<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

L. (Lyman) Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919)was an American author best known for creating the Wizard of Oz series of books.

Baum was born in Chittenango, New York to oil magnate Benjamin Ward Baum and women's rights activist, Cynthia Ann Stanton Baum. Baum grew up on the family estate with seven siblings. He studied at home until age twelve when he attended the Peekskill Military Academy for two years.

In 1873 he became a reporter for New World and two years later, founded the New Era in Pennsylvania. He took up poultry farming and edited the Poultry Record and also wrote columns for New York Farmer and Dairyman. Baum eventually left journalism behind to take up acting, performing in several of his own plays. He also owned an opera house and toured with his own repertory company.

Baum settled into married life in 1882 with Maud Gage and they had four sons. He returned home to Syracuse and entered the family oil business as a salesman. When his attempt at a general store in South Dakota failed, the family's fortunes began to dwindle. The family moved to Chicago where he founded the National Association of Window Trimmers.

It wasn't until 1897, that Baum made his writing debut with Mother Goose in Prose a series of stories based on those he told to his own children. He's produce sixty-two books over the next 19 years , the most successful of which continues to be The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

The tremendous success of the Oz books (and stage play and movies) would have perhaps satisfied many authors. Baum wanted to write other things as well (and would publish some non-Oz books). He even tried to cut off communications with Oz. However, his public (and his publishers) wanted more adventures in the Marvelous Land, and he ended up writing fourteen Oz books before the series was handed over to other authors.

His writing style is known for its love of puns, and for sly commentary on the real world in a child-friendly style.

Tin Man is the SCI FI Channel's psychedelic twist on Baum's classic novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a six-hour miniseries slated for a December 2007 premiere.

Novels

The Oz Series

• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
• The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904)
• Ozma of Oz (1907)
• Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908)
• The Road to Oz (1909)
• The Emerald City of Oz (1910)
• The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1913)

Little Wizard Stories of Oz

• Tik-Tok of Oz (1914)
• The Scarecrow of Oz (1915)
• Rinkitink In Oz (1916)
• The Lost Princess Of Oz (1917)
• The Tin Woodman Of Oz (1918)
• The Magic of Oz (1919)
• Glinda Of Oz (1920)

External Links

• L. Frank Baum at the free library
• Literary Travel -Baum
• Suite 101 - Baum
• L. Frank Baum at Internet Movie Database

This article or section is a SCIFIPEDIA stub for the category Literature and possibly others. You can improve SCIFIPEDIA by expanding on this stub]. Please be sure to consider the other categories assigned to this stub by the original creator. When finished, remove this stub from the article and the article from the Literature stubs category.

It's usually best to give a very general overview to a story first, then plot details. When including the plot or essential details in your article (which could ruin the pleasure of discovery for some readers), it is important to include the spoiler tag before any give-away material.