The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W.W. Denslow. It was originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900,and has since been reprinted countless times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of both the 1902 stage play and the extremely popular, highly acclaimed 1939 film version. The story chronicles the adventures of a girl named Dorothy in the Land of Oz. Thanks in part to the 1939 MGM movie, it is one of the best-known stories in American popular culture and has been widely translated. Its initial success, and the success of the popular 1902 Broadway musical Baum adapted from his story, led to Baum writing thirteen more Oz books. The original book has been in the public domain in the US since 1956. Baum dedicated the book "to my good friend & comrade, My Wife", Maud Gage Baum. In January 1901, the publisher, the George M. Hill Company, completed printing the first edition, which probably totaled around 35,000 copies. Records indicate that 21,000 copies were sold through 1900. Historians, economists and literary scholars have examined and developed possible political interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. However, the majority of the reading public simply takes the story at face value.
Introduction
Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations.
Yet the old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as "historical" in the children's library; for the time has come for a series of newer "wonder tales" in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated,
together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident.
Having this thought in mind, the story of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.
L. Frank Baum
Chicago, April, 1900.
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Introduction
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Chapter 1 The Cyclone
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Chapter 2 The Council with the Munchkins
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Chapter 3 How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow
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Chapter 4 The Road Through the Forest
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Chapter 5 The Rescue of the Tin Woodman
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Chapter 6 The Cowardly Lion
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Chapter 7 The Journey to the Great Oz
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Chapter 8 The Deadly Poppy Field
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Chapter 9 The Queen of the Field Mice
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Chapter 10 The Guardian of the Gate
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Chapter 11 The Wonderful City of Oz
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Chapter 12 The Search for the Wicked Witch
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Chapter 13 The Rescue
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Chapter 14 The Winged Monkeys
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Chapter 15 The Discovery of Oz, the Terrible
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Chapter 16 The Magic Art of the Great Humbug
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Chapter 17 How the Balloon Was Launched
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Chapter 18 Away to the South
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Chapter 19 Attacked by the Fighting Trees
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Chapter 20 The Dainty China Country
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Chapter 21 The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts
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Chapter 22 The Country of the Quadlings
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Chapter 24 Home Again
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Other books by L. Frank Baum
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