Tamawaca Folks: A Summer Comedy
U.S.A. The Tamawaca Press, 1907.
First edition, first printing. 185 pp. Bound in publisher's coarse pale blue cloth with pictorial stamping in white and blue, pages untrimmed. Near Fine with light wear and soiling to cloth, crimping at head and tail; front hinge tender. Offsetting, bookplate, and several abrasions with some paper loss to front free endpaper. Light toning to contents, offsetting from sheet previously laid in to pp. 92-3. Scarce.
Eager to escape the summer heat of Chicago with his family, L. Frank Baum purchased a summer cottage on Lake Michigan in 1900. The cozy little community of Macatawa Park became fodder for his pseudanonymously published satire Tamawaca Folks, which featured local residents in thin disguises. The book was printed privately and sold out instantly. The pseudonym fooled no one, and the novella was advertised in the Grand Rapids Press as a story by "a world-famous author."
Price: $2,500