If you love ruby slippers, emerald cities, cowardly lions, and wicked witches, you can thank L. Frank Baum. His creation of the fantastical world of Oz charged the imaginations of countless children when his first book, The Wonderful World of Oz, was published in 1900. The book’s overwhelming popularity with children, as well as adults, led to 13 sequels and is considered America’s first true fairy tale. Naturally, some of Baum’s legacy was enhanced by the 1939 classic film (fun fact: in the book, the slippers were not ruby, but silver, but were changed in the movie because red stood out better on the yellow brick road). It was, though, Baum’s prodigious creativity that has kept Oz in our hearts all these years. To learn more about this magical man, here are some fine books:
Great post! I definitely need to read one of those books and learn more about Baum. My favorite trivia about The Wonderful World of Oz is how it was banned for having “no value” for children and promoting “negativism”. But the most ridiculous is that in 1928, libraries banned the book arguing that the story was ungodly for “depicting women in strong leadership roles”.