L Baum

Lyman Frank Baum
Born : 15th May 1856
Died : May 6, 1919

Lyman Frank Baum – Born on 15th May 1856 at Chittenango in New York to a methodist family to a German Father and Scot-Irish mother. Cynthia Stanton and Benjamin Ward Baum had nine children but only five of whom survived into adulthood. L Braum was the seventh child. Baum’s father was a wealthy businessman who made fortune in oil fields in Pennsylvania. Frank grew up at his parents vast estate and got home tutored for some time and later, sent to study in a Military Academy. As a child, he use to day-dream and was a sick child. 

This classic Literature Author began his writing career as a teenage reporter for the New York World. Within two years, he was the publisher of a small town newspaper in Pennsylvania. He first published the most popular “The Wizard of Oz’ in 1900. He later wrote thirteen sequels to the original story. He lived with many professions like an Author, Newspaper Editor, Actor, Screen writer and Film Producer.

As The Wizard of Oz was published more than one-hundred years ago, it is no longer covered by copyright in the U.S., and the entire text can be read online at Project Gutenberg. This American fairy tale has been adapted for young readers for literature study in classrooms. L Baum also wrote books for girls under the pen name of Edith Van Dyne.

{loadposition baum}

Tik-tok of Oz is the eighth book of L Baum which got published in 1914. This book is also available and you can download the ebook here at Gutenberg.

As a young man, Baum also acted in road companies and wrote plays. One of his musical comedies was produced in New York. Baum married and had four sons. He settled in Chicago where founded a trade journal – The Rose Lawn Home Journal which he started with his brother Harry Clay Baum. Later, Baum started another amateur Journal – The Stamp collector and started a Stamp Dealers’ Directory and stamp dealership with friends. This helped him to support his family while he continued writing fiction. L Baum joined Theatre but he almost miserably failed leading to near bankruptcy. He also went for a new vocation into breeding of fancy poultry. Being a stage craze into Theatre, Baum continued playing roles in theatre till his father build him a Theatre in Richburg, New York in 1880. Baum set about writing plays and gathering a company to act in them. ‘The Maid of Arran’ – a melodrama with songs based on William Black’s novel ‘A Princess of Thule’ proved a modest success. Baum not only wrote the play but composed songs for it and acted in the leading role. On November 9, 1882, Baum married Maud Gage, a daughter of Matilda Joslyn Gage, a famous women’s suffrage activist. While Baum was touring with The Maid of Arran, the theatre in Richburg caught fire during a production of Baum’s ironically-titled parlor drama, Matches, and destroyed not only the theatre, but the only known copies of many of Baum’s scripts, including Matches, as well as costumes and props.

After Baum’s newspaper failed in 1891, Baum and his wife with their four sons moved to Chicago, where Baum took a job reporting for the Evening Post. For several years he edited a magazine for advertising agencies focused on window displays in stores. The major department stores created elaborate Christmas time fantasies, using clockwork mechanism that made people and animals appear to move.

In 1897 he wrote and published Mother Goose in Prose, a collection of Mother Goose rhymes written as prose stories, and illustrated by Maxfield Parrish. 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 nonsense poetry. The book was a success, becoming the best-selling children’s book of the year.

In 1900, Baum and Denslow (with whom he shared the copyright) published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to much critical and financial acclaim. The book was the best-selling children’s book for two years after its initial publication. Baum went on to write thirteen other novels based on the places and people of the Land of Oz. The first stage version opened in 1902 in Chicago and in 1910 and 1925, Metro Goldwyn Mayer made the story into the now classic movie The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale. The Wizard of Oz continues to inspire new versions such as Disney’s 1985 Return to Oz, The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz, and a variety of animated productions. Baum’s final Oz book, Glinda of Oz was published a year after his death in 1920 but the Oz series was continued long after his death by other authors.

Some of the Author’s works

 More on L Baum’s Books & Work on Google Links