Lucky Bucky in Oz (1942) is the thirty-sixth installment in the Oz book series. It is the third Oz novel written by regular illustrator John R. Neill, and the last Oz book published during his lifetime. He died in 1943, after 39 years of association with Oz. It is also the only Oz book published during the U.S. involvement in World War II.
Plot[]
Map from the book
Bucky Jones is aboard a tugboat in New York Harbor when the boiler blows up. He is soon blown into the Nonentic [sic] Ocean where he meets Davy Jones, a wooden whale who has a luxuriously furnished room inside of him. Declaring themselves to be adopted to each other as "cousins," the pair take an undersea route to the Emerald City, and have many adventures along the way.
Uncle Sam[]
Neill's third book is the only Oz novel in which the American archetype of Uncle Sam appears as a (minor) character. His presence is doubtlessly linked to the book's wartime publication. The original dust jacket of the first edition featured a note on the back, attributed to Bucky, urging the readers to buy war bonds, since the "Nazis and Japs are harder to beat than the Gnomes."
British edition[]
Lucky Bucky was published in Great Britain in 1945 by Hutchinson and Company - which is something of a curiosity, since most of the earlier Oz books had not appeared in British editions up to that time.
External links[]
| The Final "Famous Forty" Books |
| John R. Neill | 34. The Wonder City of Oz 35. The Scalawagons of Oz 36. Lucky Bucky in Oz |
|---|---|
| Jack Snow | 37. The Magical Mimics in Oz 38. The Shaggy Man of Oz |
| Rachel Cosgrove | 39. The Hidden Valley of Oz |
| Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren Lynn McGraw | 40. Merry Go Round in Oz |