Baum l f short biography. L f baum the amazing in the wizard of oz

Briefly about the article: It turns out we know very little about Oz creator Lyman Frank Baum. How did it happen that his first book was a treatise on chickens? Why did the writer’s descendants apologize to the Indians? What lessons does Baum give to project writers? We may not like the answers to these questions, but you can’t erase the words from the song.

Multi-machine operator from the project O.Z.

FRANK BAUM

Once upon a time there lived a kind storyteller, Lyman Frank Baum. He dreamed of wonderful countries where good and evil wizards, talking animals and funny short people live - he came up with the country of Oz, which is now so loved by children all over the world... Oh, what a sugary molasses! And, most importantly, it wasn’t like that, it wasn’t like that at all. How did it happen that Baum's first book was a treatise on chickens? Why did the writer’s descendants apologize to the Indians? What lessons does Baum give to project writers? You may like the answers to these questions, but you can’t remove the words from the song.

It is enough to study Baum’s biography for the myth of the good storyteller to melt away, like the Evil Witch who was doused with water from a bucket by Dorothy. Baum dreamed of dreaming, but not so much about fairy-tale kingdoms, but about making money, which explains his persistence in developing a literary vein: in a relatively short time (a little over twenty years) he created six dozen novels, as well as many stories, poems, scripts and more. At the same time, he remained in the history of literature as the author of “The Wizard of Oz” and its sequels. If Baum was a pioneer, it was only in one area - in the market of novels for youth, in current Western terminology - young adult novels, abbreviated as YA. Of course, such novels appeared in abundance before Baum, but it was he who made every effort to commercialize this area, turning Oz into the first fantasy project - and trying to squeeze the maximum profit out of it

The good thing about good fairy tales is that children like them, and in this sense, The Wizard of Oz is a great fairy tale. With adults, everything is more complicated: “This book is strangely warming and touching, but no one knows exactly why,” admitted Baum scholar Henry Littlefield. But this casket opens simply. By and large, the land of Oz suffered the same fate as “Tao,” one of the basic concepts of Chinese philosophy: each thinker of Ancient China used this term in his own way, so that the philosopher Han Yu called Tao an “empty position” that has no precise fixed meaning. So is the country of Oz: everyone sees something of their own in it, but what L. Frank Baum saw in it - and whether he saw at least something - is another question.

ARRAN VIRGINS AND HAMBURG COOSTERS

Lyman Frank Baum - he did not like his first name and preferred to be called simply Frank - was born on May 15, 1856 in the village of Chittenango, New York (today the residents of this area are proud of their fellow countryman, annually holding Oz-Stravaganza festivals with costume parades and they even built a yellow brick road in 1982). Baum was lucky: he was born in rich family. His father is a businessman German origin, started out as a cooper, and made his fortune in Pennsylvania oil. Together with his brothers and sisters (there were nine of them in total, five lived to adulthood) Baum grew up on his father’s estate, Rose Lawn, which he remembered all his life as “paradise.”

Since Frank, according to his parents, grew up as a sickly dreamer, at the age of twelve he was sent to military academy, where the boy stayed for two years, after which he returned home. The extent to which the Baums did not live in poverty can be judged by the following fact from Frank’s biography: when the teenager became interested in printing, his dad bought him a modest printing press, so soon Frank and his younger brother Henry began publishing the Rose Lawn Home Journal. The young man’s inclination towards entrepreneurship was evident even then: the magazine published advertisements, for which Baum, apparently (cautious biographers note), took money.

At the age of seventeen, Frank’s youthful hobby became a business: he started publishing the Stamp Collector magazine and, together with his friends, began selling philatelic products. Three years later, the young businessman became seriously interested in breeding, excuse me, Hamburg roosters, which are not at all the fantasy of the hero of the comedy “Gentlemen of Fortune,” but a real breed of birds, bred in Hamburg by crossing chickens, geese and turkeys. Since 1880, Baum has been publishing the magazine “Facts about Birds”, in 1886 he publishes the first book - not a fairy tale, but a brochure about the same Hamburg roosters, about their mating, nutrition and other matters important for poultry farmers. Baum did not limit himself to Kurami - he made and sold fireworks, which were in particular demand on Independence Day, and at one time worked as a clerk in his brother's haberdashery company.

In addition, Frank constantly tried himself in the theatrical field, but here it was no longer a matter of money, but of passion. The spotlight attracted Baum from his youth until his death. He beckoned and, as usual, burned. When Frank lived in Lone Rose, a local troupe promised him roles in exchange for sponsorship - the theater needed a wardrobe update - and then deceived him. In the end, the father, taking pity on his tormented son, simply built him a theater in Richburg. Frank immediately set to work on the play “The Maid of Arran” based on William Black’s novel “The Princess of Foula”: he composed it himself, staged it himself, wrote the music and songs himself, played it himself main role. The work had a pathetic subtitle: “A Play That Seduces All Hearts and Leaves an Imprint of Beauty and Nobility on the Low Nature of Man.” An idea like “he dances himself, sings himself, sells tickets himself” promised to be successful, but everything ended badly: while Baum and his comrades were touring with “The Maid of Arran”, the theater, along with the costumes and manuscripts of the plays, burned down, and the fire started during the performance with a prophetic called "Matches".

In 1882, Baum married and six years later (shortly after the theater failure) settled in Dakota. He first opened Baum's General Store, but soon went bankrupt because he often sold goods on credit. Then Baum took up editing a local newspaper. In December 1890, nine days before the Wounded Knee Massacre, which became the last major battle Indian Wars, future author good fairy tales composed a column in which he called for the destruction of all Indians so that they would stop annoying white Americans: they say, since we have offended them for centuries, let's offend the Redskins completely and wipe off the face of the earth this proud, “untamed and untamed” people who threaten our civilization. A piquant detail: the journalist Baum wrote the word “destruction” with a spelling error - extIrmination. In 2006, Baum's descendants apologized to the Sioux Indians for the writer.

