The Road to Oz

L. Frank Baum

Feb. 2013 · Courier Corporation

Über dieses E-Book

The stories of L. Frank Baum have captivated youngsters for generations — from his Mother Goose in Prose (1897) to a fantasy about the beautiful Glinda of Oz (1920). But his stories of a little Kansas farm girl named Dorothy remain his best-loved tales. Now, reproduced directly from an early edition of the book first published in 1909, comes another treasure from the master of make-believe. This time Dorothy and Toto become lost when they try to help the strange but lovable Shaggy Man. To find their way home they travel to Oz, and on the way there they meet a host of amusing and astonishing characters, including Polychrome, the Rainbow's beautiful daughter; a silly boy named Button-Bright; and the unbelievable Scoodles, who tend to literally lose their heads in fits of anger. Once in the Land of Oz, Dorothy is reunited with many of her old friends, who are gathering for Princess Ozma's magnificent birthday party.
Children as well as grown-ups will be charmed by 126 delightfully witty drawings — all created for the original edition by noted illustrator John R. Neill. An excellent companion piece to other Baum classics, this entertaining tale is sure to please old and new travelers to the Land of Oz.

Autoren-Profil

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.