Frank Baum wrote fourteen OZ Books, introducing 850 amazing characters. The works of Frank Baum are perhaps the most accessible, innovative, and age-appropriate classics available. The works are entirely universal and devoid of any stereotypes or prejudices. They could be any nationality and yet do not belong to any one nationality. I have found the OZ stories to be marvelously empowering for children. Each play in the OZ Trilogy can be performed completely independently of the others, or, done in succession. The characters Baum introduced are some of the most imaginative characters ever put into story books. In each consecutive book, new characters are integrated while the beloved ones are brought back, such as the Scarecrow, the Tinman and the Cowardly Lion and even Dorothy.
I think many of us can thank Frank Baum for giving us a good solid
foundation in fantasy. I specifically credit my well developed imagination to Frank Baum and his Muse. When I was a child I read all fourteen of his books over and over and over. My mother had all the books in the original bindings from her childhood in London. You might just say I was raised in OZ. It’s sad to say, but, I’m one of the few people I know who has read or even knows about Baum’s other books. Most people are only familiar with his first book The Wonderful Wizard of OZ because of the MGM movie made in 1939. I have found that his first book was the least interesting to read and by his second OZ book, he had the makings of a very good writer. It was MGM that brought his first book to life.
Baum’s second book, The Lost Princess of OZ is perhaps my favorite book to read. The story is rich with plots and subplots that eventually weave together by the end of the book. It is the story in which we meet the princess, Ozma, who is in all the subsequent books. Dorothy doesn’t return until Frank’s third book which is actually titled, Ozma of Oz.
The whole OZ odyssey began with bedtime stories that Baum would tell his own children. Soon Oz had become quite a real world within their minds and they kept at him for more information that eventually he turned into books. For a long time the magical land didn’t have a name and one day, when his children pressed him for a name, his eyes frantically searched around the room for ideas. His eyes landed on his filing cabinet which said O - Z. It was the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 which began the wheels turning in Frank Baum’s head. He was completely mesmerized by all the new and upcoming scientific discoveries and it was there that the seed for The Emerald City was planted.
Frank Baum was a prolific writer. He was actually known for his book, Father Goose, before he wrote the fourteen OZ books. He also wrote 39 pseudonymous books, 44 plays and 45 songs.