In addition to practicing highly social journalism, Baum managed to sing in a quartet and enjoy the views of South Dakota, which he would later pass off in the book as views of Kansas (Baum once visited there for only two days). In 1891, the newspaper died, and the couple and their four sons moved again, now to Chicago, where Frank got a job as a reporter for the Evening Post. For some time he was a traveling salesman, in 1897 he began writing a magazine about window dressing and eventually, as in the case of Hamburg roosters, published a book on this topic, where he justified the use of dressed mannequins and clockwork mechanisms to attract clientele.

THE ADVENTURES OF FRANK BAUM IN SHOW BUSINESS

By this time, Baum had already become a children's writer. He himself rated his talent extremely highly: in Baum’s book from the “Aunt Jane’s Nieces” series, published under a pseudonym, a certain film director tells the heroines about storytellers whose books were successfully filmed, and lists them as follows: “Hans Andersen, Frank Baum, Lewis Carroll " All this would be funny if it weren’t so sad: Baum’s very first fairy tale, later renamed “The Amazing Adventures of the Magic Monarch Mo and His People,” was published in 1896 under the title “ New Country miracles,” and the reference to Carroll clearly reflected the author’s intention to promote himself at someone else’s expense.

Books for children were in demand, but Baum did not immediately find his niche. The New Wonderland, with its emphasis on absurdist humor, sold poorly, and in 1897 Frank published the much more traditional Mother Goose Tales in Prose. The moderate success of this book prompted him to create a sequel: joining forces with the artist William Denslow, Baum published a volume of poems, “Papa Goose: His Book,” which became a bestseller. In form it was “nonsense poetry” a la Edward Lear, in content it was something that the West now prefers not to remember: in children’s poems, Baum managed to insult blacks, Irish, Italians, Chinese and Indians, and in next book Papa Goose also hit the Jews.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, with text by Baum and illustrations by Denslow (they shared equal rights to the book), was published in 1900. The story of the Kansas girl Dorothy, carried away by a tornado into a magical land where talking scarecrows, animals and even people made of iron live, was initially supposed to be limited to one book. “The Wizard” became a hit, but the next product of Baum and Denslow, “Dot and Tot in the Merry Land,” disappointed the reader, and then Frank decided to strike while the iron was hot: in 1904 he published the fairy tale “ Amazing country Oz,” which took place in the same world. And in 1907, having previously struggled with other projects, Baum returned to Oz for good, writing “Ozma from Oz,” and from then on he steadily published a book a year (with a break in 1911–1912).

The capitalization of Oz also went in other directions: a year after the publication of The Wizard, Baum, together with composer Paul Tietjens, turned the fairy tale into a musical. Frank, who loved to mythologize events, later recalled that one day a young man in glasses came to him and offered to make a fairy tale theatrical performance, “and wrap everything up...”. In fact, Tietjens and Baum were introduced by a Chicago artist who was illustrating another of Frank’s creations, and before “The Wizard,” they wrote two musicals, “Octopus” and “King Midas,” which no one wanted to stage. Baum greeted the idea of ​​bringing the plot of the bestseller to the stage coldly, but the musical, which started in 1902, ran successfully on Broadway for many years and earned the authors a fortune. Because of this, Baum forever quarreled with Danslow, who demanded that the profits be divided among three. By the way, with money from the “Wizard” the artist acquired an island as part of the Bermuda archipelago and declared it a kingdom, and appointed himself King Denslow I.

The plot of the musical was not the same as the book: the Wicked Witch of the West was not there at all, but the real King Oz appeared, who expelled the Wizard who had usurped power. Moreover, the musical made references to American politics, in particular to President Theodore Roosevelt and oil tycoon John Rockefeller. Perhaps this is where the legs grow from the interpretations of the fairy tale as a political pamphlet, which will be discussed below. The continuation of the musical based on the second book of the series failed - Dorothy and the Lion were not in the book, the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman also disappeared from the musical, so the audience was not inspired by the performance.

Baum more than once or twice tried to put an end to the land of Oz, declaring that this book would be the last, but he never decided to slaughter the cash cow. In Frank's brain, projects arose, one more fantastic than the other. In 1905, after moving to California, he said in an interview that he had acquired Pedlow Island and wanted to turn it into an amusement park. Wonderful country Oz." Biographers have searched in vain for this island or even evidence that Baum acquired any islands. One way or another, after the failure of another musical, he abandoned the idea of ​​the park.

Passion for the theater slowly but surely destroyed Baum - his musicals left the stage almost faster than they appeared. Fleeing from bankruptcy, Frank transferred all his property, including the library and typewriter, to his wife’s name, and also sold the rights to books about Oz to the publishing house M.A. Donahue, who found nothing better than to release their cheap editions and claim that they are much cooler than the new Baum fairy tales. In 1914, Frank went into filmmaking, founded The Oz Film Manufacturing Company, tried to make films for children, but again went broke and suffered from poor health. In May 1919, Baum suffered a stroke and died, just short of his sixty-third birthday. On next year his last, fourteenth tale about the land of Oz was published.

BOOKS FOR EVERYONE, AND NO ONE WILL LEAVE OFFENDED

As befits a project author, L. Frank Baum wrote not only under his own name, but also under seven pseudonyms, three of which were female. For example, he published the popular series “Aunt Jane's Nieces” as Edith Van Dyne. Baum approached writing in a business-like manner, trying to reach a variety of target groups. He wrote adventurous novels for adults, such as "The Destiny of the Crown" (with a Brazilian flavor), "Daughters of Destiny" (set in Balochistan, main character- Muslim), “The Last Egyptian.” Baum sold series about Sam Steele and Aunt Jane's nieces to teenagers of different genders. For small children he had the irreplaceable Papa Goose. Baum even tried to replace “The Land of Oz” with another fantasy series, publishing “Sea Fairies” and “Sky Island” under his own name, but did not succeed. In the end it all came down to Oz; Baum even made it a habit to include characters from his other fairy tales, like “Queen Zixi of Country X” and “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus,” so that the reader would be interested in these books too. At the same time, there is no need to talk about any coherence of the Oz cycle: Baum’s characters quickly change their appearance and past, even their names can be spelled differently.

Baum's attempt to invade SF territory was also not very successful: The Key to All Locks (1901), which the author called an "electric fairy tale", was barely noticed by critics. In the book, teenager Rob Joslin experiments with electricity, entangles his house in a “network of wires” and accidentally summons the Electricity Demon. It turns out that Rob touched the Electric Key to All Locks, and the Demon is obliged to fulfill nine of his wishes. Since Rob does not know what to ask from the Demon, he brings him six gifts of his choice.

Now, a hundred years later, we use two of the six gifts of the Demon - a small tube that shocks the offender with an electric shock, and a device that shows what happened in the world during the day. Other gifts still seem just as fantastic: a pill that is enough to satiate you for the whole day ahead, clothing that protects you from physical impact, a miniature levitator, and even a “character indicator” - a set of glasses that show what kind of person a person is. However, Baum’s fans believe that with these glasses he predicted “augmented reality,” that is, reality with virtual elements. Putting on glasses, Rob sees letters on a person’s forehead: K if the person is kind, C if he is cruel, W if he is wise, F if he is a fool, and so on.

One could admire the writer’s prognostic talent if it weren’t for the secondary nature of all the Demon’s gifts. After the advent of radio, only the lazy did not think about sending images (in 1884 Paul Nipkow proposed “mechanical television”, in 1907 Boris Rosing patented the cathode ray tube), other ideas were also in the air, and Baum could have borrowed glasses from Andersen’s fairy tale “ They can’t come up with anything.” Baum's fans are delighted with the wireless telephone described in the novel "Tik-Tok from Oz", but the trouble is that in the fairy tale itself it is lost among all sorts of Magic Binoculars, Magic Pictures and Magic Magnets. What’s really new in The Key to All Locks is the teenager’s refusal of the last three gifts: “Someone will think I’m a fool for giving up these inventions,” Rob thinks, “but I’m one of the people who knows when to stop. A fool is one who does not learn from his mistakes. I'm learning from myself, so I'm fine. It’s not easy to be ahead of your time by a century!” Such a critical attitude towards progress was rare before the First World War, especially in books for children.

INTERPRETATION OF OZ-VISIONS

Against the backdrop of massive literary failures For Baum, the runaway success of The Wizard of Oz is puzzling. How does this book appeal to readers? Over the past hundred years, attempts have been made to explain this phenomenon more than once or twice. Historians, theosophists, and Freudians have been involved in the interpretation of the fairy tale, especially pointing out that Freud’s book “The Interpretation of Dreams” was published in the same year as “The Sorcerer.” Baum's fairy tale according to Freud looks unattractive: starting point Dorothy’s adventures are supposedly based on a scene not described by Baum, in which the girl spies on the adults at night, because they sleep in the same room: “In one corner there was a large bed of Uncle Henry and Aunt Em, and in the other there was Dorothy’s small bed.” What she sees shocks Dorothy, and she projects her fear in the form of a tornado, which is very phallic in shape. Dorothy's conventional mother, Aunt Em, is split into two figures in the fairy tale - the Good Witch of the South and the Wicked Witch of the West, whom Dorothy crushes under the house. As for the conventional father, he, of course, becomes the Wizard himself, named Oz. The Emerald City, in which there are many vertical towers, as well as a broom, are symbols of everything that you are thinking about.

Then the Freudians move on to the silver slippers and the Wizard behind the screen... but, perhaps, enough mockery of the fairy tale: L. Frank Baum clearly did not mean anything like that. The same screen does not carry any secret meaning: in the Baums’ house it was customary to place the Christmas tree behind such screens, and Frank loved to talk with relatives while remaining “invisible.” Baum saw the yellow brick road with his own eyes in his youth. The Emerald City could have been inspired by the White City, built in Chicago in 1893, when the World Exhibition, and so on.

Historians interpret the fairy tale in their own way. Professor Henry Littlefield has theorized that The Wizard of Oz is a parable about populism in 1890s American politics. The Emerald City is the Capitol, the Wizard is the President of the United States, the Cowardly Lion is the leader of the populists William Jennings Bryan, the Woodcutter represents the proletarians, the Scarecrow represents the farmers. In the 1990s, economists further developed this theory: it is clear that the yellow brick road and silver shoes indicate the demand of populists to freely mint gold and silver coins. And the dog's name, Toto, refers to the word teetotaler, “teetotaler,” - supporters of the ban on alcohol were allies of the populists. Well, why the city is Emerald, that is, green, is clearer than clear: this is the color of American banknotes. Baum was a journalist, after all, he was well versed in politics. To which theosophists, proud that the author of The Wizard was interested in Theosophy, note that...

But maybe this is the key to the success of The Wizard of Oz? A simple story about a girl who wanted to go home, about her friends who lacked self-confidence, and about a Wizard who turned out to be an ordinary person, can be filled with any meaning if desired. Why not see in this tale also a parable about fantastic literature? Judge for yourself: The woodcutter symbolizes science fiction(essentially he is a cyborg), Lion is a fantasy (talking animal), Scarecrow is a horror (with such and such a name). SF is often accused of having no heart, fantasy - that it is cowardly escapism, horror - that it is rarely smart. Well, The Wizard is, of course, great literature, the notorious bolitra, which in fact cannot give anything to anyone.

