Baum << bahm, >> L. Frank (1856-1919), an American author, wrote children’s books about the magical land of Oz. His first “Oz” book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), was made into The Wizard of Oz (1939), one of the most popular motion pictures in history. Baum wrote 14 novels and a number of short stories about Oz, as well as other children’s fantasies, filling them with many lovable and adventurous characters.
Lyman Frank Baum was born on May 15, 1856, in Chittenango, New York. As a young man, he wrote and acted in plays. In 1882, he married Maud Gage, whose mother, the American woman suffrage leader Matilda Joslyn Gage, encouraged Baum to begin writing books for children. From 1888 to 1891, he lived in the town of Aberdeen in what is now South Dakota. There, he was the proprietor of a general store and also edited and published a newspaper . Baum based some of the “Oz” adventures on his experiences on the Dakota plains. He later moved to Chicago, where he worked as a traveling salesman and a window dresser at large department stores, among other occupations. A window dresser creates displays for windows. While in Chicago, he attended the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, a world’s fair. The heart of the exposition was the White City, a group of neoclassical buildings inspired by the architecture of ancient Rome and illuminated by newly perfected electric street lights. The White City is believed to have inspired Baum to create the Emerald City in his “Oz” series.
In 1899, Baum collaborated with the American illustrator William Wallace Denslow on Father Goose, His Book, a collection of nonsense poetry. The book was so successful that Baum and Denslow collaborated on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, released the following year. Baum also wrote plays and novels for adults. He published many of his works under different names.
Baum died on May 6, 1919. After his death, other writers, especially the American author Ruth Plumly Thompson, continued the “Oz” series.
