Baum wrote it, by his own account in the introduction, to give children wonder without the "heartaches and nightmares" of the old fairy tales, and the opening chapter proves it: a grey Kansas farmhouse, a cyclone cellar, and Dorothy waiting for something to happen. The plain, steady prose makes it an easy first long story to follow aloud.
About this book
First published 1900 · First printing sold out within months of its 1900 release · First of fourteen Oz books by Baum · Filmed by MGM in 1939
L. Frank Baum had been a salesman, a shopkeeper, a newspaperman and an actor before he found his subject in stories for children. He worked closely with the illustrator W. W. Denslow, and the two planned the book together, text and pictures side by side. It came out in Chicago in 1900. As for the name Oz, the story goes that Baum was telling the tale aloud when a child asked where it was set, and his eye fell on a filing drawer marked O to Z. He told it more than one way, so it may be invention.
It sold quickly, the first printing gone within months and a second close behind. Baum went on to write thirteen more Oz books, and other writers carried the series on after his death. In 1939 MGM filmed it with Judy Garland as Dorothy, and the songs and ruby slippers took Oz to millions who had never read the book.
Our copy carries W. W. Denslow's original 1900 illustrations.
Chapters
A long one: read it a chapter a night.
- Chapter I The Cyclone
- Chapter II The Council with the Munchkins
- Chapter III How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow
- Chapter IV The Road Through the Forest
- Chapter V The Rescue of the Tin Woodman
- Chapter VI The Cowardly Lion
- Chapter VII The Journey to the Great Oz
- Chapter VIII The Deadly Poppy Field
- Chapter IX The Queen of the Field Mice
- Chapter X The Guardian of the Gate
- Chapter XI The Wonderful City of Oz
- Chapter XII The Search for the Wicked Witch
- Chapter XIII The Rescue
- Chapter XIV The Winged Monkeys
- Chapter XV The Discovery of Oz, the Terrible
- Chapter XVI The Magic Art of the Great Humbug
- Chapter XVII How the Balloon Was Launched
- Chapter XVIII Away to the South
- Chapter XIX Attacked by the Fighting Trees
- Chapter XX The Dainty China Country
- Chapter XXI The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts
- Chapter XXII The Country of the Quadlings
- Chapter XXIII Glinda The Good Witch Grants Dorothy’s Wish
Public domain. Source text via Project Gutenberg, PG boilerplate removed. View the source edition