Where is Lyman Frank Baum from?

Lyman Frank Baum

Lyman Frank Baum, American children's literature writer. Born in New York State in 1856, his father was a cooper. He later came to Pennsylvania to mine oil and made a fortune.

Baum spent his childhood in his father's large manor. He was frail and sickly since he was a child, and received special care from his family. His fascination with fairy tales and fantasy stories reached the point of "daydreaming". His parents were worried that this would affect his character development and decided to send him to military school. The rigorous life of the military academy did not improve his character, but only caused him to suffer a mental breakdown. His parents had no choice but to take him home from the military school and let him develop his own interests.

Chinese name: Lyman Frank Baum

Foreign name: Lyman Frank Baum

Alias: Floyd Akers, Edith Van Dine, Schuyler Staunton

Nationality: United States

Birthplace: New York State

Date of Birth: 1856

Occupation: American children's literature writer

Main achievements: Creation of "The Wizard of Oz"

Representative works: "The Wizard of Oz" ", "Aunt Jane's Niece"

Personal Experience

In 1910, Baum, his wife and four sons moved their family to Hollywood. There. They built "Oz Cabin" as their home. Baum lived here until his death in 1919.

On May 5, 1919, he stopped breathing. Although Baum advocated simplicity, he only left this line on his tombstone: "Frank Baum, 1856-1919." But for children and adults of that era, he was extraordinary. As they open their minds to the magical imagination that once guided Baum, their explorations and discoveries begin to be endless.

In the 1940s, "The Wizard of Oz" was adapted into a movie by MGM in the United States.

In addition to the sixty-two fairy tales he wrote under his real name, he also wrote six books for boys under the pen name Floyd Akers, and also under the pseudonym Floyd Akers. Under the pen name of Edith Van Dyne, he wrote twenty-four books for girls; and under the pen name of Schuyler Staunton, he wrote two novels: "The Clown" Destiny" (1905) and "Destiny's Daughter" (1906).

Baum spent most of his life in illness. After he moved to Hollywood, he named his house Oz Lodge and lived there for the rest of his life. 1919.5 Lyman Frank Baum (L. Frank Baum, 1856 ~ 1919) was born in Chittenango, New York. His father, Benjamin Wood Baum, was an oil tycoon, and his mother, Cynthia Baum (nee Stanton), was a feminist activist. Baum and his seven siblings grew up together in a large house north of Syracuse. "The tall house is bathed in the gentle sunshine, very cool. It is very strangely built, but very beautiful. There are many door wings and gables on the upper floors, and there are wide balconies on each side." This is what Baum later wrote in "Many A description of the house in "Thoth and Thoth" (1901). Although it was a big house, it had no running water. He was frail and sickly since childhood and received special care from his family. His fascination with fairy tales and fantasy stories almost reached the level of "daydreaming". His parents were worried that this would affect his character development and decided to send him to a military school. He attended Peekskill Military Academy for two years from 1868 to 1870. The rigorous life of the military academy did not improve his character and only led to his mental breakdown. His parents had no choice but to take him home from the military school and let him develop his own interests.

Major works

Baum's debut as a novelist was "The Prose of Mother Goose" (1897). The work is adapted from stories he told his children and introduces the farm girl Dorothy in the final chapter. In the introduction of the book, he mentioned that the purpose of writing this book was to create modern fairy tales that would not scare children like the fairy tales written by the Brothers Grimm. In 1899, his collection of stories "Father Goose's Book" also came out, which quickly became a bestseller. One night, while telling stories to his sons, he suddenly had an unprecedented inspiration. While coaxing the children to quiet down, he grabbed a piece of writing paper and excitedly recorded the inspiration. This is a story about the Emerald City and the original idea for the adventure story of Oz. With illustrations and cover design by W. W. Denslow, the book was published in 1900 at Baum's private expense and sold 90,000 copies in the first two years. After "The Wizard of Oz" was published, in a short period of time, the author received thousands of letters from young readers, asking him to continue writing the story. Later, Baum really responded to the readers' request and used his virtual "Oz" "As the background, he wrote a series of fairy tales, such as "The Emerald City of Oz", "The Tin Man of Oz", "The Hungry Tiger of Oz" and so on. He wrote 14 fairy tales in this series.

This does not include a collection of Oz short stories published in 1914, and 10 other quasi-Oz fairy tales that are inextricably linked to the characters in Oz. In 1901, the first installment of the Oz series was adapted into a musical, with Baum co-writing the screenplay and lyrics. In 1914, Baum participated in the filming of "The Patch Girl of Oz". In the same year, he founded Oz Film Production Company (later renamed Feature Film Company) in Los Angeles and served as director from 1914 to 1915. The studio, located on Santa Monica Boulevard, is a well-equipped studio located on seven acres of land. But the company still collapsed and only produced two movies with Oz as the theme, one was "The Scarecrow of Oz" and the other was "The Magic Cloak of Oz." However, in the days that followed, the story of Oz was put on the screen many times. Among them, "The Wizard of Oz" played by 16-year-old Judy Garland in 1939 was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture.

Talent display

Baum showed his talents in writing and storytelling at an early age. The family newspaper he ran when he was 15 years old achieved a certain degree of success in the local area. When he became obsessed with theater creation, his father bought several theaters for him to give him the opportunity to fully display his talent.

Baum had a wide range of interests and worked in various professions as an adult, including journalist, editor, actor, company employee, small farmer, grocer, etc. For a long time, he traveled around the world on business, even to China. Traveling greatly increased his knowledge. His father passed away and his family fell into decline. He tried hard but failed in business. Baum indulges in fantasy, is approachable and easy-going to others, and is indecisive when things happen. This character caused him to fail almost everywhere in the business world. When he was working as a grocer, children especially liked to visit, and he spent most of his day telling stories to the children. At that time, Baum was in a bad year and had an easy-going nature. He often allowed his neighbors to take credit. With a boss like this, it would be strange if the grocery store didn’t close down!

Children are the only group who admire Baum, and they all agree that he is a genius in storytelling. In the city where he later settled, children often stopped him on the road and insisted on telling a story before letting him go. And Baum is really like a storytelling perpetual motion machine, able to weave a fantastic fairy tale at any time.

After Baum became a father, he often recalled the stories he heard in his childhood. He found the stories dull and dull, full of unpleasant morals and moral lessons. He conceived some pleasant stories himself and adapted children's songs into stories. In 1897, he compiled a collection of essays "The Story of Mother Goose", which was a success after publication. He also published a collection of poems and a children's song "The Book of Father Goose". The book is beautifully illustrated, all drawn by his friend the artist W.W. Dunslow. After that, he published three books of verse poems and short stories.

Achievements

In 1900, when Baum was 45 years old, he wrote "The Wizard of Oz" (also known as "The Wizard of Oz"). It is the first universally appreciated fairy tale in the history of American children's literature. In the preface of the book, Baum wrote: "The ancient fairy tales passed down from generation to generation may only be classified as 'historical' in today's children's libraries, because the times have produced a series of new ones. Legends'. In them, the old monsters, dwarfs and fairies disappeared, along with all the scary, blood-curdling stories and the moral teachings of the authors. Modern education therefore no longer contains morality. Those legends are only looking for entertainment and hate to see things that are upsetting.

Based on this idea, "The Wizard of Oz" was written only to entertain today's children. This is a modern fairy tale that retains surprise and joy, saying goodbye to sadness and nightmares."

The first edition of "The Wizard of Oz" was also illustrated by Dunslow. The exquisiteness of its printing is comparable to that of "Father Goose's Book". "The Wizard of Oz" is the first fairy tale to be appreciated in the 20th century in the history of American children's literature. It has been marketed since its publication. When Baum wrote "The Wizard of Oz", he did not think of writing it into a multi-volume collection. However, the success of this book has aroused growing repercussions among readers, and people's calls for it to be written down are getting louder and louder. After "The Magician of Oz" was published in 1900, it topped the children's book bestseller list for two consecutive years. Baum, who seemed unlucky everywhere, finally found success because of a childhood hobby. Later, although he was still trying hard to tell different stories, avid readers kept writing letters urging him to continue writing stories about Oz. They "forced" Baum to become the real "Great Wizard of Oz" ". Under this circumstance, Baum wrote "The Place in Oz", "Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz", "The Road to Oz", "The Decorated City of Oz", "Otsma of Oz", "Patch Girl of Oz", "Tik-Tok of Oz", "The Scarecrow of Oz", "The Missing Princess of Oz", " "The Tin Man of Oz" and so on. He has written 14 episodes: 13 full-length fairy tales in the Oz series, 6 short fairy tales in the "Tales of the Little Wizard" series, as well as a large number of other fairy tales and books published under pseudonyms. After his death, his last book, "Glinda in Oz," was published.

Baum said: "My books are written for those who are always young at heart, no matter how old they are." Baum had always called himself the "Royal Historian of Oz" during his lifetime. In 1919 Died on May 5th. His tombstone reads: "Frank Baum, 1856-1919."

Baum wanted to write other children's books, so he wrote other books under several different pen names so that he could try other aspects of writing without worrying about success or failure, and he could explore Other themes than just the happy wonderland of Oz. Most of these works are also hailed as successful and outstanding works. He starts with E. V. "Aunt Jane's Niece," which Dane wrote under a pseudonym, became widely popular among teenage girls. Baum was known as the "Royal Historian of Oz" during his lifetime. After his death, R. P. Thompson continued to write under this title. In 1905, people felt that there were still not enough books about Oz, so a small newspaper "Oz Metropolis" was founded. Glinda of Oz was the last sequel, published posthumously in 1920.