In 1900 Lyman "L." Frank Baum (1856-1919) published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, creating a new and uniquely American fairy-tale world, full of wizards, witches, talking beasts, strange creatures, and all manner of animated inanimate objects. He wrote thirteen sequels before his death, and a further twenty-six official sequels by other authors followed. This world continues to excite our imaginations today, as evidenced by the continued popularity of the 1939 movie and the recent success of "Wicked" on Broadway. In contrast to the movie's message of "There's no place like home," the ultimate message of the Oz books is that exploring is really awesome, and Kansas was actually pretty boring. He also wrote a whole ton of other books, but none were remotely as successful as the Oz books (though we may feature some of them eventually).
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz:
In which you more or less know the story just by being alive: a young girl is transported to a magical land where she befriends a scarecrow, a tin man, and a lion while trying to find her way home to Kansas.
The Marvelous Land of Oz:
In which a young boy escapes from a witch and brings a variety of abominations against nature to life and ends up fighting against a somewhat satirical rebellion.
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