L. Frank Baum - Resource Guide

I remembered reading L Frank Baum’s books as a child, but not having read The Wizard of Oz. There were few books available by Baum in the Oz Series that I could get my hands on in the local library at the time. One that was not in the Oz series remained the most memorable for me; The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus.  When I was younger, I wanted to buy that book but couldn’t find it. Not only did I not know what a database was then, but one didn’t exist, let alone an easy-to-access ‘online’ bibliography.

 

Why did I pick this topic? I had recently written a paper on Milne, and knew that I could not use him as a topic again. I was standing next to a statue of Santa Claus that we have in our house when Baum’s name just popped into my head. The journey, like the one to Oz, led me to a land of an author that I never really knew. A man who had lived many lives before finding his vocation as the first notable writer of American Children’s Literature, a genre created by his work. A man who believed in women’s rights but was struggling with his beliefs in God, man and the Native American Indians. A prolific writer who produced early films using technology that was not quite developed enough to make him considered great during his time, even though he was the first American bestselling author. A man who seemed to work out questions about his life through his work, leaving even more complex questions for scholars to still study and research today.