the man behind the curtain

Let’s wrap up the week and the thread on Oz with a peek at the man behind the 

curtain, its author L. Frank Baum.  He was born into wealth in 1856, a sickly kid

who got interested in writing when his father bought him a printing press.  His

first professional publication was a trade journal about poultry.  His first book

was about Hamburg chickens.

 

In 1880, Baum’s father built a theatre for him.  Baum wrote, produced, directed

and acted in productions there. Two years later he married Maud Gage. Gage was

the daughter of Matilda Joslyn Gage, who co-wrote History of Woman Suffrage 

with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. 

 

Frank became an ardent supporter of women’s rights.  His second Oz book is

about  a revolution in the Emerald Kingdom in which knitting-needle-wielding

females take over and force their men to do the housework.  Princess Ozma,

rightful ruler of the fairyland, ascends to the throne and reigns with compassion

and benevolence.  She lets the guys go back to whatever it was they were doing.

The Baums moved to Aberdeen in Dakota Territory in 1888.  He opened a store

“Baum’s Bazaar”.  It went bankrupt due to his liberal credit policy, so he began

editing the town newspaper.  On December 20, 1890, Baum wrote a column ad-

vocating annihilation of Native Americans.  After the Wounded Knee Massacre

nine days later, in which at least 153 Lakota Sioux were killed by the U.S. Cavalry,

Baum opined:

             “Having wronged (Native Americans) for centuries,we had better,

               in order to protect our civilization, follow it up with one more

               wrong and wipe these untamed and untameable creatures from

               the face of the earth.”

 

In 1891 the Baum family, now with four sons, moved to Chicago when the paper

ceased publication.  Frank worked as a reporter, then started editing a magazine

for ad agencies that centered on window displays for department stores.  In 1897

he wrote and published his first children’s book, which set Mother Goose rhymes

to prose.  Maxfield Parrish illustrated it.

 

It did well enough for Baum to quit his door-to-door sales job.  He teamed with

illustrator W. W. Denslow in 1899 to produce Father Goose: His Book.  This col-

lection of nonsense poems became the best-selling children’s book for the year.

 

Now we’re on the yellow brick road. Baum and Denslow created The Wonderful

Wizard of Oz in 1900.  It was the best-selling kids’ book for two years.  A successful

stage version was produced in 1901, though it was quite different from the 1939

film.  Instead of Toto, Trixie the Cow was whirled off to Oz with Dorothy, along

with the waitress Tryxie Tryfle and Pastoria, the streetcar operator.

 

Frank wrote several theatrical variations on the Oz theme, but none of them

made it to Broadway.  

                                 

Baum and Denslow collaborated a third time on Dot and Tot of Merryland.  It failed

and the two never worked together again.  Frank wrote 15 more Oz books and many

other fantasy novels, 55 in all.  He also wrote 82 short stories and more than 200

poems.  He wrote some of his work under pseudonyms, including women’s names.

His Aunt Jane’s Nieces series, written for adolescent girls, was penned under the

nom de plume Edith van Dyne.

 

After the inital success of Oz, Baum announced that he had bought Pedloe Island

off the coast of California, and would build “a fairy paradise for children” there.

He planned to live there.  A princess and other children would run it.  Problem

was, Pedloe Island was no more real than Oz.

 

In his later years, Baum moved to Hollywood.  He started a movie company to

produce children’s fantasy films.  It failed, but it gave early career boosts to

Harold Lloyd and Hal Roach.  Richard Rosson, who was in one of Baum’s films,

was the older brother of Harold Rosson, cinematographer of the famed 1939

production.

 

Frank died from a stroke in 1919.  His last words were “now we can cross the

shifting sands”.  His legacy includes a wealth of literature and promotion of   

feminist issues . . . and a plea for genocide.  All this from a man who named

his most famous work after his “O” to “Z” file cabinet.