L. Frank Baum

Lyman Frank Baum bɔːm May 15 1856 May 6 1919 was an American author best known for his childrens fantasy books particularly The Wonderful Wizard of Oz part of a series In addition to the 14 Oz books Baum penned 41 other novels not including four lost unpublished novels 83 short stories over 200 poems and at least 42 scripts He made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen the 1939 adaptation of the first Oz book became a landmark of 20thcentury cinema Born and raised in Chittenango New York Baum moved west after an unsuccessful stint as a theatre producer and playwright He and his wife opened a store in South Dakota and he edited and published a newspaper They then moved to Chicago where he worked as a newspaper reporter and published childrens literature debuting the first Oz book in 1900 While continuing his writing among his final projects he sought to establish a film studio in Los Angeles California His works anticipated such later commonplace things as television augmented reality laptop computers The Master Key wireless telephones TikTok of Oz women in highrisk and actionheavy occupations Mary Louise in the Country and the ubiquity of advertising on clothing Aunt Janes Nieces at Work Description above from the Wikipedia article L Frank Baum licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia