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Oz and Beyond: The Fantasy World of L. Frank Baum
The author examines in detail Baum's (1856-1919) many fantastical tales, including The Wizard of Oz , the 13 others he wrote about that magical kingdom, and others, as well as his evolution as a fantasy writer, illuminating in the process his philosophy concerning nature, civilization, and industrialization. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
286 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 9, 2017
An excellent overview of the Baum's extended fairy tale universe. I'm just starting to read more about Baum and I had no idea that, after writing several different fairy tales with their own lands, he decided to incorporate them into his Oz tales and have these lands border Oz itself. I would have liked the book to have gone into more detail on the rest of the official 40 Oz books, but since the focus was on Baum I'm not going to fault the book for that.
January 26, 2010
A quick read. Somehow I was expecting something more dense, with impenetrable prose and bristling with footnotes, but this book turns out to be not that academic. It's more of an affectionate summary of the plots of all of Baum's fantasy books (not just the Oz ones). A couple of times the author raises the thesis that Baum's vision of Oz is actually more coherent than is generally thought, but this is so manifestly indefensible that one wonders why he bothers. Riley is most interesting when he writes about the distinction Oz has of being the first American fantasy land. He draws a comparison between the land of Oz and Baum's vision of America and correlates the Westward expansion of the US with the constant discovery of new corners and hidden places in Oz. Someday I hope to find a critical work on Oz which delves into the horror of a land with no death, where babies never grow up but squall eternally, and where you can be chopped to pieces and each individual piece will go on living. Riley mentions these things, but withholds comment, tactfully it seems.
February 18, 2023
"For, after all, dear reader, these stories of Oz are just yours and mine, and we are partners. As long as you care to read them I shall try to write them."
L. Frank Baum, "To My Readers" in The Lost Princess of Oz (1917)
After falling into a reading slump with nothing sparking my interest. I thought I'd do the medicinal thing and fall into the land of Oz …. again. One of the many Oz non fiction books I purchased and dipped in and out of when writing essays about Baum and his connections with Feminism and Theosophy. So it was nice to read it in its entirety from start to finish.
The book starts with some background information about his early life, interests and health conditions with his heart.
At 14 he decided he wanted to work for a printers, his parents indulged him and bought a printing press and for two years he produced the Rose Lawn Home Journal.
With a strong desire not to take on the family business he pursued varying vocations. With a keen love of theatre, he enjoyed acting, design, managing and directing but his flare for writing was always there.
It was during this time 1881-82 he met and married Maud Gage, the daughter of the well-known suffragette Matilda Joslyn Gage who co wrote with Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton the book "History of woman suffrage". They moved to Aberdeen Dakota where they opened Baum's Bazaar which would have been like the Woolworths/Wilkinson's of the day. The store was greatly affected by the depression era and closed but not before Baum became a local "storyteller hero" to the children who would frequently visit the store, desperate to hear his exciting tales.
Throughout the Oz series Baum always wrote lovely dedications to the children who would be reading them. Some of them feature in this book. While most authors of the time were writing the traditional adventure stories aimed at boys and often excluding girls. Baum with his genuine appreciation and ability to connect with his readers wrote stories for all children but with predominantly female leads. Often taking inspiration from the many fan letters he received.
Baum had a fascinating life full of ups and downs and was actively quite revolutionary for the time he was born into. While predominantly known for his Oz books he wrote many other books and series under his own name and several psuedonyms. It has been said that if his books were written now they would most likely be classed as science fiction. His book "The Master Key" about a child called Rob who is able to create futuristic electrical inventions that would have likely impressed Edison. These included X-ray glasses, meal tablets, an early taser/stun gun and a teleportation device. While fascinated with the progression of technology and ideas, Baum also expressed concern about mankind's sense of restraint and the negative effects on humanity that new technology can bring. Rob eventually gives these gifts/creations back saying "I'm not wise enough. Nor is the majority of mankind wise enough to use such inventions as yours unselfishly and for the good of the world. If people were better, and everyone had an equal show, it would be different".
This book by Michael O.Riley mainly looks at the Oz series and some of his other works. It also includes a section about the popularity of Oz story retelling today, mentioning briefly the many spin off books, comics, manga, musicals, TV shows, films and games.
