W. W. Denslow

William Wallace Denslow was an American illustrator and cartoonist best remembered for his illustrations of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). Originally from Philadelphia, Denslow studied in New York and created illustrations for Harper’s Weekly and Puck magazines and, in Chicago, he worked briefly for the Herald and Tribune newspapers. Denslow, the “gruff, walrus-mustached artist,” was also the first artist invited to work at Elbert Hubbard’s Roycroft Press in East Aurora. Baum and Denslow worked on many projects together but quarreled over royalties for the stage version of Wizard of Oz and never worked together again. Denslow produced work on his own, including Denslow’s Mother Goose (1901), the comic strip Billy Bounce, and a very popular, multi-volume Picture Books series.