L. Frank Baum (1856 - 1919)

His Life: Childhood

Lyman Frank Baum was born in Chittenango, New York. His father was the oil magnate Benjamin Ward Baum and mother Cynthia (Stanton) Baum, a women's rights activist. Baum grew up with his seven brothers and sisters on a large estate just north of Syracuse. "The cool but sun-kissed mansion . . . was built in a quaint yet pretty fashion, with many wings and gables and broad verandas on every side," Baum later wrote. "Before it were acres and acres of velvety green lawns, sprinkled with shrubbery and dotted with beds of bright flowers," Baum wrote. "In every direction were winding paths, covered with white gravel, which led to all parts of the grounds The house, although it was large, did not have running water.

Until the age of twelve, Baum was privately tutored at home. Benjamin and Cynthia Baum indulged their young son. "Having lost four of their nine children in infancy, they were particularly protective of little Frank, who had been born with a defective heart." It is possible that young Frank developed his creative side more than most since he was not allowed to play physically like other children his age.

Frank developed a love of fairy tales, and he especially enjoyed reading novels by Dickens. But even at his young age, he criticized the fairy tales that were frightening and horrifying, "I demanded fairy stories when I was a youngster, and I was a critical reader too. One thing I never liked then, and that was the introduction of witches and goblins into the story. Frank made the decision that he would write a different kind of fairy tale.

His Life: Teen and Young Adult Years

1866-1880: As a young boy and then teenager he starts up several newspapers and a magazine. In his late teens he becomes interested in the theater

In 1881 he wrote and published a successful musical play. On May 15, 1882, his five-act Irish melodrama entitled The Maid of Arran premiered, with music by Frank Baum and starring Frank Baum. (See picture to the right of Frank as when he appeared in this play) Backed in part by his father, he took the drama on the road in 1882, performing it with some success in New York City.

1882: While acting in his play, Baum met a young woman named Maud Gage. The pair fell madly in love. She was the youngest daughter of the noted women's rights campaigner Matilda Joslyn Gage. After campaigning for women to be admitted to Cornell University, the elder Gage wanted her daughter to earn her own degree there and then to study law at Columbia. According to Alison Lurie, writing in the New York Review of Books, Matilda Gage told her daughter, "I won't have my daughter be a darned fool and marry an actor." To which Maud is said to have replied: "All right, mother, if you feel that way about it, good-bye." At this, the mother relented, and Maude Gage and Frank Baum were married in November, 1882.

From a practical point of view it was a foolish marriage. It was many years before Frank Baum achieved financially security, and for a while he failed or barely survived in one occupation after another. It was also a marriage of opposites--in temperament and intellect. But the marriage was successful, lasting almost four decades, until Baum's 1919 death.

1887-1897: After Baum's father died, hard time followed for most of the family. Frank Baum operated a store, and it failed in 1890. He then turned to running the local weekly newspaper, until it also failed. He next worked as a salesman and developed characters and situation outlines while on selling trips to help him with story telling to his children when back at home.

His Life: Writing Career

By 1899, he published Father Goose, His Book It was an instant success and became the best selling childrens book of the year.

In 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published. When this became the nation's best selling childrens book for two years running, Baum's reputation as a writer was firmly established. Baum's creation of the story of Dorothy and the Scarecrow and the other inhabitants of Oz, began as a story told to some of the young children in the neighborhood, as well as to his own children. Baum's moment of inspiration came when he broke up the storytelling hour so he could write down the magical story he knew he must note for safe keeping. He wrote out the story longhand and attached the pencil he used to the draft itself that was titled, "The Emerald City." It was only because of the negative reaction he received from his publisher, the Hill Company, that the title was eventually changed, for they had some superstitious notion against a book with a jewel in its title and they would not publish it. So after some reworking, after several titles lacking the vitality that Baum wanted to capture, he finally came up with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Baum went onto produce seventeen sequels to the Oz books. The first was The Marvelous Land of Oz. Children would send him letters constantly telling him how enjoyable The Wizard of Oz was and how they were delighted he wrote such a great story and would beg him to write more of them. But the Oz stories appealed to both young and old and he received fan mail from both.

He wrote other kinds of books under several different pen names mainly because he wanted to be remembered as the American author of fairy tales, and this way he could try other facets and not worry about their success and profit. There Frank could explore all sorts of themes, not just the happy place of Oz.

His Life: Final Years

In 1914, with several business associates, Baum formed the Oz Film Manufacturing Company. Their studio was located next to the Universal Film Company. They made a number of films based on the Oz books, but the movie audiences judged them to be for children and the films are not successful. Baum was before his time! So the Oz Film Manufacturing Company was sold to Universal.

