Author(s): L. Frank Baum

Classics

"Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz is the fourth book set in the Land of Oz written by L. Frank Baum. It was published on June 18, 1908 and reunites Dorothy with the humbug Wizard from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). The book starts with an earthquake in California. Dorothy and others are swallowed up by cracks in the earth, and fall into a cavern, where they begin their adventures. When Dorothy recovered her senses they were still falling, but not so fast. The top of the buggy caught the air like a parachute or an umbrella filled with wind, and held them back so that they floated downward with a gentle motion that was not so very disagreeable to bear. The worst thing was their terror of reaching the bottom of this great crack in the earth, and the natural fear that sudden death was about to overtake them at any moment. -------- Lyman Frank Baum (1856 - 1919) was an American author chiefly famous for his children's books, particularly The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its sequels. He wrote 14 novels in the Oz series, plus 41 other novels, 83 short stories, over 200 poems, and at least 42 scripts. He made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and the nascent medium of film; the 1939 adaptation of the first Oz book would become a landmark of 20th-century cinema. His works anticipated such century-later commonplaces as television, augmented reality, laptop computers (The Master Key), wireless telephones (Tik-Tok of Oz), women in high-risk and action-heavy occupations (Mary Louise in the Country), and the ubiquity of advertising on clothing (Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work). On May 5, 1919, Baum suffered a stroke. The following day he slipped into a coma but briefly awoke and spoke his last words to his wife, Now we can cross the Shifting Sands. Frank died on May 6, 1919 (aged 62)."