BAUM, L[yman] Frank. The Enchanted Island of Yew. Whereon Prince Marvel Encountered the High Ki of Twi and Other Surprising People. Illustrated by Fanny Y. Cory. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill [1903]. 8vo, [x] 242pp. Grey cloth pictorially stamped in light purple-gray, coral, orange, black, and yellow. Pictorial endpapers in orange and black; 8 color plates and numerous illustrations printed in orange with the text running over it. Spine ends and corners a bit worn, spine lightly sunned, some light soiling and wear to cloth, else an internally clean, tight copy.

First edition, first state, having the illustration on page 238 printed upside down. From the collection long-time Executive Secretary of International Wizard of Oz Club, Fred M. Meyer. An early fantasy novel by the beloved author of the Oz books, featuring a richly imagined realm filled with fairies, knights, magicians, and dragons in which the hero, Prince Marvel, starts out as a female fairy who is magically transformed into a male knight. Published the year before The Marvelous Land of Oz in which the boy Tip is transformed back into the fairy princess Ozma and two year’s before the genderless Chick the Cherub in John Dough and the Cherub, this is the first example of Baum’s fondness for playing with gender roles.