L. Frank Baum died on May 5, 1919. His last book, Glinda of Oz, was published in 1920. Oz first started as a book, which grew into an entire series of books. They were first written by one man, but others wrote more books after him, and more books are being added to the series even now. There have also been many movies (maybe you've seen one of them on television?), plays, television productions and videotapes, toys, games, dolls, clothes, conventions, and clubs.

In the Country of the Gillikins, which is at the North of the Land of Oz, lived a youth called Tip. There was more to his name than that, for old Mombi often declared that his whole name was Tippetarius; but no one was expected to say such a long word when "Tip" would do just as well. This boy remembered nothing of his parents, for he had been brought when quite young to be reared by the old woman known as Mombi, whose reputation, I am sorry to say, was none of the best. For the Gillikin people had reason to suspect her of indulging in magical arts, and therefore hesitated to associate with her.

This adventure begins as Dorothy Gale is blown overboard in a storm at sea while enroute to Australia. With her is a yellow hen named Billina. They wash ashore in Ev, a fairyland across the Deadly Desert from Oz. Here they find a mechanical man, Tiktok, and meet Princess Ozma and her friends and the Oz Army. They join Ozma on her quest to free the Queen of Ev and her children from the underground caverns of the Nome King. The Nome King has used his Magic Belt to imprison the royal family of Ev as bric-a-brac in his underground palace.

The adventure almost ends in disaster for Ozma and her friends, but Billina saves the day in a most uneggspected way. Dorothy captures the Nome King's Magic Belt, everyone is set free, and they return to the Emerald City for a big victory celebration.

A California earthquake sends Dorothy Gale and her new friends--Zeb the farm boy, Jim the cab-horse, and Eureka the mischievous kitten--tumbling through a crack in the ground. Deep beneath the earth, Dorothy is reunited with her old friend the Wizard of Oz and his troupe of nine tiny piglets.

Together, Dorothy, the Wizard, and their friends travel through many fantastic lands, where they encounter the Mangaboos, people growing like vegetables in the ground; cross the Valley of Voe, where dama-fruit has turned everyone invisible; and are captured by mysterious flying Gargoyles. At last, the intrepid travelers reach Oz, where they have many unforgettable encounters with such favorites as the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger, Princess Ozma and the wooden Sawhorse.

In order to help the lovable, ever-wandering Shaggy Man, Dorothy and Toto must journey through magical and mysterious lands. Soon the three are joined by a lost lad named Button-Bright and the beautiful young Polychromethe Rainbow's Daughter. With magic at work and danger about, these new friends must journey through cities of talking beasts, across the Deadly Desert into the Truth Pond, and through many other strange and incredible places before they can reach the Emerald City.

Along the way, Dorothy and her companions encounter a whole new assortment of fantastic and funny characters-- the crafty King Dox of Foxville, the magical donkey King Kik-a-bray, the terrible bigheaded Scoodlers, and Johnny Dooit (who can do anything)--along with old friends Jack Pumpkinhead, Tik-tok, Billina, and, of course, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, and the wonderful Wizard himself.

Join Dorothy and the Wonderful Wizard as they take Aunt Em and Uncle Henry on a fabulous tour of Oz. During their journey they encounter such amazing and amusing people as King Kleaver with his Spoon Brigade and Miss Cuttenclip of the land of paper dolls. But while Dorothy and her friends play, the wicked Nome King has joined forces with the terrible Whimsies, the fearsome Growleywogs, and the evil Phanfasms in a plot to capture the Emerald City. Will Dorothy's friends discover the danger before it's too late?

Forced to venture out of the dark forest, Unc Nunkie and Ojo the Unlucky call on the Crooked Magician, who introduces them to his latest creation: a living girl made out of patchwork quilts and cotton stuffing. But when an accident leaves beloved Unc Nunkie a motionless statue, it is up to Ojo to save him. In his search for the magic ingredients that will restore his uncle to life, Ojo is joined by the Patchwork Girl and by the conceited Glass Cat, who boasts of her hard ruby heart, the resourceful Shaggy Man, and the lovable block-headed Woozy, whose tail hairs are just one of the things Ojo needs to rescue Une Nunkie.

As they travel to the Emerald City, home of the wise and powerful Ozma, they meet Dorothy, the kind and sensible girl from Kansas; the gallant Scarecrow; and, of course, Toto. But no one proves more loyal than the spirited Patchwork Girl, who, although she was brought to life as a servant, is determined to see the wide world for herself.