Years of life: from 05/15/1856 to 05/06/1919

Writer and journalist, classic of children's literature. Among his compatriots who wrote and are writing in the genre of literary fairy tales, Lyman Frank Baum remains to this day the most striking individual. Fairy tales are just a small part of the author’s work, but it is thanks to them that the author entered the history of US literature.

Lyman Frank Baum was born in Chittenango, New York. Frank had very little chance of even living past the age of three. Already in the first year of his life, doctors did not hide the truth from his parents: the baby had a congenital heart defect. And only a calm, measured and happy life, preferably not in big city, and rural areas.

At the time of Frank's birth, the writer's father, Benjamin, was a cooper who made oil barrels. Precisely those that were called “barrels” due to the fact that that is how much oil was placed in them. But the seventh child became like lucky mascot: soon Benjamin from a cooper became a seller of black gold; Moreover, his business took off so rapidly that he became rich in a short time. Father could allow teachers to come to Frank themselves: he did not go to school. Frank was such a bookworm that he soon overcame his father’s entire, by no means small, library. Frank's favorites were Charles Dickens and William Thackeray. Dickens was still alive at this point, so all the new products that came from the pen of the classic were immediately delivered to Frank. Such a passion for his son was a source of special pride for his father. He told everyone: “My Frank cracks these books like nuts!”

Frank celebrated his 14th birthday happy: his father came to his son’s room early in the morning and brought him a very large gift - it was typewriter. Quite a rarity at that time. That same day, Frank and his little brother already delighted their parents with the first family newspaper. And then the newspaper, which later grew into a magazine, began to be published regularly. In addition to family chronicles, it also contained fiction - Frank often wrote fairy tales for younger children...

In 17 years future writer began to publish a completely adult magazine. Since his second hobby, after books, was philately, the pages of the new publication were devoted to the history of stamps, various auctions, and travel.

Frank himself was truly restless - whatever he did in his youth. He started as a reporter, was the director of a bookstore, and studied at a military school for two years, where he experienced an almost physical aversion to drill. Then he decided to become a farmer, raised poultry, and at the same time published a magazine dedicated to poultry farming. But he soon returned to the city and became a producer at a number of theaters; He appeared on stage several times, playing in plays.

In 1881, Frank fell in love with the charming Maud. A somewhat frivolous young man with his head in the clouds did not seem to Maud’s parents an exceptionally successful match. The girl said that she would not marry anyone else but Frank. So, on November 9, 1882, Frank and Maude got married. They had four children, for whom Baum began writing fairy tales; at first they were oral. Frank admitted to Maude that he really didn’t want the children to learn life on “ evil fairy tales Brothers Grimm."

In 1899, Baum published his first book, Tales of Uncle Gusak. In memory of how he raised Christmas geese in his youth. A year later, his famous story “The Wizard of Oz” was published. In the land of Oz there are no rich and poor, no money, wars, diseases, life here is a celebration of sociability and friendliness. For Baum, good always prevails over the power of evil, and evil itself, in most cases, turns out to be “fake”, illusory. Baum repeated more than once that he wanted to create a non-scary fairy tale in which - in contrast to classical examples - "miracles and joy were preserved, and grief and horror were discarded." The land of Oz is a dreamland, sharply contrasted by the author with the parched, gray Kansas prairie, where the heroine, the girl Dorothy, begins her journey. As one of the researchers, Baum, puts it, Oz is an ordinary American farm, where everything suddenly became extraordinary. The world invented by the author combines traditional attributes fairy tale folklore With concrete examples American rural life. The influence of L. Carroll on Baum is obvious, but the differences between English and American storytellers are no less obvious. In contrast to Wonderland, where Alice has to wade through logical traps, ironic intricacies of words and concepts, which indirectly reflect very real life relationships, conventions and prejudices of British life, Oz is a blissful country where conflicts, contradictions, and the shadow sides of life are abolished. The famous American science fiction writer, Ray Bradbury, an ardent fan of Baum’s series, noted that these fairy tales are “all sweet buns, honey and summer holidays" Carroll's Wonderland, compared to Oz, is “cold porridge, arithmetic at six in the morning, dousing with ice water and long sitting at a desk.” According to Bradbury, intellectuals prefer Wonderland, and dreamers choose Oz: “Wonderland is who we are, and Oz is who we would like to become.”

Readers were looking forward to the author's new stories, but after releasing the sixth fairy tale in 1910, Baum decided to take a little rest. He published two fairy tales about the girl Trot and Captain Bill, which were, in general, well received by readers, but they could not imagine that the story of the Land of Oz was completed. Letters of protest were sent, with proposals to return to their favorite characters. So, a few years later, the author wrote a sequel - “The Land of Oz”.

Every year for Christmas, American children received from the author another story about a wonderful country created by his imagination.

Baum's fairy tales have been filmed and staged many times. Magic story Bouma quickly scattered around the world. It was translated into several languages, and only in our country almost no one has heard about the author of Dorothy and the Land of Oz. Alexander Melentyevich Volkov, taking Baum’s “saga” as a basis, rearranged it in his own interpretation. Volkov’s work was called “The Wizard Emerald City" and appeared on the bookshelf in 1939, as Americans lined up outside movie theaters to see the Hollywood version of The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland as Dorothy.

