Mary Louise Adopts A Soldier

And the final book. This is the final book in the series that Baum worked on before his death, and it was finished by someone else. While I've yet to find and read any books by Emma Speed Sampson, what I've read about her work leads me to suspect that she did not work on this book.

Katherine Rogers suggests in her Baum biography that Harry Neal Baum finished the book. A few tweets from a correspondent of Michael Patrick Hearn informed me that he believes L. Frank Baum's work in the book is only a small fragment. And that, I can believe!

The book opens with Mary Louise and Grandpa Jim going to greet the return of the Dorfield Regiment: a group of soldiers hailing from Dorfield and some soldiers from elsewhere who helped fill out their ranks. The two note that some soldiers might need a place to stay before getting back into society, so they consider "adopting" (a better term would be "hiring") a displaced soldier to help out at their home.

They decide to hire an odd, eccentric rambler named Danny Dexter who did quite well in the army. He takes some convincing, but eventually accepts the position.

And that, I believe, is about where L. Frank Baum's fragment ends. Because it seems he set up things about Danny that simply are not followed up on later in the book. Danny has a gash on his face that was plastered in mud that was healing it. This point seems to have been a point that Baum would have used later, but it's not used again. And also, Danny very quickly loses his quirks.

Also, a lot of the characters change. Josie comes back, but while Baum made her the primary detective in the story, she spends a lot of time off-screen and just doesn't feel like the character I've read about in the past four books. She's far too fond of Mary Louise this time around.

Mary Louise herself isn't the same. I've commented on her simplicity and often viewed this negatively (it does feel like a step back after Baum's other amazing female characters). She is more central to the plot this time, but she feels like a different character, the writer now giving her nuances and secrets, which she absolutely could not keep before. This might be seen as an improvement, but this is really a failure to maintain continuity.

A big, offensive change is in two characters I haven't mentioned before, though they've been in the background throughout the entire series: Uncle Eben and Aunt Sally. These two African-Americans are faithful servants to Grandpa Jim and Mary Louise, and they seem to have mutual respect. In Mary Louise in the Country, Mary Louise is buying dishes to replace ones Ingua broke so she won't get in trouble, and the shopkeeper wonders why she needs them, and suggests that they don't want their black servants sharing their dishes. Mary Louise refuses to reply to this.

Given how well these two are treated and how respectfully they act previously, it's a shock to have them being described as "trying to help and managing most successfully to be in everybody's way" and Aunt Sally suddenly yell, "Eben, you lazy old niggah, bring in de candied yams." They also now speak in some of the most painful phonetic spellings of dialect I've ever seen. Baum never depicted black supporting characters (not counting Father Goose's "Little Nigger Boy") this badly. Examples are in Nux and Bryonia of the Sam Steele/Boy Fortune Hunters series and Aunt Hyacinth in The Daring Twins. This tone is just decidedly different.

So, how does the story go? In the first two-thirds, Danny is made chauffeur of Mary Louise's car "Queenie." But one day, Danny and the car disappear. Inquiries are made, and the existence of Danny's criminal uncle Jim O'Hara is made known. The local police and Josie O'Gorman begin searching for the missing car and Danny.

One night, Mary Louise goes out being unable to sleep and finds "Queenie" back in the garage and a light on in Danny's room. Assuming he's returned, she goes to see him and finds his Uncle Jim, who takes her in "Queenie" to a crossroads where he goes off with someone else to catch a train to Santa Fe, intending to relocate to China. He passed several bad checks but Danny has vowed to pay them off. This makes Mary Louise find more respect for Danny.


Mary Louise and "Queenie" are found, and Danny has returned. Hearing that his uncle has jumped off the train near Albuquerque, Mary Louise decides to go try to find him before the authorities and Josie do.

And now, we reach the last third, revealing a whole new subplot of a German base hidden in Mexican America that Jim is tricked into helping with before he escapes and alerts the local authorities to, which suggests he may get a pardon. Oh, and he's splitting his oil wells with Danny.

And pretty much, Mary Louise has fallen in love with Danny.

So... Yeah. The part that I felt was not written by Baum felt loose and incompatible with the previous four books. Characterizations are off, and it feels like it was written in a rush to finish a book by someone else. I'm not sure how to feel about this. While it contains some work by Baum, it's very little. Do we count this as a Baum book?

Mary Louise and the Liberty Girls

On to book four!

This was actually the first of the Mary Louise books I picked up. I'd gotten an Amazon gift card for Christmas last year and as I was collecting the Aunt Jane's Nieces series at the time, I decided to see if I could find any of the books I still needed on Amazon. I saw this one available for a nice low price, so I bought it. This prompted me to look for the rest of the series.

This one was published in 1918, the same year the last Aunt Jane's Nieces book was revised and reissued. Both that ending and this book at hand give us a big look into Baum's patriotism.

Mary Louise and Grandpa Jim are urging people to buy war bonds to help fund the United States' war efforts. People are reluctant, so Mary Louise suggests she and her girl friends go about soliciting door-to-door, organizing as "The Liberty Girls."

While the Liberty Girls are successful in raising their goal, Mary Louise finds circulars denouncing America's involvement in the war and discouraging buying bonds. Who printed these circulars and why are they doing this? Are they German spies and sympathizers?

The Liberty Girls decide to start a thrift shop, all profits going to buy encouraging gifts for the troops (treats, games, cigarettes, etc.), and during this endeavor, Josie O' Gorman arrives in town and begins investigating the mysterious circulars. Her investigation takes her through several suspects, and at one point, she even has to feign a quarrel with Mary Louise.

Soon, Josie has decided she has picked out the entire spy ring, and when she finally apprehends the suspects, it turns out most of them were innocent of the scheme. While the troublemaker is finished off, Josie feels quite distraught over her error.

The final chapter, one of Baum's most obvious anticlimaxes (even the trip south in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz can even be read as further developing the characters after their visit with the Wizard), reveals how the Liberty Girls find new avenues to support the war effort.

Mary Louise gets to shine when it comes to patriotism, and to her credit, she is the one to form the Liberty Girls, though it is Irene who comes up with the new enterprises. Alora's in the Liberty Girls as well, and the airplane factory (though no mention of Stephen Kane is made) reappears and plays a role in the plot as well.

The most disturbing thing is how quick our protagonists demonize people of any German origin. It must be noted that Baum had some German ancestry himself. While these spurious suspicions seem dated, it's not like we're very different these days. Not too long ago we were quick to suspect people from the Middle East or who were obviously Muslim. We no longer demonize Gemany, but it's not because we advanced, we just don't fear them any more. Thus, in many ways, a big part of the book is dated, a product of its time.

And as it is, Baum makes it clear that not every German related person is anti-American. Not only are some of Josie's suspects innocent, but a suspect of Mary Louise, while he hates the idea of people having to go to war, is actually very patriotic. When his son is injured in the war, he takes it as a badge of honor. He explains it as that he hates the war, but loves the country.

Next up is Mary Louise Adopts A Soldier. This is considered Baum's last Mary Louise book, but I have heard that some say that only some of it was by Baum and the rest was finished by an editor at Reilly & Lee, or possibly Emma Speed Sampson. I'll give you my opinion then. That will also conclude these blogs about the last series that L. Frank Baum created.

Mary Louise Solves A Mystery

On to book three!

This copy, I am told, is indeed a first edition. I got it at the Winkie Convention this year. Eric Gjovaag had asked me to watch the Swap Meet Table for him so he could try his hand at the auction and asked if there was anything I wanted he could try to bid on for me. While the auction has many delights, I decided this was the only thing I really wanted. (Anyway, you can actually add quite a bit to your collection at Winkies without spending a lot of money.) He managed to win the bid at my maximum price, so thanks again, Mr. Gjovaag! (And I had a lot of fun manning the Swap Table as well!)

This one had a surprising opening. For the first several chapters, Mary Louise, Grandpa Jim, and Josie O'Gorman are not present at all. It's as if the story was originally not going to be about them at all, but as we'll see, Baum is just opening the story in a very different manner.

Mrs. Antoinette Seaver Jones is close to death and needs to get her final affairs in order, so she sends for her separated husband and painter, Jason Jones. Jason is given money to come in, but upon him seeing Antoinette, she promptly dies. Jason is now the sole guardian of Alora Jones, Antoinette's 11 year-old daughter and is to manage her great fortune until she turns 18.

Jason takes Alora back to his small studio apartment, and soon, a woman Alora recognizes only as her mother's nurse arrives and demands money from Jason. He grudgingly gives it to her. Soon, Jason gives up painting and takes Alora to live in Italy.

Here the story jumps ahead four years, and such a time lapse is unique for Baum, I must state. Mary Louise and Grandpa Jim happen to visit Italy and meet Alora when their carriage breaks down outside their home. Mary Louise feels sorry for Alora, who has only had her basic necessities met, while Jason spends his time reading books, otherwise ignoring Alora, who grows to despise him.

The two girls become friends, and when Jason becomes unnerved about Italy joining World War I, he decides to move back to America, Mary Louise and Grandpa Jim suggesting they move to Dorfield so the two girls may maintain their friendship. Finding a modest cottage, Jason takes the suggestion.

In Dorfield, Alora finds a letter from Italy saying Jason's "prisoner" was released as was wished. She shrugs this off. Soon, though, she is relieved that Jason finds a new hobby: airplanes. This means she'll see him even less.

The maker of the airplanes that catch Jason's fancy is none other than Stephen Kane, brother of Orissa Kane, the titular character of The Flying Girl series that "Edith Van Dyne" published in 1911 and 1912. No mention is made of Orissa, so one may assume that she is either still flying her airplane at this time, or she has retired, or possibly she died in an airplane accident. Since she is not mentioned, I may guess her time of fame has ended and one of the latter two possibilities are the case. Hopefully, she retired from being an "aviatrix" and was either married, or helps Stephen train his customers in flying their airplanes.

Mary Louise and Grandpa Jim invite Alora to go with them to Chicago. Jason is reluctant, and mentions that according to the will of Antoinette, if Alora is completely neglected for sixty days, she is to be given over to a new guardian, and Jason will not have any further share of this income. He had earlier revealed to Mr. Conant (who he hoped to hire as lawyer) that he was using some of Alora's money to make investments in his own name so he could live modestly after Alora turned 18. Alora, however, defies his reluctance and he lets her go.

In Chicago, Alora suddenly disappears and Mary Louise instantly fears that she has been abducted, and thus, Josie O'Gorman is called in to find the missing heiress.

While Josie and Mary Louise confer and make inquiries, we shift to Alora and reveal that "her mother's nurse"—who introduces herself as Janet Orme—did indeed manage to enter Alora's hotel room and kidnap her, taking her to an empty house where Alora is imprisoned, until Janet is paid more money. About two weeks in, Alora is about to pledge $50,000 to Janet when Josie boldly enters and rescues the heiress.

Meanwhile, Mary Louise notices an announcement of an art exhibit, noting that a Californian artist named Jason Jones has won the grand prize. She decides to see this piece of art herself and talk to Jason, surprised that he turned from airplanes and reading long enough to create an amazing piece of artwork.

What Mary Louise discovers solves many questions as to Alora's wondering of why her mother married such a man, and why any father would neglect his daughter affection. The Jason Jones she has known the past four years is not her father. The man Mary Louise finds is indeed the actual husband of Antoinette Seaver Jones, and is indeed an artist who went to California to improve on his art while his cousin, also named Jason (it ran in the family, he explains) produced subpar art, and both artists used the same name, thus attaching the "real" Jason to the "false" Jason's work.

A confrontation with the "false" Jason is cancelled when word arrives that he died in an airplane accident. Instead, his actual estranged wife, Janet Orme Jones, comes forward and reveals she had conceived the plot to get a share of Alora's inherited millions. It was also she that served as the mysterious "prisoner" when she arrived in Italy.

Janet is let off very easily. The actual Mr. Jones allows her to reap the rewards of one of her late husband's investments, forcing her to live modestly ever after.

The story is very intriguing, but par for the course of the Mary Louise series, Mary Louise remains a bland protagonist. While she helps Josie get the information to find Alora, her "solving a mystery" as stated in the title is simply her trying to meet Jason Jones at the art exhibit. The book is titled after this incident: a mystery solved by sheer luck. She was in the right place at the right time.

Josie again proves to be a winsome heroine, and Irene returns from the first book and also befriends Alora as well. To be honest, it would have been more interesting if Irene was the lead character, as she is a girl in a wheelchair who has decided not to fall into despair over her lot in life. That alone makes her more interesting than Mary Louise.

I do have to wonder why Baum never made Mary Louise interesting. Certainly it was no difficulty for him in practically everything else he'd ever written. One of two possibilities arise: either he kept her neutral for story ideas or it was intentional. After all, even Josie tends to point this out very blatantly...

Mary Louise in the Country

And onto the next book!

Now that Mary Louise and her Grandpa Jim (aka Colonel Hathaway) are free to live together without fear of pursuit, they decide to spend their summer in the country in a summer house they've bought near a little town called Cragg's Crossing.

Mary Louise's eye gets caught by the neighboring home of Hezekiah Cragg ("Old Swallowtail," as the locals have nicknamed him) and his granddaughter Ingua. Ingua's a wild child who hasn't had proper upbringing. Her grandfather should be rich, but lives like a miser. As Mary Louise befriends the girl, she is confused by Ingua's story, so Josie O'Gorman is called in!

Josie poses as a sewing girl and manages to befriend Ingua so well that the girl confides her darkest secrets to her. Following Hezekiah by night, Josie hears machinery in a secluded area, such as a printing press. She thinks she's solved it when Mary Louise manages to convince Hezekiah to buy Ingua some new clothes and the shop keeper thinks the provided money looks suspicious: Mr. Cragg is in a counterfeiting operation!

Soon, Nan Cragg and Mr. O'Gorman show up on the scene. Nan's Ingua's widowed mother, who now works for the Secret Service herself and is determined to support her father. Mr. O'Gorman follows Josie by night, and presents the results of his own sleuthing: Cragg is not counterfeiting money. He is breaking America's non-neutrality stance by aiding a revolution in Ireland against England. However, Cragg has been misinformed: the revolution's already happened, so his partner—the long-thought missing "Ned Joselyn"—has been stealing Cragg's money. No worries, Nan manages to subdue Ned. The stolen money is returned to the Craggs, so they may finally begin a more respectable life.

That's the story, simplified to a synopsis. The story is actually filled with great character moments for the girls, and some nice intrigue as Josie investigates Cragg. Ingua is quite a fun character. She's almost like a Caucasian version of Topsy from Uncle Tom's Cabin, resigned to the fact that she's just not a good girl, but she's much more apt to try to improve herself, though she is proud.

Josie gets a bit more development as she improves on her craft. Like Sherlock Holmes in The Yellow Face, she discovers that even brilliant detectives can slip up.

Unfortunately, Mary Louise is quickly relegated to secondary role. While she's a good influence on Ingua (like Eva is to Topsy), she doesn't get to develop or really get defined any further. Josie says it herself: Mary Louise is simple and sweet, and that's all she's got going for her.

Excellent L. Frank Baum mystery, but the title character is still sadly skipped when it comes to characterization.

Mary Louise

This is one case where I'd read absolutely nothing about the L. Frank Baum book I was about to read. It was great to finally come upon something I had no expectations about.

What kind of got to me while reading Mary Louise is that this is the last series Baum created before his death. Not only was he writing the Oz books up until he died, he was also writing the Mary Louise series under the "Edith Van Dyne" pseudonym.

In my last blog about the Aunt Jane's Nieces series, I mentioned how that series had reached a stopping place (made even more final in the revision), and to keep multiple forms of income going, "Edith Van Dyne" needed a new series.

Thus, back to basics. Reilly & Britton issued the new series as "The Bluebird Books." I can only presume they wanted to keep the options open, which would not be realized until after Baum's death, when the series was continued by Emma Speed Sampson.

Mary Louise opens with the titular character, Mary Louise Burrows (named after Baum's sister, and one may well wonder if the last name beginning with a "B" is not coincidence) at school. She appears to be a very moral girl, and sincerely devoted to her grandfather, who she lives with. However, her grandfather gets word of something and he and Mary Louise's mother suddenly have to leave, and Mary Louise is sent to stay at school.

While discussing arrangements at school, Mary Louise is questioned by a man from the Secret Service: her grandfather is wanted for some crime and he wants to know where her grandfather and mother went. Mary Louise staunchly believes her grandfather is innocent, and refuses to answer any questions; anyway, she doesn't know where they went.

However, word gets out at school and locally that Mary Louise's grandfather is a criminal, and soon, all the schoolgirls make Mary Louise an outcast, simply because they think she has "bad blood" in her. Finally having enough, Mary Louise sells some jewelry for a train ticket to Dorfield and escapes one night, noting that she's being dogged by a mysterious man.

In Dorfield, the man reveals he is, indeed, a detective, Mr. O'Gorman by name, and he was following her. He's concerned because she obviously underestimated the cost of her journey and expected to find her grandfather in Dorfield. However, Mr. O'Gorman pays for her board at a hotel and informs her that her grandfather is not in Dorfield. He does give her his card in case she's in trouble.

Mary Louise goes to stay with her old friends the Conants, who have with them their niece Irene, who is wheelchair-bound. The Conants manage to send a message to Mary Louise's grandfather, who tells her to stay with them.

The Conants and Mary Louise go stay in the country at a friend's summer cabin, where they meet a few colorful characters: the servant boy Bub, who "hates gals" (hmmm...) and the visiting neighbor Agatha Lord, who seems friendly until Irene finds a letter in a box of second-hand books Mr. Conant bought and says it's about Mary Louise's family. Then Agatha begins to act suspiciously. Mary Louise and Irene begin to wonder who they can trust.

A working girl named Sarah Judd pops up, claiming she was hired by the actual owners. However, it becomes clear that there's more to Sarah than meets the eye. (Particularly when she takes a tiny booklet containing a cipher out of her hair...) Unknown to Mary Louise, Agatha and her maid Susan are both working for the Secret Service as well, and they surprisingly say they want to clear Mary Louise's grandfather's name, as they are sure he is innocent. The letter seems to be a key piece of evidence, but Irene attempts to hide it.

Things come to a head when word is sent that Mary Louise's mother has died, and it looks clear that her grandfather will be coming to see her. This is indeed the case, and when he arrives, all three women, Agatha, Susan, and Sarah drop their disguises, and Mr. O'Gorman has arrived as well. Sarah is actually his daughter, Josie, who's training to be in the Secret Service herself.

Since it becomes apparent the letter needs to be exposed, Irene reads it, revealing that Mary Louise's late father turned military secrets over to a foreign country, and when he died, he tasked his wife with completing the task. When she was caught, her father took the blame, causing them to live on the run. Since the letter proves this, and the military secrets are now irrelevant and the government doesn't wish to publicize this case further, all charges against Mary Louise's grandfather are dropped, meaning he can finally live in peace with his granddaughter.

Baum gets to play with espionage, not a wholly new subject for him, but I can't recall government espionage in any of his other books. The mystery of Mary Louise's grandfather is quite the driving point to catch the reader's interest.

The problem is, this comes at a great sacrifice to Mary Louise's personality. While she is a smart, kind, trusting young girl, she is quite the most generic featured female character I've read that Baum created. The most interesting thing she does is managing to get herself out of the school and to Dorfield. She gets showed up by both Irene and Josie, as they prove to be much more interesting characters than herself.

In fact, Eric Shanower spoiled future books for me, saying that Mary Louise in the later books generally winds up calling in Josie, who winds up solving the plot's problem.

Baum wrote five books in all for the series before his death. Three more Mary Louise books were written by Emma Speed Sampson under the "Edith Van Dyne" pseudonym, and then two books were issued as a spin-off Josie O'Gorman series, which Shanower commented was practically giving the series over to its rightful heroine. These Emma Speed Sampson books are really highly priced, so don't expect me to be covering them. Maybe I'll get lucky and pick them up eventually, but for now, I'll be focusing on Baum's series.

So, while Mary Louise started off as an interesting character, she failed to become really interesting in the end. Still, it's a worthwhile story for Baum's characterizations and plots. It's just a pity the main character got skipped when it came to characterization.