The fun begins in an isolated corner of Oz, in the small country of Oogaboo. There Queen Ann Soforth musters an unlikely army and sets off to conquer the rest of Oz. Meanwhile, a girl from Oklahoma named Betsy Bobbin and her companion, Hank the mule, are shipwrecked and washed ashore in the Rose Kingdom, a magical land of talking roses. There they meet the Shaggy Man, who is on a quest to rescue his brother from the clutches of the wicked Nome King. Betsy, Hank, and the Rose Princess join the Shaggy Man on his journey, and before long they meet up with Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter; Tik-Tok; and Queen Ann with her army. The rest of Baum's tale is filled with hairbreadth escapes, wild puns, and mystifying magic.

Trot, a young girl from California, and her peg-legged sailor friend, Cap'n Bill, find themselves on a perilous and exciting voyage when a whirlpool leaves them stranded in an underwater cave. There they are befriended by a most curious creature--the Ork. With four paddle-like wings, legs like a stork's, a parrot's head, and a tail like a propeller, the Ork proves to be a very welcome and helpful companion.

After escaping the cave, the three friends make their way to the magical Land of Mo, where it snows popcorn and rains lemonade. Here they find Button-Bright--lost once again and eager to join in their adventures. Together, the four travel across the deadly desert and into the Land of Oz, only to find themselves in new troubles with the scowling King Krewl and Blinkie, a wicked witch. But when everything seems its worst, who should come to their rescue but the Scarecrow of Oz himself! Thanks to the Scarecrow's wondrous brains, our friends just might have a chance to prevail against their heartless enermes.

King Rinkitink was so much pleased with the Island of Pingaree that he continued his stay day after day and week after week, eating good dinners, talking with King Kitticut and sleeping. Once in a while he would read from his scroll. "For," said he, "whenever I return home, my subjects will be anxious to know if I have learned 'How to be Good,' and I must not disappoint them.

When all the inhabitants of Pingaree are kidnapped by the mongrel hordes of twin island kingdoms, Prince Inga and his friend King Rinkitink decide to go to the rescue.

Princess Ozma is missing! When Dorothy awakens one morning to discover that the beloved ruler of the Land of Oz has disappeared, all of the Emerald City's most celebrated citizens join in the search for the lost princess.

But Ozma isn't all that's gone missing. The magical treasures of Oz have disappeared, too, including the Magic Picture, the Wizard's black bag, and even Glinda's Great Book of Records. With no clues to guide them, Ozma's friends separate into four search parties and spread out across their vast country in a desperate quest for their absent ruler.

Deep in the Winkle Country, Dorothy's search party is soon Joined by Cayke the Cookie Cook, who has lost a magic gold dishpan, and the amazing Frogman, a man-sized frog who walks on his hind legs. Together with these new allies, Ozma's friends learn that their valued possessions aren't missing but have been stolen by a mysterious villain.

The Tin Woodman sits on the glittering tin throne of his splendid tin castle, ruling the Winkle Country of the Land of Oz with the help of his best friend, the Scarecrow. All is peaceful and well, but when a young wanderer named Woot asks the Tin Woodman how he came to be made of tin, the emperor recalls his days as a flesh-and-blood woodchopper and his love for Nimmie Amee, a Munchkin girl so fair that the sunsets blushed when they fell upon her.

The three quickly decide to set out on a daring quest to reunite the Tin Woodman with his lost love and ask Nimmie Amee to be Empress of the Winkie Country. During their travels, they battle dragons and loons, a mighty sorceress, and an all-too-hungry beast called the Hippo-gy-raf. Luckily, they are joined in their search by their old friend Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter, and are aided by Dorothy and Princess Ozma--the powerful fairy ruler of the Land of Oz. But just when they think their troubles are over and their quest is complete, they discover a surprise that leaves all of them truly astounded!

The mischievous boy Kiki Aru has discovered a magical word--Pyrzqxgl--can transform him and anyone else into whatever Kiki demands. Worse yet, Kiki has been recruited by the villainous Nome King in his latest attempt to get revenge on Princess Ozma and all her friends.

While Ozma's court plans a spectacular celebration for her birthday, Dorothy and the Wizard set out with the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger to find a gift for their beloved princess. But in the Forest of Gugu they become entangled in the wicked plans and magical transformations of Kiki and the Nome King.

Can Dorothy and the Wizard stop the evil-doers before they conquer Oz? Or will Kiki's incredible powers finally give the Nome King the revenge he has craved for so long?