Over 19 years of writing, Frank wrote 62 books, 14 of which were dedicated to “ Fairyland Oz", 24 books were written exclusively for girls and 6 for boys. In the USA, the beginning of the 20th century was marked by the “Baum boom” - it was decided to film his book; The author personally participated not only in writing the script, but also in directing the film. In total, during the writer’s lifetime, 6 films based on his “saga” were made. In addition, from 1902 to 1911, this book was staged as a musical on Broadway 293 times! Perhaps Baum would have written more more fairy tales about the Land of Oz, but death from a heart attack confused all the cards of the Court Historian of the Land of Oz. On May 15, 1919, numerous relatives of the famous American writer, Lyman Frank Baum, was supposed to gather for his next birthday. It was not a big date, but about a month before the event, invitation cards were sent to the guests, and by the end of April, they had already been received by the recipients. Then none of the invitees knew that they would gather at Baum’s house a little earlier and for a completely different reason - on May 6, 1919, Frank’s heart stopped. The writer, beloved by many generations of children, never lived to see his 63rd birthday.

Tales of Oz were and remain so popular that after Baum's death, attempts were made more than once to continue the magical chronicle. The reader's love turned the period into an ellipsis: a variety of writers took the baton. A new surge of interest in Baum occurred at the end of the fifties. On the initiative of a thirteen-year-old schoolboy from New York, in 1957, the International Wizard of Oz Club was created. The club still exists today and has its own periodical, which talks about the details of life in the magical Land of Oz and the latest publications on this topic.

The real discovery of Baum in Russia occurred in the nineties. The first sign was a book published in 1991 in “Moscow Worker”, which included the second, third and thirteenth fairy tales of the series, and a little later, a translation of “The Wizard of Oz” was proposed.

Baum's fairy tales are imbued with an optimistic belief: everything that a person can dream of is inherent in him. Baum was convinced that humanity and morality are not invested in people - they are awakened. As well as the fact that “a dream - a daydream in reality, when the eyes are open and the brain is working with all its might - should lead to the improvement of the world. A child with a developed imagination, over time, will grow into a man or woman with a developed imagination and, therefore, can to cultivate and lead civilization forward."

On the set of The Wizard of Oz, MGM's costume designers were looking for a worn but elegant coat to dress the wizard. Having rummaged through local shops worn clothes, they found such a coat and, by an incredible coincidence, it turned out that it had previously belonged to the author of the book “The Wizard of Oz,” Frank Baum.

Bibliography

* Mother Goose Stories in Prose (1897)
* Father of the Goose: his book (1899)

* (The Wizard of Oz, The Great Wizard of Oz) (1900)
* The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1092)
* (The Wonderful Camp of Oz, The Land of Oz) (1904)
* (Princess Ozma of Oz) (1907)
* Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908)
* (1909)
* (1910)
* Patchwork of Oz (Patchwork Girl of Oz) (1913)
* Tik-Tok from Oz (1914)
* (The Scarecrow of Oz) (1915)
* (1916)
* The Lost Princess of Oz (The Lost Princess of Oz) (1917)
* Tin Woodman from Oz (1918)
* (1919)
* Glinda of Oz (1920)

* (1901)

Film adaptations of works, theatrical performances

Film adaptations
* The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, based on the musical directed by Otis Turner
* The Wizard of Oz Musical film directed by Victor Flemin
* Journey back to Oz, Cartoon official sequel to The Wizard of Oz
* The Wiz, Film Musical, based on the Broadway musical directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Michael Jackson and Diana Ross
* Return to Oz
* iron Man(miniseries)

Baum L F

Amazing in The Wizard of Oz
Baum L.F.

Amazing in The Wizard of Oz.

Preface

American writer Lyman Frank Baum /1856-1919/ entered the history of world literature as the creator of one of the most famous, most read fairy tale series. Like the books of L. Carroll and A. Milne, J. R. Tolkien and J. Barry, Baum’s stories have crossed national literary boundaries: more and more new generations of the inhabitants of our planet are being brought up on them.

Baum's characters - the girl Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion - in their popularity can compete with such favorites of children and adults as Alice and Winnie the Pooh, hobbits and Peter Pan.

For almost a century now, the works of the Court Historian of Oz, as Baum liked to call himself, have been published and republished in America, translated into dozens of foreign languages, plays, musicals, and films are staged based on them. Civilization does not stand still Newest technologies change our lives beyond recognition, but intricate computer games and super series are not able to overshadow Baum’s fairy tales, because they are about the Most Important and Necessary - about strong friendship, about self-confidence, about the ability to win victories in the most difficult circumstances. Baum's books are full of amazing characters and incredible adventures, but the main thing in them is amazing warmth, cheerful kindness, optimism.

The famous American science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, an ardent fan of Baum’s series, noted that these fairy tales are “all sweet buns, honey and summer holidays.” Carroll's Wonderland in comparison with the land of Oz is "a cold porridge of arithmetic at six in the morning, doused with ice water and long sitting at a desk." According to Bradbury, intellectuals prefer Wonderland, and dreamers choose Oz: “Wonderland is who we are, and Oz is who we would like to become.”

The name of this magical country, according to the Baum family legend, was born by chance. On a May evening in 1898, Baum was telling his and neighboring children another fairy tale, making it up as he went. Someone asked where all this was happening. Baum looked around the room, looked at the home file cabinet with drawers A-N and O-Z and said, "In the Land of Oz."

“The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was published in 1900 and was so loved by readers that Baum decided to continue the story about the wonderful country. Readers were looking forward to new stories, but after releasing the sixth fairy tale in 1910, the author decided to take a little rest. He published two fairy tales about the girl Grotto and Captain Bill, which were generally well received by readers, but they could not imagine that the story of the Land of Oz was completed. Letters of protest were sent, with proposals to return to their favorite characters. Actually, fans of Sherlock Holmes reacted in much the same way when Conan Doyle rebelled and decided to part with his hero. The insidious plans of both writers were doomed to failure. Readers prevailed - both Conan Doyle and Baum returned to their series.

