was not a mistake on the part of Baum or his publishers. They both realized that a bit of marketing would sell more of this book, if people more quickly associated it with his very popular Oz book —hence the alliteration. In fact, Baum originally entitled it, before the change, the Beautiful Valley of Phunnyland.You will find many of the familiar magical themes that eventually arise in the Oz books and other stories—albeit in a more nascent form. One of the short stories is a very strange treat indeed. If you are fans of the French author Pierre Boulle, you will wonder why the descendents of Baum never sued him. Boulle wrote the Plant of the Apes, the book from which the movie was made. In this collection is the short story "The Land Of Civilized Monkeys". This is a story about a young man who lands from the sky into a civilization run by apes. He is roped and caged as a wild animal. He is put on display and examined by ape scientists as the possible "missing link" from which the apes descended. Sound familiar? Those of you who are fans of Japanese animation may also be amazed to know that the first historical giant robot story was presented by Baum in one of the stories presented in Mo.