The 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz', was a colour and sound explosion that is as cherished today as it was when it was first released. But what a lot of the public doesn't realise, is that the movie is based on the first of 14 books written by L. Frank Baum.
Publish in 1900, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" marked the beginning of a new type of fairytale. Baum steered away from the Classic European style fairytales like those of Hans Christian Anderson and the Grimm brothers, into a more light-hearted, witty, simplistic story for children that instilled American rural values into them. The simplicity of the story caused controversy within the literary circles at the time, and was the main reason it was banned in many public libraries and not considered proper children's fiction. But despite the acidemia's disapproval of the story, it became widely popular, and was the best selling children's book for two years running.
Baum was a man of the theatre, and in 1902 he turned "The......
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