Baum left fourteen tales about the Land of Oz. Perhaps he would have written even more, but death from a heart attack confused all the cards of the Court Historian of Oz. However, the reader's love turned the period into an ellipsis. Also in 1919, the Reilly and Lee publishing house, which specialized in publishing stories about the Land of Oz, commissioned twenty-year-old Philadelphia journalist Ruth Plumley Thompson to continue the series.

Ruth Thompson completed her task well, and as for the number of titles that came from her pen, here she surpassed Baum himself. The tradition of “continuation” did not die out - a variety of writers took up the baton. The illustrator of most of Baum's lifetime publications, John Neal, also tried his luck in this area, offering readers three of his stories.

A new surge of interest in Baum occurred at the end of the fifties. On the initiative of a thirteen-year-old schoolboy from New York, the International Wizard of Oz Club was created in 1957. The club still exists today and has its own periodical, in which, as you might guess, we're talking about about the details of life in the magical Land of Oz and about the latest publications on this burning topic.

In 1939, as Americans lined up outside movie theaters to watch the Hollywood version of The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland as the Road, Alexander Volkov retold the series' first fairy tale in Russian. In general, he adhered very carefully to the original, although he omitted several scenes (the episode with the Warring Trees, the story of the Flying Monkeys, a visit to the Porcelain Country). Subsequently, Volkov proposed his own series, inspired by Baum’s motifs.

The real discovery of Baum in Russia, however, occurred in the nineties. The first sign here was a book published in 1991 in "Moscow Worker", which included the second, third and thirteenth tales of the series, and a little later a translation of "The Wizard" was proposed, where Volkov's Ellie gave way to Baumov's Dorothy and the text appeared in its original form - without cuts or additions.

This publication is the most complete of all ever undertaken in Russia. Firstly, this is the entire Baum series:

1. "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" /1900/

2. "The Country of Oz" /1903/.

3. "Ozma from Oz" /1907/.

4. "Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz" /1908/.

5. "Journey to Oz" /1909/.

6. "The Emerald City of Oz" /1910/.

7. "The Little Girl from Oz" /1913/.

8. "Tik-Tok from Oz" /1914/.

9. "The Scarecrow of Oz" /1915/.

10. "Rinkitink in the Land of Oz" /1916/.

11. "The Lost Princess of Oz" /1917/.

12. "The Tin Woodman of Oz" /1918/.

13. "The Magic of Oz" /1919/.

14. "Glinda from Oz" /1920/.

Secondly, readers have the opportunity to get acquainted with the "Sea Fairies", where the characters of the series operate, although the Land of Oz itself remains behind the scenes. In addition, the fairy tale “Jenny Jick in the Land of Oz” by illustrator John Neal Baum is also published.

Baum did not prepare for publication full meeting works dedicated to the Land of Oz - otherwise he might have paid attention to some discrepancies in the interpretation of events, including the origin of the magical country itself. We, however, did not dare to interfere with Baum’s texts and left everything in accordance with the original.

^ THE AMAZING WIZARD FROM THE COUNTRY 03

1. HURRICANE

The girl Dorothy lived in a small house in the middle of the vast Kansas steppe. Her Uncle Henry was a farmer and Aunt Em ran the farm. The house was small because the boards for its construction had to be transported by cart from afar. It had four walls, a roof, a floor and one single room in which there was an old rusty stove, a sideboard, a table, several chairs and two beds. In one corner there was a large bed for Uncle Henry and Aunt Em, and in the other there was a small bed for Dorothy. There was no attic or basement in the house, except for a hole under the floor where the family fled from hurricanes.

In these places, hurricanes were so fierce that it was easy for them to sweep a small house out of their path. There was a hatch on the floor in the middle of the room, and below it was a ladder that led to the shelter.

Leaving the house and looking around, Dorothy saw only the steppe around. It stretched to the very horizon: a dull plain - not a tree, not a house. The sun in these parts was so hot that the plowed soil under its burning rays instantly turned into a gray caked mass. The grass also quickly turned gray, like everything around. Once Uncle Henry painted the house, but the sun began to crack the paint, and the rains finally washed it away, and now it stood the same dull gray as everything else. When Aunt Em first came to these places, she was pretty and cheerful. But the scorching sun and fierce hurricanes did their job: the perky sparkles quickly disappeared from her eyes, and the blush from her cheeks. The face turned gray and haggard. Aunt Em lost weight and forgot how to smile. When the orphaned Dorothy first came to this house, her laughter frightened Aunt Em so much that she shuddered and clutched her heart every time. And now, as soon as Dorothy laughed, Aunt Em looked at her in surprise, as if not understanding what could be funny in this gray life.

As for Uncle Henry, he never laughed. From morning to evening he worked as hard as he could, and he had no time for fun. He, too, was all gray - from his beard to his rough shoes. He looked stern and concentrated, and he rarely spoke.

Only the dog Toto entertained Dorothy, preventing her from succumbing to the dullness that reigned around her. Toto was not gray. He had charming silky black fur, a funny black nose and small, perky black eyes that sparkled with merriment. Toto could play from morning to evening, and Dorothy doted on her faithful friend.

But today they had no time for games. Uncle Henry went out onto the porch, sat down on the step and looked intently at the sky. It was grayer than usual. Dorothy, who was standing next to Toto in her arms, also looked up at the sky. Aunt Em was in the house washing dishes. Far to the north the wind howled quietly, and the tall grass near the horizon swayed in waves. The same quiet howl was heard from the opposite, southern side. Uncle Henry and Dorothy turned around at the new noise and saw that there, too, the grass was agitated, like the sea.

Uncle Henry stood up from the step.

There's a hurricane coming, Em! - he shouted to his wife. - I’ll go and see how the cattle are doing! - And he ran to the stalls where there were cows and horses.

Aunt Em left the dishes and walked to the door. One quick glance was enough for her to understand that trouble was approaching.

Dorothy! - she called. - Alive in the shelter!

At that moment, Toto jumped out of Dorothy's arms and hid under the bed. The girl rushed to catch him. Frightened Aunt Em opened the hatch and quickly began to go down the stairs to the shelter. Finally Dorothy caught Toto and decided to follow Aunt Em. But before she had time to take a step, the wind howled terribly and the small house shook so much that the girl lost her balance and sat down on the floor.

That's when the incredible happened.

The house turned around its axis several times, and then began to slowly rise into the air, like a balloon.

Just in the place where Dorothy’s house stood, two winds, north and south, collided, and from this collision a fierce hurricane was born. In the very center of a hurricane it is usually quite quiet, but because the air currents pressed harder and harder on the walls of the house, he rose higher and higher until he found himself on the crest of a huge air wave, which carried him like a light feather.

It was dark outside the windows, and the wind howled like a wild beast. In fact, it was even pleasant to fly. Apart from the fact that at first the house twisted a little, and once it tilted very strongly, Dorothy felt only a slight rocking, as in a cradle.

But Totoshka clearly didn’t like it. With a loud bark, he rushed around the room around the hostess, and she sat quietly on the floor and tried to understand what would happen next.

One day Totoshka got lazy and fell into an open hatch. At first Dorothy thought he was gone forever. But then I saw that the edge of a black ear was sticking out of the hatch. The air pressure prevented the dog from falling to the ground. Dorothy crawled to the hatch, grabbed Toto by the ear and pulled him back. Then she slammed the hatch shut so it couldn't happen again.

Time passed, and finally Dorothy calmed down completely. But she was lonely, and besides, the wind howled with such force that Dorothy was afraid of going deaf. At first she thought that the house would fall and she and Toto would fall to death, but nothing like that happened. Then Dorothy forgot about her worries and decided to hope for the best. She crawled along the shaking floor to her crib, climbed onto it, and Toto perched next to her. Despite the fact that the house was rocking and the wind was roaring with all its might, Dorothy closed her eyes and soon fell asleep.

^ 2. CONVERSATION WITH MUNCHUNKS

Dorothy woke up with a shock so strong and sudden that, if she had not been lying on a soft bed, she would have been seriously hurt. The girl quickly pulled herself together and began to think about what happened. Toto buried his cold nose in her face and whined. Dorothy sat up in bed and discovered that she was no longer flying anywhere. The sun was shining brightly through the window. Dorogi got out of bed and, accompanied by faithful Toto, went to the door and opened it.

What she saw made her eyes widen and she screamed in surprise.

The hurricane destroyed her house - I must say, quite gently for a hurricane in a charming country. All around there is a green lawn with fruit trees strewn with ripe and juicy fruits. Amazing flowers grew everywhere. Birds sat on the trees and bushes and sang loudly. A clear stream ran not far away, whispering something very pleasant - at least that’s what it seemed to the girl who had lived her whole life in the dry, arid steppe.

Dorothy stood and admired these wonders and did not notice how a group of very strange people approached her. They were about the same height as Dorothy, but it was still clear that they were adults. The three men and a woman were dressed in fancy costumes. They all wore tall, pointed hats with bells that jingled melodiously as they walked. The men's hats were blue, the women's were white. She also wore a white cloak that hung loosely from her shoulders and was decorated with stars that sparkled in the sun like little diamonds. The men were dressed all in blue and had sparkling boots with blue over the knee boots. Dorothy decided that they were about the same age as Uncle Henry. Two of them had beards. And the woman was older. Her face was all wrinkled, and she moved with some difficulty.

Approaching the house on the threshold of which Dorothy stood, the newcomers began to whisper to each other, as if they were afraid to come closer. Finally the little old lady came up to Dorothy and bowed low to her and said in a pleasant voice:

Welcome to the Land of Munchkins, O noble sorceress! We thank you very much for killing the Wicked Witch of the East and freeing the Munchkins from slavery!

Who doesn’t know Volkov’s fairy tale about the girl Ellie, who finds herself in a magical land? But not everyone knows that in reality Volkov’s work is just a free retelling of the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written by Lyman Frank Baum. In addition to this fairy tale, Baum dedicated thirteen more works to the Oz universe; in addition, other, no less interesting children's fairy tales came from his pen.

Baum Lyman Frank: biography of his early years

Frank was born in May 1856 into the family of a cooper in the small American town of Chittenango. Due to heart problems in the baby, doctors predicted that he would short life- 3-4 years, but, to everyone’s surprise, the boy outlived all his brothers and sisters.

Soon after Frank was born, his father became rich and was able to provide for his children Better conditions for growing up. Baum spent his entire childhood with private teachers teaching him.

Having become interested in books early on, Baum soon read all huge library father, which made him proud. Baum's favorite authors were Dickens and Thackeray.

In 1868, the boy was sent to the military academy in Peekskill. True, Frank soon persuaded his parents to take him home.

One day, a guy received a miniature printing machine designed for publishing newspapers as a birthday gift from his father. Together with his brother, they began publishing a family newspaper. The Baums' home newspaper published not only chronicles family life, but also the first fairy tales written by young Frank.

From the age of seventeen, the writer was seriously interested in philately and tried to publish his own magazine dedicated to this topic. He later worked as a bookstore manager. His next hobby was breeding purebred chickens. Baum even dedicated a book to this topic - it was published just when the guy turned twenty. However, later he lost interest in chickens and became interested in theater.

Baum's personal life

After spending some time with the traveling theater, Lyman Frank Baum, at the age of twenty-five, met the beautiful Maude, and a year later they got married. The parents of Frank's beloved were not very fond of the dreamy son-in-law, but his father's wealth forced them to agree to this marriage.

Frank and Maude had four sons, whom Baum loved very much and often told bedtime stories of his own composition.

Over time, he began to record them, and soon published them - and so began writing career Bouma.

Successful writing career

After the success of the first children's book, a couple of years later Baum wrote a sequel, Father Goose: His Book. However, as he watched his own children grow up, he realized that it was necessary to compose a fairy tale for older children who were no longer interested in reading about the adventures of geese in the barnyard. This is how the idea arose to write about the girl Dorothy, who accidentally found herself in fairyland Oz.

In 1900, the debut tale of the cycle about the land of Oz was published. This work instantly gained popularity, and tens of thousands of children began to read the exciting adventures of Dorothy. On the wave of success, the author published a fairy tale about Santa Claus, and two years later - its continuation. However, readers were still waiting for a new book from him about a fairy-tale land, and in 1904 another fairy tale from the “Land of Oz” cycle was born.

Baum's last years

Trying to move away from the theme of Oz, Baum wrote other fairy tales, but readers were not so interested in them. Later writer completely switched to writing books about a magical land. In total, Baum dedicated fourteen books to her, the last two of which were published after the death of the writer, who died in 1919 from heart problems. It is noteworthy that the Oz series was so popular that even after the death of its creator, other writers began to publish numerous sequels. Of course, they were inferior to the original.

Summary of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"

The main character of the most popular first part and most of the remaining books in the series was the orphan Dorothy (Volkov renamed her Ellie).

In the first book, a girl with her faithful dog Toto is carried away to the land of Oz by a powerful hurricane. Trying to return home, at the prompting of the good sorceress, Dorothy heads to the Emerald City to Oz, who rules there. Along the way, the girl makes friends with the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion. They all need something from the wizard, and he promises to fulfill their requests if his friends rid the country of the evil witch. Having overcome many problems, each hero gets what he wants.

The plot of the story “The Wonderful Land of Oz”

In the second book, the main character is the servant of the evil witch Mombi Tip. One day, a boy runs away from her, taking with him a magic powder that can breathe life into inanimate objects. Having reached the Emerald City, he helps the Scarecrow escape from there, as the city is captured by an army of militant maidens with knitting needles led by Ginger. Together they ask the Tin Woodman and Glinda (the good witch) for help. It turns out that they need to find the true ruler of the city - the missing Princess Ozma. After a while, it turns out that Tip is Ozma, bewitched by the witch Mombi. Having returned to their true appearance, the princess and her friends regain their power.

The plot of "Ozma of Oz", "Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz", "Journey to Oz", and also "The Emerald City of Oz"

Girly Dorothy appears again in the third book. Here she, together with the chicken Billina, finds herself in a magical land. The girl learns with horror the tragic history of the Yves royal family. Trying to help them, she almost lost her own head. However, having met Princess Ozma (who came to help royal family in the company of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman), Dorothy manages to remove the spell from Eve's family and return home.

In the fourth book, as a result of an earthquake, Dorothy, her cousin Jeb and the decrepit horse Jim find themselves in a magical land of glass cities. Here they meet the wizard Oz and the kitten Eureka. To get out of this not at all friendly country, the heroes have to overcome a lot. The journey ends again in the land of Oz, where good old friends await the girl, who help her and her companions return home.

In the fifth book of the series, Princess Ozma had a birthday, where she really wanted to see Dorothy. To do this, she confused all the roads, and the girl, showing the way to a tramp named Shaggy, herself got lost and after numerous wanderings and adventures she ended up in the land of Oz to Ozma.

In the sixth story of the "Land of Oz" series, due to problems on the farm, Dorothy's family moves to live in the Magic Land. However, trouble looms over the Emerald City - an evil king who is building an underground passage is trying to capture it.

Other stories about Baum's Magic Land

Baum intended to end the epic with "The Emerald City of Oz." After which he tried to write fairy tales about other heroes. But young readers wanted to continue the adventures of their favorite characters. Ultimately, at the insistence of readers and publishers, Baum continued the series. In subsequent years, six more stories were published: “The Patchwork of Oz,” “Tik-Tok of Oz,” “The Scarecrow of Oz,” “Rinkitink of Oz,” “The Lost Princess of Oz,” “The Tin Woodman of Oz.” Oz." After the writer’s death, his heirs published manuscripts of two more stories from the Oz universe: “The Magic of Oz” and “Glinda of Oz.”

In the majority latest books the author was already tired of this topic, but young readers from all over the world asked him for new fairy tales, and the writer could not refuse them. It is noteworthy that even today some children write letters to the writer, despite the fact that Lyman Frank Baum died long ago.

Books about Santa Claus

Although world fame and the name Baum received thanks to the endless epic about the land of Oz, he also wrote other fairy tales. So, after the success of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the writer composed a wonderful, good Christmas tale, “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus.” In it he talked about fate good boy, raised by the lioness and the nymph Nekil, about how and why he became Santa Claus and how he received immortality.

The children also really liked this fairy tale. Apparently, Baum himself was closer to the story of Santa Claus than to the land of Oz, and he soon published the book “The Kidnapped Santa Claus.” In it, he talks about Klaus' main enemies and their attempts to disrupt Christmas. Later, the plot of this book was often used for many films.

For my own sake long life Lyman Frank Baum wrote more than two dozen books. These books were received differently by the public. It was his fairy tales that brought him the greatest popularity. And although the author repeatedly tried to write on other topics, and very successfully, for his readers he will forever remain the court chronicler of the country of Oz.