The Missing Pages, Behind the Cover

Monthly Archives: July 2020

Analyzing Frank L. Baum and The Wizard of Oz

Posted on by Posted in Books & Authors .

Recently I wanted to buy a hard copy of the story the Wizard of Oz, a well known classic from my youth. While doing some research on this story I learned  some new and interesting things. One thing I learned this past week is that the ‘Wizard of Oz’ is only one book in a series of 15 books.

Here’s the whole list, including dates:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) author L. Frank Baum

The Marvellous Land of Oz (1904) author L. Frank Baum

Ozma of Oz (1907) author L. Frank Baum

Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz (1908) author L. Frank Baum

The Road to Oz (1909) author L. Frank Baum

The Emerald City of Oz (1910) author L. Frank Baum

The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1913) author L. Frank Baum

Tik-Tok of Oz (1914) author L. Frank Baum

Rinkitink of Oz (1916) author L. Frank Baum

The Lost Princess of Oz (1917) author L. Frank Baum

The Tin Woodman of Oz (1918) author L. Frank Baum

The Magic of Oz (1919, posthumously published) author L. Frank Baum

Glinda of Oz(1920, posthumously published) author L. Frank Baum

The Royal Book of Oz (1921) author Ruth Plumly Thompson

Note: Posthumously published means published after the death of  L. Frank Baum

Other Oz related works include:

Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz (1905, comic strip depicting 27 stories)

The Woggle Bug Book (1905)

Little Wizard Stories of Oz (1913, collection of 6 short stories)

Movie VS the Books

This is so much literature, that I really wonder what the movies leave out. The answer is, a lot. In the books characters travel the four countries throughout the land of Oz, in which they run into many strange and magical creatures according to the series summary.

After finding this out I was so interested in this series that I decided to look up the author L. Frank Baum, who unknown to me had written, “41 other novels, 83 short stories, 200 poems and at least 42 scripts” according to Wikipedia.

Politics in Writing

Immediately I wanted to know more about the author and the other books he wrote and that’s when I found out about his political views and I started to wonder, how have his views affected his writing?

L. Frank Baum or Lyman Frank Baum, was an avid woman’s suffrage advocate and was secretary of the Aberdeen’s Woman’s Suffrage Club. His views towards woman and the movement seem most apparent in the book, “The Marvelous Land of Oz” where women revolted to seize control at home and in government, and in The Bluebird Book series where he cast a girl sleuth named Josie O’Gorman.

Racial Views & Controversy

Baum also had some very controversial views on some Native American tribes which have haunted his legacy as a writer and as an advocate. About ten years before the first Oz book, he wrote two editorials, the first published December 20, 1890 and the second on January 3, 1891, that contained some very controversial statements. One called for “total annihilation” of “untamable” Native American tribes. He also called them “miserable wretches”, and said that their elimination would “do justice to the manly characteristics” of earlier Native Americans.

His last editorial included this quote, “An eastern contemporary, with a grain of wisdom in its wit, says that when the whites win a fight, it is a victory, and when the Indians win it, it is a massacre.” His views on Native Americans are most apparent in his writing “Aunt Jane’s Nieces and Uncle John” where one of his characters has a distaste for a ‘Hopi snake dance’. In the same writing, however, he also expresses his similar distaste for Native American reservations and the horrible situation as a whole.

It is unclear if these racial views stayed with Baum as he aged and while he was writing the first Oz book, as he did later acknowledge their mistreatment and found Native American Reservations deplorable. This may have had something to do with his mother in law, Matilda Joslyn Gage who had some influence over Baum as a Woman’s Suffrage leader herself. Matilda Joslyn Gage was also part of the Iroquois Council for Matrons and had been initiated into the Wolf Clan. Them being close, this may have had an affect on his views.

Religious Affiliation

Although Baum’s beliefs do show up in his writing, religion does not seem to be expressed as much. There is only one mention in the Oz books of a church, and it seems to be as a setting, more then as the subject. Baum himself was originally Methodist, then joined the Episcopal Church, then became a member of the Theosophical Society. It is probably fair to say that his beliefs, whatever they were, probably changed over time due to this change in membership and following.

Political Involvement

Baum also engaged in some politics during his day, he wrote and published a poem in support of William McKinley who was Governor of Ohio (1892-1896), and later president (1897-1901). Frank himself was a noted Republican and was not considered to support the political ideals of the Populist movement or the Bryanite-silver crusade. Baum’s newspaper addressed politics some, and political references were found in a 1902 musical stage version of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ which differed from the book, and included a shout out to John D. Rockefeller among a others. Few political references are noted to be found after 1902.