Glinda, the good Sorceress of Oz, sat in the grand court of her palace, surrounded by her maids of honor - a hundred of the most beautiful girls of the Fairyland of Oz. The palace court was built of rare marbles, exquisitely polished. Fountains tinkled musically here and there; the vast colonnade, open to the south, allowed the maidens, as they raised their heads from their embroideries, to gaze upon a vista of rose-hued fields and groves of trees bearing fruits or laden with sweet-scented flowers. At times one of the girls would start a song, the others joining in the chorus, or one would rise and dance, gracefully swaying to the music of a harp played by a companion. And then Glinda smiled, glad to see her maids mixing play with work.

Take your family on a fun-filled journey down the yellow brick road where lions sing, tin men talk, scarecrows dance -- and children of every age are reminded that in all the world, there's no place like home.

Whisked away by a swirling tornado, 12-year-old Dorothy (Judy Garland), her dog Toto -- and even her Kansas farmhouse! -- sail over the rainbow and into the dazzling land of Oz. Filled with playful munchkins, enchanted forests and endless surprises, this dream-come-true world is one great adventure after another. But the most wondrous adventure of all begins when Dorothy and her new-found friends go in search of the kingdom's mysterious wizard... and the secret that will lead her home.

Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West, has gotten a bum rap. Her mother is embarrassed and repulsed by her bright-green baby with shark's teeth and an aversion to water. At college, the coed experiences disapproval and rejection by her roommate, Glinda, a silly girl interested only in clothes, money, and popularity. Elphaba is a serious and inquisitive student. When she learns that the Wizard of Oz is politically corrupt and causing economic ruin, Elphaba finds a sense of purpose to her life, to stop him and to restore harmony and prosperity to the land. A Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, and an unknown species called a "Dorothy" appear in very small roles... The story presents Elphaba in a sympathetic and empathetic manner-readers will want her to triumph!. The book has both idealism and cynicism in its discussion of social, religious, educational, and political issues present in Oz, and, more pointedly, present in our day and time. It is for good readers who like satire, and love exceedingly imaginative and clever fantasy.

Wicked the Musical is loosely based on the wildly imaginative novel by Gregory Maguire, on how Dorothy's Wicked Witch of the West became "Wicked."

Wicked is a grand and glorious Broadway Musical in every sense of the word. Huge, amazing sets; awe-inducing costumes and special effects.

Maxfield Parrish black and white drawings complement L. Frank (Oz) Baum's expanded versions of the Mother Goose tales.

Includes his versions of Sing a Song o' Sixpence, Little Boy Blue, Cat and the Fiddle, Old King Cole, Mistress Mary, Jack Horner, Man in the Moon, the Jolly Miller, Hickory Dickory Dock, Little Bo-Peep, Tommy Tucker, Tom the Piper's Son, Humpty Dumpty, The Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, LIttle Miss Muffet, and others. Mother Goose was a moderate success, and allowed Baum to quit his door-to-door job.

In 1899 Baum partnered with illustrator W. W. Denslow, to publish Father Goose: His Book, a collection of poetry.

The book was a success, becoming the best selling children's book of the year.

Father Goose is filled with lots of nonsense poetry to tickle the little ones.

Originally published in 1902, this fantasy imagines that Santa Claus was once a human foundling adopted by woodland fairies, who grows up surrounded by elves, Knooks, Ryls, and other "immortals" of the natural world. Claus decides that his mission in life should be to bring joy to mortal children by making and distributing toys. His good works spread worldwide, and the mantle of immortality is bestowed upon him. This is a long and old-fashioned tale full of improvised fairy lore, a battle against the evil Awgwas, and unique explanations of such Christmas customs as hanging stockings. Claus is an appealing character.

Mayre Griffiths, nicknamed Trot, or sometimes Tiny Trot, is a little girl who lives on the coast of southern California. Her father is the captain of a sailing schooner, and her constant companion is Cap'n Bill Weedles, a retired sailor with a wooden leg. (Cap'n Bill had been Trot's father's skipper, and Charlie Griffiths had been his mate, before the accident that took the older man's leg.) Trot and Cap'n Bill spend many of their days roaming the beaches near home, or rowing and sailing along the coast. One day, Trot wishes that she could see a mermaid; her wish is overheard, and granted the next day. The mermaids explain to Trot, and the distressed Cap'n Bill, that they are benevolent fairies; when they offer Trot a chance to pay a visit to their land in mermaid form, Trot is enthusiastic, and Bill is too loyal to let her go off without him.