Aunt Jane's Nieces

L. Frank Baum

mai 2011 · The Floating Press

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Inspired by Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, this book, which Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum wrote under the pen name Edith Van Dyne, is much in the same vein as Alcott's cozy coming-of-age tale. The first in a series, the story of this novel follows three nieces who are summoned to their wealthy aunt's estate so she can decide to whom she will bequeath her sizable inheritance. Although the girls couldn't be more different personality-wise, a series of calamities brings them closer together. Aunt Hane's Nieces is a delightful read for fans of classic young adult fiction.

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Best known as the author of the Wizard of Oz series, Lyman Frank Baum was born on May 15, 1856, in New York. When Baum was a young man, his father, who had made a fortune in oil, gave him several theaters in New York and Pennsylvania to manage. Eventually, Baum had his first taste of success as a writer when he staged The Maid of Arran, a melodrama he had written and scored. Married in 1882 to Maud Gage, whose mother was an influential suffragette, the two had four sons. Baum often entertained his children with nursery rhymes and in 1897 published a compilation titled Mother Goose in Prose, which was illustrated by Maxfield Parrish. The project was followed by three other picture books of rhymes, illustrated by William Wallace Denslow. The success of the nursery rhymes persuaded Baum to craft a novel out of one of the stories, which he titled The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Some critics have suggested that Baum modeled the character of the Wizard on himself. Other books for children followed the original Oz book, and Baum continued to produce the popular Oz books until his death in 1919. The series was so popular that after Baum's death and by special arrangement, Oz books continued to be written for the series by other authors. Glinda of Oz, the last Oz book that Baum wrote, was published in 1920.