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.
