L. Frank Baum – Author Biography
Early Life
Lyman Frank Baum was born on May 15, 1856, in Chittenango, New York, the seventh of nine children of a wealthy oil businessman. A sickly, imaginative child, he was educated at home and at military school, and showed an early love of storytelling and the theater. As a young man he tried his hand at many careers — actor, playwright, theater manager, newspaper editor, traveling salesman, and shopkeeper — mostly without lasting success.
Career
Baum’s fortunes changed when he began writing for children. Mother Goose in Prose (1897) and Father Goose: His Book (1899) were hits, but The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), illustrated by W.W. Denslow, was a phenomenon — the best-selling children’s book of its era. Baum went on to write thirteen more Oz books, including The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904) and Ozma of Oz (1907), creating one of the great fantasy worlds of literature. He wrote dozens of other children’s books under his own name and pseudonyms, ran a short-lived film company, and worked tirelessly to bring Oz to the stage and screen. He died on May 6, 1919, in Hollywood, California, never knowing that the 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz would make his creation immortal.
Major Works
Baum’s major works are the fourteen Oz books, beginning with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), along with Mother Goose in Prose (1897) and Father Goose: His Book (1899).
Writing Style and Themes
Baum wrote with a deliberate break from the moralizing children’s literature of his day: his preface to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz announced a story meant only “to please children of today,” full of “wonderment and joy” without the nightmares of old fairy tales. His style is plain, swift, and inventive, packed with marvelous inventions — talking scarecrows, tin men, living deserts. His great theme is the discovery that what we seek is already within us: the Scarecrow’s brains, the Tin Woodman’s heart, the Lion’s courage. Oz itself is a democratic fairyland, notably without kings in the European sense — an American myth.
Legacy
L. Frank Baum created America’s first great fantasy world and its most enduring fairy tale. The 1939 film The Wizard of Oz made Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion global icons, and “Over the Rainbow” became one of the most famous songs ever written. The Oz books have never been out of print, and Baum is honored as the father of American children’s fantasy.
