L. Frank BaumTHE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ One afternoon, L. Frank Baum was with a group of children athis home in Michigan. He liked telling stories, and the children of the townloved to come and hear him. He had already become quite famous in America withFather Goose - His Book, and, instead of being a shopkeeper, or a salesman, ora journalist, which, he had been, he was able to spend most of his timedreaming up children’s stories. On this day, he was telling the children about a girl calledDorothy, and her friend The Scarecrow. He was about halfway through the story,when he stopped. All the children begged him to continue, but he looked up fora bit and thought. He told them that he just knew he had to go and write thisstory down before he forgot it. — ‘I will finish telling it to you later,’ hesaid. In his heart, he must have known that he had dreamed upsomething very special; a story which would become one of the most loved andenjoyed tales of good witches and bad witches and magic and hopes and fearsthat have ever been written. He went to his desk, picked up his pen and startedwriting. The magic of the world of Oz and its characters seemed to come alive,as his pen raced across the page: the Scarecrow who may have had a head ofstraw but who was really brainy; the Tin Woodman who believed that he needed aheart to love people — but managed better than most without; and the CowardlyLion, who looked so fierce but felt so frightened...as so many big fiercepeople do. The story was easy to tell, the characters were there in hismind’s eye. Curiously, only the title proved a problem. He first called thestory ‘The Emerald City’, but his publisher didn’t think it was lively enough,and it took weeks before, one morning, Baum wrote: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.It looked right on the page, it sounded right in his ear — and his publisherliked it. And that was that. When originally published in 1900 with illustrations by W.W.Denslow, it instantly became a huge hit with children and grown-ups alike. Theworld of magic had become real, and was never to fade. Within a short time,there was also play and a musical. The craze began. Thousands of children wroteto Baum saying how much they enjoyed it, and, like Oliver, asked for more. Heagreed, and, in 1904, he published The Marvelous Land of Oz, followed in 1907by Ozma of Oz and four years later, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. Altogether,before he died, there were 14 sequels, with one book of short stories. Hebecame known as The Royal Historian of Oz. When he died in 1919, there were 26 further stories, some ofthem written by his own son! By the time the series finished in 1951, overseven million copies had been sold. A film was first made of the story in 1925, but in 1939, ayoung actress called Judy Garland starred in a color musical film, and, likethe book itself, it became one of the most loved films of all time. It seemedto be touched by magic. Staying quite faithful to Baum’s original book,Dorothy, the Scarecrow, The Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, the Great Oz, andthe Wicked Witch lived on the screen in the way they had lived in theimagination of millions of children.The songs also became part of our musical world. SomewhereOver the Rainbow, If I Only Had a Brain and the others are now classics oftheir kind.None of this was even suspected when the author was born in1856 in Chittenango, NY. His father, a rich businessman, called him Lyman FrankBaum, but even as a boy he never liked his first name. He was quite a frailchild, with a weak heart, and spent his childhood reading and dreaming, ratherthan playing football or running around. When he was older, his parents triedto toughen him up by sending him to a military school, but he fell ill, andfinally they recognized that he was not that kind of person, and allowed him tocome home. When he was 15, hestarted his own newspaper. From then on, he always wrote. He became ajournalist, an actor, ran a theater company, and then became a salesman. He wasnever a very good businessman (he was too much of a dreamer) and variousbusinesses he started — shops and newspapers — went bankrupt. All this changed when he hit the big time, first with FatherGoose - His Book, and then with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He even started anOz newspaper called Ozmapolitan. He died in 1919, knowing that his work wouldlive on, but not having had the opportunity to see the film that would live,side by side, with his words. Notes by Nicolas Soames