The Wizard of Oz
L. Frank Baum
Mar 2008 · Recorded Books · Narrated by John McDonough
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4 hr 36 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
Everyone who met him agreed that L. Frank Baum was a born storyteller, but when The Wizard of Oz was published in 1900, its phenomenal success still surprised him. This American fairy tale was a radical departure from the religious and moral tales that were the standard fare of children’s literature at the turn of the century. It became so popular that avid readers urged Baum to write thirteen more books in the bestselling Oz series.
After Dorothy and her dog, Toto, are whisked away from Kansas by a cyclone, they embark on a remarkable odyssey accompanied by the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, and the Cowardly Lion. As they travel through enchanted lands toward the Emerald City, they find perils and colorful opponents including the wonderfully evil Wicked Witch.
The story and characters of The Wizard of Oz are beloved by generations of readers and moviegoers.
After Dorothy and her dog, Toto, are whisked away from Kansas by a cyclone, they embark on a remarkable odyssey accompanied by the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, and the Cowardly Lion. As they travel through enchanted lands toward the Emerald City, they find perils and colorful opponents including the wonderfully evil Wicked Witch.
The story and characters of The Wizard of Oz are beloved by generations of readers and moviegoers.
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5.0
4 reviews
About the author
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.
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