A New York high school teacher Henry Littlefield also wrote a an article studying any political references that may exist in the “Wizard”, and other scholars, economist and historians have followed up on Littlefields work. When ever Baum himself was asked about politics in his stories his reply was that they were stories to “please children”.

Personal Notes

If you have seen the movie only and have never read the book, expect there to be many differences. After you read this article, I encourage you to watch the movie and read the book again with all this in mind and see if you notice anything or see anything different then you may have before. Then I encourage you to comment whatever your personal findings.

References:

Wikipedia (2020, July 24th) William McKinley. Retrieved from URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McKinley

Riadse96 (2016, Dec 24th) The Wizard of Oz (stage). Retrieved from URL: https://oz.fandom.com/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_(stage)

Wikipedia (2020 July 5th) L. Frank Baum. Retrieved from URL:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Frank_Baum

It should be noted that the last Wikipedia article, that much of this was sourced from has 63 references of it’s own, all of which are available for view at the bottom of the article page.

How to Build a Library

Posted on by Posted in How To .

Before diving into literary works and authors, I’ve decided to write up a quick “how-to” for anyone who wants to build their library with me. Here is what I could come up with.

Step 1: Determine your interest.

What do you want in your library? Are there specific authors you enjoy? Specific genres or subjects?

Step 2: Decide your format:

Do you need books with Large Print text? Do you need braille? If you have a hard time reading due to ADHD, dyslexia, general reading comprehension problems, vision problems or lack of vision entirely, would an audio book work better for you?

Step 3: Define your preferences: 

Do you prefer hardback or paperback books, abridged or unabridged? Do you care if the book is new or used?

Step 4: Devise your space:

Do you have many shelves to fill, or just one? Would you prefer to have all your books in one place, or is it OK to have them scattered throughout the house? If you would like more space then you have, what to you need before you start your book collection?

Step 5: Determine your budget:

This is as much about how much money you have, as well as how much money you want to spend on something. Books can be an investment, but you need to make your investment rules ahead of time. If you are only interested in 1st editions, signed copies, leather-bound Books, or collectors edition books, these items can cost you, but if your clever and resourceful you can also save a ton of money. 

For example, affordable First Editions are easy to come by if you invest in new writers, and sometimes these new writers will sign a handful of their books to help sell copies. Thrift outlets and independent resalers like mom and pop virtual garage sales on eBay, are also another good way to find rare books as staff or individuals may be more concerned with unloading their copy of say ‘Moby Dick’ than acquiring full value for it.

Step 6: Know your authors:

If I’ve learned anything in 2020, it’s that politics is everywhere and everyone has an opinion about everything, and your favorite authors are no exception. So before you decide to buy the latest copy or get that book signed, it might be worth finding out if you respect the person who is signing it and if you are OK with supporting them financially. If not, you might want to skip the signature line and buy used instead.

I hope this helps. More posts on the way!

Why “The Missing Pages, Behind the Cover”

Posted on by Posted in General .

Exposition

Like many other people I know, I’ve been spending a lot of time at home lately. To help pass the time, I’ve decided to build a book collection. This prompted the question, which books should I acquire for this collection? Well, I like Ann Rice’s vampire series, Stephen King is good too, but I also want to incorporate some classics. The Wizard of Oz, The Jungle Book, plus let us not forget genre favorites like pirate lore and ghost stories. And so the research has begun.

Rising Action, Climax & Falling Action

First, was to track down the stories themselves. I wanted the original unabridged versions, complete in every detail, just as the author intended. I found many interesting things, among which was that some of the stories I loved had sequels I never knew about, while others were originally intended to be a collection of short stories that somehow later got compiled into one cohesive novelization, and some represented very small parts of some very large author catalogs. To get even more information on these stories I started looking up authors, reading their bio’s and so forth, and that’s when things got sticky… and this question arose, “What do you do when you love a story someone wrote, but absolutely abhor the author who wrote it?” I don’t have the answer, in fact, I am still facing this dilemma. 


Anybody who is on Twitter, and who loves the Harry Potter series but can’t stand it’s author J.K. Rowling is probably familiar with this love/hate relationship. Favorited characters and stories are many times connected to some very fond memories over time. only for the reader to find out later that the person who wrote the stories is fundamentally at odds with them as a person in real life. This causes an internal ethical struggle and in some cases ruins the stories and memories for them all together. 

Resolution

So the journey continues and the blog begins. I am going to continue to do research for my new library and will be using this blog to document my discoveries along the way. With current times, racial tensions, revisionist history, or simply left out history being uncovered, I think a lot of people are going to be surprised (such as I was) about the left out details or untold stories that surround some of their favorite literary works. This might have them looking at these old classics and other books, in new and different ways than they were before. Adding context, complication, and the varying degrees of flawed or growing humanity to the story.