Something which did sadden me was how Ruth Thompson was chosen by the publishers to continue Baum's Oz series not long after his death. Her style was very "traditional" her continuations featured several weddings (not previously featured in Baum's works), Princess's returning to Oz not to rule but to be married off, put back in their societal place so to speak. It has been said that she preferred the traditional adventure story with boys taking the lead. While there is obviously nothing wrong with boys (and girls) taking the lead and having adventures those "boy adventure stories" dominated the market at the time. Baum who was a supporter and advocate for feminism and continually put capable female leads in his stories it seems a sad step back on Baum's original progressive works and ideas.
I found the first half more interesting than the latter which seemed a bit muddled in places. There are lots of books about Baum and his involvement with the Suffragettes and the Theosophy movement which influenced his writings and I would happily recommend some if you would like to know more about his fascinating life. While this book was still an interesting insight it has a lower rating because there are better books out there and if I wasn't slightly obsessed with the subject I would have likely enjoyed it less.
L. Frank Baum, "To My Readers" in The Lost Princess of Oz (1917)
After falling into a reading slump with nothing sparking my interest. I thought I'd do the medicinal thing and fall into the land of Oz …. again. One of the many Oz non fiction books I purchased and dipped in and out of when writing essays about Baum and his connections with Feminism and Theosophy. So it was nice to read it in its entirety from start to finish.
The book starts with some background information about his early life, interests and health conditions with his heart.
At 14 he decided he wanted to work for a printers, his parents indulged him and bought a printing press and for two years he produced the Rose Lawn Home Journal.
With a strong desire not to take on the family business he pursued varying vocations. With a keen love of theatre, he enjoyed acting, design, managing and directing but his flare for writing was always there.
It was during this time 1881-82 he met and married Maud Gage, the daughter of the well-known suffragette Matilda Joslyn Gage who co wrote with Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton the book "History of woman suffrage". They moved to Aberdeen Dakota where they opened Baum's Bazaar which would have been like the Woolworths/Wilkinson's of the day. The store was greatly affected by the depression era and closed but not before Baum became a local "storyteller hero" to the children who would frequently visit the store, desperate to hear his exciting tales.
Throughout the Oz series Baum always wrote lovely dedications to the children who would be reading them. Some of them feature in this book. While most authors of the time were writing the traditional adventure stories aimed at boys and often excluding girls. Baum with his genuine appreciation and ability to connect with his readers wrote stories for all children but with predominantly female leads. Often taking inspiration from the many fan letters he received.
Baum had a fascinating life full of ups and downs and was actively quite revolutionary for the time he was born into. While predominantly known for his Oz books he wrote many other books and series under his own name and several psuedonyms. It has been said that if his books were written now they would most likely be classed as science fiction. His book "The Master Key" about a child called Rob who is able to create futuristic electrical inventions that would have likely impressed Edison. These included X-ray glasses, meal tablets, an early taser/stun gun and a teleportation device. While fascinated with the progression of technology and ideas, Baum also expressed concern about mankind's sense of restraint and the negative effects on humanity that new technology can bring. Rob eventually gives these gifts/creations back saying "I'm not wise enough. Nor is the majority of mankind wise enough to use such inventions as yours unselfishly and for the good of the world. If people were better, and everyone had an equal show, it would be different".
This book by Michael O.Riley mainly looks at the Oz series and some of his other works. It also includes a section about the popularity of Oz story retelling today, mentioning briefly the many spin off books, comics, manga, musicals, TV shows, films and games.
Something which did sadden me was how Ruth Thompson was chosen by the publishers to continue Baum's Oz series not long after his death. Her style was very "traditional" her continuations featured several weddings (not previously featured in Baum's works), Princess's returning to Oz not to rule but to be married off, put back in their societal place so to speak. It has been said that she preferred the traditional adventure story with boys taking the lead. While there is obviously nothing wrong with boys (and girls) taking the lead and having adventures those "boy adventure stories" dominated the market at the time. Baum who was a supporter and advocate for feminism and continually put capable female leads in his stories it seems a sad step back on Baum's original progressive works and ideas.
I found the first half more interesting than the latter which seemed a bit muddled in places. There are lots of books about Baum and his involvement with the Suffragettes and the Theosophy movement which influenced his writings and I would happily recommend some if you would like to know more about his fascinating life. While this book was still an interesting insight it has a lower rating because there are better books out there and if I wasn't slightly obsessed with the subject I would have likely enjoyed it less.
September 15, 2017
This was an interesting read. I haven't explored the world of Oz extensively since I was a kid, although when I was 10-11 I read the first part of the series (I seemed to glom instinctively onto only the portion written by Baum himself) extensively and repeatedly. Arguably Oz, together with Narnia, constituted my premiere fantasy worlds, and I drank them in. So I was pretty intrigued by a book whose entire focus was not so much literary criticism of the Oz stories themselves, but rather tracing the development and expansion of the land of Oz and its surrounding environs, themselves, and placing them into context within the larger structure of Baum's entire writing and creative works. Nobody, including myself, is familiar with Baum's other fantasy works, but Riley did a good job of tracing through their threads and demonstrating that the world-building process was, for Baum, an ongoing and organic development rather than something formally plotted much in advance. I sometimes took issue with the writing's tone, which on occasion had a little too much the flavor of a dissertation, and sometimes stated as irrefutable conclusions what amounted to opinions regarding the quality of various aspects of the Oz books, to my annoyance. Still, there is a wealth of information contained within, and it served well to remind me of the wild creativity of the Oz writing, as well as some of Baum's less-conventional themes and treatments, which when thought about objectively were quite ahead of his time, in 1910. When you think about it, most children's literature from the period was pretty ghastly, and it's impressive that his has survived the test of time at all.
October 21, 2025
This now classic text tells us about the life of the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and his 14 novels and series of short stories, and about the fantastical worlds he created, contrasting them with moments from the author's personal life and giving us a unique perspective on their creation and meaning, both metaphorical and prosaic.
The essay also allows us to see, briefly, the evolution, contradictions and corrections that the author made in his most popular fantasy world, something obvious to any reader but addressed here in a serious and academic way.
The book covers Baum's entire life and all his children's novels, including the enormous impact and great success that Oz had during these years, especially with the famous/infamous theatrical musical, which was a tremendous success and to which we possibly owe much of its sequels.
It is simply a pity that this book does not have a follow-up covering the rest of the novels published by the successor authors and analysing the impact of the MGM film when it was released in cinemas (and, more importantly, on television).
In short, this is a magnificent book that has been in circulation for decades and is an excellent starting point for a serious study of one of the most influential novels of the 20th century, its author and its context.
The essay also allows us to see, briefly, the evolution, contradictions and corrections that the author made in his most popular fantasy world, something obvious to any reader but addressed here in a serious and academic way.
The book covers Baum's entire life and all his children's novels, including the enormous impact and great success that Oz had during these years, especially with the famous/infamous theatrical musical, which was a tremendous success and to which we possibly owe much of its sequels.
It is simply a pity that this book does not have a follow-up covering the rest of the novels published by the successor authors and analysing the impact of the MGM film when it was released in cinemas (and, more importantly, on television).
In short, this is a magnificent book that has been in circulation for decades and is an excellent starting point for a serious study of one of the most influential novels of the 20th century, its author and its context.
May 22, 2025
If you love the Wizard of Oz book series and want to dig a little deeper into the lore, this book is for you. I found this book while trying to better understand what Baum’s inspiration was to write the series, and I found this book very insightful. It does a good job of explaining Baum’s creative pursuits alongside what was going on in his life.
June 16, 2015
I guess all I can say is that it was a biography. This book did not get my mind running, and wanting to continue. It was good though. L. Frank Baum's life was pretty interesting. Two thirds of this book was all about the books he wrote. This book explains Baum's life but as you can tell by two thirds of this being about his books, not thoroughly explaining in detail about L. Frank Baum. I do not like expository stuff. Mainly fiction where much detail can be found. If you are that way and only reading this for fun, I do not suggest it. I f you want to learn more about this man it's an okay book. Like I said this is mostly about his books.
August 8, 2011
Not a bad read, especially if you are interested in the life of the creator of America's first true fairy tale. My only complaint is that the author wrote with perhaps too much of his own opinion for a biographical book. However, still interesting information on an interesting person. Baum was an American treasure with a long-lasting impact that I am not sure even that great dreamer could have imagined!
September 13, 2009
A good overview and linking together of Baum's OZ and other children's books. The book itself is mostly a synopsis and discussion of Baum's books with recommendations on which books are strongest/weakest and why. The bibliography alone is great for helping find research books on 19th and 20th century children's books or early fantasies.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews