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Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story, by Evan I. Schwartz
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A groundbreaking new look at an American icon, THE WIZARD OF OZ.
Finding Oz tells the remarkable tale behind one of the world's most enduring and best loved stories. Offering profound new insights into the true origins and meaning of L. Frank Baum's 1900 masterwork, it delves into the personal turmoil and spiritual transformation that fueled Baum's fantastical parable of the American Dream. Prior to becoming an impresario of children's adventure tales--the J. K. Rowling of his age--Baum failed at a series of careers and nearly lost his soul before setting out on a journey of discovery that would lead to the Land of Oz.
Drawing on original research, Evan Schwartz debunks popular misconceptions and shows how the people, places, and events in Baum's life gave birth to his unforgettable images and characters. The Yellow Brick Road was real, the Emerald City evoked the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, and Baum's mother-in-law, the radical women's rights leader Matilda Joslyn Gage, inspired his dual view of witches--as good and wicked. A narrative that sweeps across late nineteenth-century America, Finding Oz ultimately reveals how failure and heartbreak can sometimes lead to redemption and bliss, and how one individual can ignite the imagination of the entire world.
- Sales Rank: #389332 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- Published on: 2009-04-23
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.30" h x 6.10" w x 9.10" l, 1.26 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 372 pages
- Used Book in Good Condition
Amazon.com Review
A groundbreaking new look at an American icon, The Wizard of Oz. Finding Oz tells the remarkable tale behind one of the world's most enduring and best loved stories. Offering profound new insights into the true origins and meaning of L. Frank Baum's 1900 masterwork, it delves into the personal turmoil and spiritual transformation that fueled Baum's fantastical parable of the American Dream. Prior to becoming an impresario of children's adventure tales--the J. K. Rowling of his age--Baum failed at a series of careers and nearly lost his soul before setting out on a journey of discovery that would lead to the Land of Oz. Drawing on original research, Evan Schwartz debunks popular misconceptions and shows how the people, places, and events in Baum's life gave birth to his unforgettable images and characters. The Yellow Brick Road was real, the Emerald City evoked the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, and Baum's mother-in-law, the radical women's rights leader Matilda Joslyn Gage, inspired his dual view of witches--as good and wicked. A narrative that sweeps across late nineteenth-century America, Finding Oz ultimately reveals how failure and heartbreak can sometimes lead to redemption and bliss, and how one individual can ignite the imagination of the entire world.
More from Finding Oz
(Click on Images to Enlarge)
Framed pencil stub in Baum's Chicago home, 1899 The world of Oz, as created by L. Frank Baum.
From Publishers Weekly
Author and former business journalist Schwartz (The Last Lone Inventor) presents the life story of L. Frank Baum, focusing on the invention and development of his classic 1900 children's tale, The Wizard of Oz. Schwartz reveals how Baum's early interest in theatre, tall tales, and entertaining an audience led the restless young man through a string of doomed careers, including actor, playwright, castor oil salesman, and shop owner (trading in knickknacks and toys). In spite of pressure to support his family (his mother-in-law was the radical women's rights activist Matilda Gage), Baum maintained a passion for the fantastical, and sought pleasure in every venture he undertook, often by way of his talent for yarn-spinning (famously embellishing the properties and popularity of his dismal castor oil). Falling on hard times again and again, Baum had little to keep him going besides love for his growing family and for storytelling; fortunately, those were just the ingredients necessary to find his place as an author (he published the first Oz title when he was 44) and, ultimately, as a children's lit icon. A dad himself, Schwartz tells Baum's story with understanding and wit, perfect for anyone with fond memories from over the rainbow.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“Finding Oz is underpinned by solid research…Schwartz does a fine job of unearthing the origins of Oz, and of portraying Baum as very much a man of his times -- the era of the vanishing frontier and the uneasy transition from Victorianism into modernity….As Schwartz informs us, Baum’s strange and essential gift was to see the outlines of myth within the machinery of the modern world.”
--The Washington Post
“An entertaining page turner…Mr. Schwartz’s spadework has produced some interesting theories…It's hard not to warm to Mr. Schwartz and easy indeed to join his quirky search for whatever it was that went into Frank Baum that could make "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" come out of him.”
--The Wall Street Journal
“Great fun….surprise findings….Schwartz uses his book as a lens to view the people and events at the turn of the 19th century, showing how Baum captured the wonder of the age he lived in.”
--The New York Post
“An appropriately speculative, wide-eyed biography…Schwartz has meticulously researched the spiritual and cultural influences on Baum.”
--The Los Angeles Times
“Fascinating…In Finding Oz, Evan Schwartz undertakes to explain Oz through the life of its creator L. Frank Baum.”
--The Seattle Times
In Finding Oz, Evan Schwartz reaches back into the social life of late-19th century America to write a failure-to-fame tale as rich as anything out of Horatio Alger…Readers who like a good tale of American pluck will enjoy this book….Schwartz’s book reminds us that Baum was an inventor—not a maker of machines or an engineer of instruments, but a creator of a landscape and a lore.”
--The San Francisco Chronicle (Seth Lerer, May 3, 2009)
"Finding Oz is a guided tour to the invention—or is it the discovery?—of that quintessentially American dreamscape, the Land of Oz, written with heart, brains, nerve—and a touch of magic."—Gregory Maguire, author of Wickedand A Lion Among Men
"Wow, imagine learning about American history through the prism of America’s greatest fairytale. If you love amazing but true stories, you’ve got to read Finding Oz."--Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals
"The Wizard of Oz has been a formative influence in my own life’s journey, so Finding Oz comes as an absolute revelation to me. Read this book!" --Chris Gardner, author of The Pursuit of Happyness
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
This Book Has Brains, Heart and Courage
By CJS17
Fascinating. More than a bio or reference, this book is a revelation. It literally pulls back the curtain on so many fascinating, little-known inside scoops of American history, such as myth-making, mysticism, and even grass roots marketing. The story of Matilda Joslyn Gage alone was worth the price of admission. The book is well written, and researched, and should be required reading on everyone's life syllabus.
28 of 30 people found the following review helpful.
For those expecting a biography, there are better options
By Jennie Watters
This is not so much a biography as it is an examination of the roots of one of America's best-loved stories. I found it very interesting, but at the same time, it disappointed me.
For one thing, several sections of the book seemed disjointed. Schwartz would start talking about a particular event, and to make it more interesting, he would fill in details about what MIGHT have happened. PERHAPS Baum felt like this, and MAYBE his wife, Maud, told him that, and IT IS LIKELY that they took such-and-such with them, etc. etc. I wish Schwartz would have just written a disclaimer at the beginning of the book saying that he filled in a few minor details to make his book flow better.
However, the major quibble that I have with this book is it's premise. It is an analysis of how the events in the life of one man, L. Frank Baum, translated into his greatest work. Because of this, I felt that the book was more tedious than necessary, and some of it even seemed pretty far-fetched to me. Baum is not here any more to interview, so many of the points made by the author were guesses, which I didn't appreciate. Personally, I would rather read the story of Baum's life and draw my own conclusions. Perhaps the author could make a few hints about what sort of things influenced his writings, but much of the time, the book just became very repetitive.
The thing that ANNOYED me most of all was that after the publication of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," the story pretty much ended. There is one more chapter about the rest of L. Frank Baum's life, and that's it. His Oz sequels and other books are dismissed as being uninspired and mostly irrelevant, which as a fan of the whole Oz series, I found pretty insulting. "The Wizard of Oz" was the end point. Period.
That is not to say that there is nothing to recommend this book, but all in all, I liked "L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz" better because it stuck to the facts more, and also because it looked at the whole of his work, including his many other wonderful writings. However, because it is more of a scholarly examination than the story of Baum's life, the book can be a bit dry at times. I have high hopes for Rebecca Loncraine's new book, "The Real Wizard of Oz: The Life and Times of L. Frank Baum" and hope it does a better job of capturing the spirit of this marvelous man who has brought so much enjoyment to children through the years.
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful.
The author of stories "powerful enough to join together five generations and counting"
By Robert Morris
Frankly, although I have watched the film version of The Wizard of Oz dozens of times, I never gave much thought to its author. Then I saw a review of Evan Schwartz's book, Finding Oz, and its subtitle caught my eye: "How L. Frank Baum discovered the great American story." As I began to read this biography, I began to make all manner of connections between Baum's life and the themes in the two versions (i.e. print and cinematic) of one of the most popular books in American children's literature. For example, like Dorothy Gale but throughout much of his life, Baum struggled to find his own "Oz." Along the way, like Dorothy, he encountered all manner of obstacles and was frequently in harm's way. Also like Dorothy, he was not alone during his perilous journey, accompanied by his wife Maud and their four sons. Finally, with the immediate and profitable success of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900, he achieved the happiness and harmony that had eluded him for decades.
As Schwartz explains in the Epilogue, "And so L. Frank Baum [at age 44] achieved true happiness, a state of bliss available to everyone in this life even thought only the lucky few ever reach it. Frank radiated his happiness for the rest of his days, creating concentric circles of joy, spreading from Maude and the boys, to his extended family, rippling through space and time, continuing for eternity. `Every one loved him, he loved every one, and he was therefore as happy as the day was long,' Frank wrote of the Tin Woodman." That was seldom the case in the preceding years as each of Baum's career moves failed, one after another. He was a chicken farmer, an actor, a seller of machinery lubricants, a purveyor of novelty goods, and a newspaper publisher. Despite all these setbacks, Baum continued to write constantly (e.g. plays, ad copy, newspaper articles) and then, finally, he experienced what he characterized as an "epiphany and he immediately took a pencil in hand and began to write his "great American story...[one] that really seemed to write itself"" on whatever paper he could find.
As Baum goes on to observe, "It came to me right out of the blue. I think that sometimes the Great Author has a message to get across, and He has to use the instrument at hand. I happened to be the medium, and I believe the major key was given to me to open the doors to sympathy and understanding, joy, peace, and happiness." Schwartz seems almost as surprised as Baum was that such a profound work of fiction could thus be produced. Frankly, by the time I reached that point in Schwartz's narrative, I was rooting so hard for Baum that I had forgotten about The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (except as a means to an end) because, for me, Baum's own life was the more compelling "great American story."
While I was reading this book, these are a few of the passages that caught my eye:
Maud's mother, Matilda Joslyn Gage, was one of the most prominent of the national leaders of the women's rights movement. "Mrs. Gage was in a near-constant state of fury over [denial of women's rights], and seemed to view her younger daughter as her last best hope for restoring the ancient balance of power. This belief, the lost ideal of the matriarchy, is exactly what Matilda wanted to hand down and bestow upon Maud." (Page 58)
"Frank Baum was struggling with contradictions of his own, filled with the hope of a better life in these wide-open spaces yet untouched by the fear of failure and physical danger in the untamed territory. Eager to discover what he could see and do along this frontier, he was journeying to the center of himself at the same time he was headed into the geographical center of North America. On his research mission, Frank was not only scouting Aberdeen [South Dakota] as a place for his family to live, but also for [still another] new livelihood, anew business to start." (Page 123)
"Throughout his life L. Frank Baum would always remain fascinated by Barnum and his core insight that Americans not only love to be swindled but will pay for the privilege as long as the swindle comes with a good story...He seemed to yearn for a world in which a hero pulls back the veil on fraudulent leaders and their self-deceived followers. Why was common sense in such short supply?"(Page 227)
Note: There is no doubt that Baum's fascination with Barnum was an influence on his portrayal of the Wizard as a fraud. He added a brilliant touch when having him respond to Dorothy's accusation that he is a very bad man. "Oh, no, my dear, I'm really a very good man, but I'm a very bad wizard, I must admit."
"L. Frank Baum had finally embraced [in March of 1898] his true self, an author of children's books. Although he was never meant to be a chicken breeder, an oil salesman, a storekeeper, a newspaper publisher, a peddler of fine china, or even a magazine editor, those experiences turned out to be quite useful to him. Now that he had the wisdom to see who he really was, now that he had enlarged his circle of compassion, now that he had dissolved his fear, he was finally able to approach his own climactic moment." (Page 269)
Given the fact that America is a nation of storytellers, Evan Schwartz concludes in his Postscripts, "few Americans have created stories powerful enough to join together five generations and counting. Certainly, no one on any list of American luminaries has ignited the world quite like L. Frank Baum. Ain't it the truth! Ain't it the truth!" (Page 315) It certainly is.
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