L Frank Baum

The Master Key L Frank Baum Illustrated First edition

A nice edition with 50 illustrations from the first edition including 12 full page illustrations.

The Master Key: An Electrical Fairy Tale is a 1901 novel by L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It was illustrated by F. Y. Cory. The protagonist is a boy named Rob Joslyn. His age is not specified. Baum dedicated the book "To My Son, Robert Stanton Baum," who was born in 1886 and would thus have been about fifteen at the time it was published. Rob is an electrical experimenter whose father encourages him and sees that he "never lacked batteries, motors or supplies of any sort." Like some of Baum's adult novels, The Master Key features encounters with real historical figures of the period, such as King Edward of Britain, President Loubet of France, and the Duke of Orléans.