Oz

No Ultimate Evil in Oz

source: Oz and Ends

More typical is how Baum introduces the villain in The Lost Princess of Oz (1917): A curious thing about Ugu the Shoemaker was that he didn’t suspect in the least that he was wicked. He wanted to be powerful and great, and he hoped to make himself master of all the Land of Oz that he might compel e...

Published Wed, Oct 28

The “First Literary Biography”? Then What’s This?

source: Oz and Ends

As for “literary,” Katharine M. Rogers, author of L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz (2002), was a professor of English and a literary scholar who analyzed Baum’s fiction in detail. So, you know, I’m going to show the cover of that book instead of the new one.

Published Mon, Aug 24

The Twenty-First of This Month

source: Oz and Ends

L. Frank Baum almost certainly never intended people to know that Ozma had a birthday on 21 August. Throughout The Road to Oz, published one hundred years ago, characters refer only to the party planned for “the twenty-first of this month." But earlier in the book Dorothy mentions that it's A...

Published Thu, Aug 20

Humbugs Inside the Earth

source: Oz and Ends

Yesterday I mentioned my article on Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz in the latest Baum Bugle. Here is a passage from the book itself, as L. Frank Baum has his usual fun with authority figures. “We don’t have to prove it,” answered Dorothy, indignantly. “If you had any sense at all you’d known it was th...

Published Thu, Jun 18

Dorothy and the Wizard at 100

source: Oz and Ends

And then there's the plot issue. Baum literally wrote his characters into a hole, and then got them out by having Princess Ozma wish them to Oz with her immensely powerful Magic Belt--a dea ex machina. She had, after all, promised Dorothy she'd look in on her at the end of the previous Oz book.

Published Wed, Jun 17

The Creativity of L. Frank Baum

source: Oz and Ends

Here's an extract from Schwartz's interview with the Boston Globe this weekend: A. He [Baum] had this dream when he was a kid of being a great writer, and life got in the way. The amazing thing is that he got back to it. He followed his path to his true self. That's what gives the yellow brick road its...

Published Mon, Jun 15

Where to Find Finding Oz

source: Oz and Ends

Here are two long interviews with Evan Schwartz, author of Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story-- at Blair Frodelius's Daily Ozmapolitan website. on WBUR's On Point interview and call-in radio show.

Published Fri, May 1

Edgar Rice Burroughs: Thuvia, Maid Of Mars, A Review

source: idynamo (WordPress)

The use of the name Baum could be a coincidence but Dr. Baum like the Wizard Of Oz is an unseen superior.  He issues orders but is otherwise an unknown to those he directs.  In issuing his orders we are led to believe that he sits behind a curtain unseen while giving his directions.  Then, just as Do...

Published Sat, Mar 14