William W. Denslow

William Wallace Denslow (1856-1915) was an American illustrator and caricaturist remembered for his collaboration with author L. Frank Baum, especially for his illustrations for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Born in Philadelphia to a tobacco wholesaler, Denslow spent brief periods at the National Academy of Design and the Cooper Union in New York but was largely self-educated and self-trained. In the 1880s, he travelled about the United States as an artist and newspaper reporter. Denslow acquired his earliest reputation as a poster artist and also designed books and bookplates.

Denslow may have met Baum at the Chicago Press Club, where both men were members. Besides 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz', Denslow had also illustrated other books by Baum. Baum and Denslow held the copyrights to most of these works jointly. Baum vowed not to work with him again after he and Denslow quarrelled over royalty shares from the 1902 stage adaptation of 'The Wizard of Oz', for which Baum wrote the script and Denslow designed the sets and costumes. As co-copyright-holder, Denslow demanded an equal share in royalties with Baum and composer Paul Tietjens.

Denslow illustrated an edition of traditional nursery rhymes entitled 'Denslow's Mother Goose' (1901), Three Little Kittens (between 1904-1908), The Pearl and the Pumpkin (1904) and Billy Bounce (1906). He also used his copyright to the art of the Baum books to create newspaper comic strips and stories featuring Scarecrow and the Tin-man during the first decade of the twentieth century.

The royalties from the print and stage versions of The Wizard of Oz were sufficient to allow Denslow to purchase Bluck's Island, Bermuda, where he built a house and crowned himself King Denslow I. Denslow's riches were short-lived, however. He put most of his money into the stage adaptation of 'The Pearl and The Pumpkin' in 1905, a musical meant to rival The Wizard of Oz. Although it started well, neither Denslow's writing nor that of his writing partner, Paul West, was up to L. Frank Baum's. According to a source, “the story begins nowhere and doesn’t get far from it.” The show closed 3 months later.

And so, the Bermuda fairy tale came to an end, the money ran dry. The artist mortgaged Denslow’s Island to Tietjens twice, the second time in 1911 after moving to Buffalo where he had found work with Niagara Lithograph Co. He was never able to pay back the loan and lost the island. Denslow never returned to Bermuda.

Denslow had three wives and three divorces in his lifetime, his first wife producing his only child, a son, who he never saw. He changed his will in 1914, leaving his estate to a fourth woman.

Denslow died in March 1915 of pneumonia following an alcoholic bender with $250 (equivalent to $7,530 in 2023) obtained from the sale of a cover to Life Magazine. The cover appeared on the July 1915 issue.