In the first major literary biography of L. Frank Baum, Rebecca
Loncraine tells the story of Oz as you've never heard it, with a
look behind the curtain at the vivid life and eccentric imagination
of its creator.
L. Frank Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1899 and it was
first published in 1900. A runaway hit, it was soon recognized as
America's first modern fairy tale. Baum's life story, like the
fictional world he created, is uniquely American, rooted in the
transforming historical changes of his times. Baum was a complex
and eccentric man who could never stay put for long; his restless
creative spirit and voracious appetite for new projects led him
across the U.S. during his lifetime, and he drew energy and
inspiration from each new dramatic landscape he encountered, . Born
in 1856, Baum spent his youth in the Finger Lakes region of New
York as amputee soldiers returned from the Civil War; childhood
mortality was also commonplace, blurring the lines between the
living and the dead, and making room in Baum's young imagination
for vividly real ghosts. When Baum was growing up, P. T. Barnum
ruled the minds of small towns and his traveling circus was the
most famous act around. Baum married a headstrong young woman named
Maud Gage and they ventured out west to Dakota Territory, where
they faced violent tornadoes, Ghost Dancing tribes and desperate
droughts, before trading the hardships on the Great Plains for the
excitement of Chicago and the fantastical White City of the World's
Fair.
Baum's writing tapped into an inner world that blurred his own
sense of reality and fantasy. The Land of Oz, which Baum believed
he had "discovered" rather than invented, grew into something far
bigger and more popular than he'd ever imagined. After the roaring
success of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900, he became a kind of
slave to his creation, trapped inside Oz as his army of demanding
child fans kept sending him back there to create new adventures for
Dorothy, Toto and the humbug wizard. He went on to write thirteen
sequels to his first Oz book. He also wrote the first Broadway
adaptations of his Oz tales, and turned his Oz books into some of
the first motion pictures in a small and undiscovered rural
settlement called "Hollywood." Baum co-founded the Oz Film
Manufacturing Company, even as critics warned that no one would pay
to see a children's story. And they were right- his early ventures
were box office flops and the world was not ready for Oz on screen
until 1939, when MGM released "The Wizard of Oz" in brilliant
Technicolor. Baum was not around to see it-he'd died in bed in 1919
just weeks after completing his final Oz book. But the book and
film alike have become classics, just as well-loved today as they
were when they first appeared.
"The Real Wizard of Oz" is an imaginatively written work that
stretches the genre of biography and enriches our understanding of
modern fairytales. L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of
Oz and its thirteen sequels, lived during eventful times in
American history-- from 1856 to 1919-- that influenced nearly every
aspect of his writing, from the Civil War to Hollywood, which was
emerging as a modern Emerald City full of broken dreams and humbug
wizards, to the gulf between America's prairie heartland, with its
wild tornadoes, and its cities teeming with "Tin Man" factory
workers. This is a colorful portrait of one man's vivid and
eccentric imagination and the world that shaped it. Baum's famous
fairytale is filled with the pain of the economic uncertainties of
the Gilded Age and with a yearning for real change, ideas which
many contemporary Americans will recognize. The Wizard of Oz
continues to fascinate and influence us because it explores
universal themes of longing for a better world, homesickness and
finding inner strength amid the storms.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
