The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) is a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by
W.W. Denslow. It was originally published by the George M. Hill Company in
Chicago in 1900,[1] and has since been reprinted countless times, sometimes under
the name The Wizard of Oz. The story chronicles the adventures of a girl named Dorothy in the Land of Oz. It is one of the best-known stories in American popular culture and has been widely translated.
Its initial success led to Baum's writing and having published thirteen more Oz
books.
Baum dedicated the book "to my good friend & comrade, My Wife," Maud Gage Baum. In January 1901 the publisher, the George M. Hill Company, completed printing the first edition, which probably totaled around
35,000 copies. Records indicate that 21,000 copies were sold through 1900.[2]
The original book has been in public domain in the United States since 1956. Baum's thirteen sequels entered public
domain in the United States in 1986. The rights to these books were held by the Walt Disney
Company, and their impending expiration was a prime motivator for the production of the 1985 film
Return to Oz, based on Baum's second and third Oz books.
Historians, economists and literary scholars have examined and developed possible political interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of
Oz.
Plot summary
Dorothy Gale is a young girl who lives on a Kansas farm
with her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em, and her little dog
Toto. (Her last name is only revealed in later books in the Oz series.) One day a
tornado appears outside and before Dorothy can reach the storm
cellar, the farmhouse is caught up in the twister and deposited in a grassy field in the country of the Munchkins. The falling house kills the Wicked Witch of the
East, who had established a reign of terror over the Munchkins.
The Good Witch of the North comes with the Munchkins to greet Dorothy, and
gives her the Silver Slippers (changed to ruby in the famous film due to camera difficulties with silver) the Wicked Witch of the
East had been wearing when she was killed (her death is explained in The Tin Woodman
of Oz as due to her being old and dried up before Oz became a fairyland). In order to return to Kansas, the Good Witch
of the North consults a magical blackboard which recommends: "Let Dorothy go to the City of Emeralds" and ask the
Wizard of Oz to help her. The Good Witch of the North also kisses Dorothy on the forehead,
stating that no one will harm a person who has been kissed by her.
W. W. Denslow's drawing of
Scarecrow hung up on pole and helpless, from first edition of
book, in 1900
On her way down the road of yellow brick, Dorothy meets some remarkable characters:
she liberates the Scarecrow from the pole he's hanging on, restores the mobility of the
rusted Tin Woodman with an oil can, and encourages the Cowardly Lion to journey with her and Toto to the Emerald City. The
Scarecrow wants to get a brain, the Tin Woodman a heart (so that he
may again love his girlfriend), and the Cowardly Lion courage. All are convinced by Dorothy that the Wizard can help them too. Together, they overcome a pair of
ravenous Kalidahs (Giant creatures with the heads of tigers and
the bodies of bears), and escape from a field of sleep-inducing poppies.
When the group arrives at the Emerald City, the Guardian of the Gates provides the companions
with special green spectacles that they must wear to keep the brilliance of the Emerald City from blinding them; wearing them,
everything appears in different shades of green. The Guardian calls the Soldier
with the Green Whiskers to escort them to the palace, who eventually tells them them that the Wizard will only see one of
them a day, and that he himself has never seen the Wizard. A kindly young maid, later identified as the resourceful and favored
Jellia Jamb, keeps Dorothy and her companions comfortable while they wait. When each
traveler does finally meet with the Wizard, he appears each time as someone or something different. To Dorothy, the Wizard is a
giant head; the Scarecrow sees a beautiful woman; the Tin Woodman sees a ravenous beast; the Cowardly Lion sees a ball of fire.
Regardless, the Wizard does agree to help each of them, but his help is conditional: one of them must kill the Wicked Witch of the West, who rules over the Winkie
Country.
As Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion travel across the Winkie Country, the Wicked Witch
sends wolves, crows, bees, and then
her Winkie soldiers to attack them. Each threat is dispatched by the travelers. Then, using the power of the Golden Cap, the
Witch summons the Winged Monkeys to destroy all of the travelers except for the Cowardly
Lion. The Winged Monkeys dare not attack Dorothy due to the mark of the Good Witch's kiss upon her forehead. They do, however,
decide to carry her and Toto back to the castle of the Wicked Witch. This was the third and final time that the Wicked Witch
could command the Winged Monkeys due to the Cap's enchantment, for she had use them in conquering the Winkies and in battle with
the Wizard.
Dorothy is forced to work as a maid to the Wicked Witch, while the Lion is starved in an effort to make him agree to pull the
witch's chariot. (The Lion refuses to do so, primarily because Dorothy sneaks him food every night, making the witch's threats
irrelevant). Dorothy is also left unharmed because of the Good Witch of the North's mark and the Silver Shoes. When the Wicked
Witch gains one of the shoes by trickery, Dorothy in anger grabs a bucket of water and throws it on the Wicked Witch, who begins to melt. The Winkies rejoice at
being freed of the witch's tyranny, and they help to reassemble the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman. So enamored are the Winkies of
the Tin Woodman that they ask him to become their ruler, which he agrees to do after helping Dorothy return to Kansas.
The long walk from the Wicked Witch's former palace to the Emerald City is alleviated by Dorothy's use of the Golden Cap,
which summons the Winged Monkeys to carry her and her companions to the Emerald City. The King of the Monkeys relates how he and
his mischievous people were forced by the powerful sorceress Gayelette to choose between
submission or annihilation; through the Cap, they obeyed first Gayelette's husband, Quelala, then
the Wicked Witch, and now Dorothy herself.
When Dorothy and her friends meet the Wizard of Oz again, he tries to put them off. Only under threat of seeing the Winged
Monkeys again (who under the Wicked Witch's command attacked him in the past) is the Wizard convinced to allow the travelers in
to his throne room. Toto accidentally tips over a screen in a corner of the throne room, revealing a wizened old man who had
journeyed here himself long ago from Omaha. He once rose high in a hot air balloon, was swept away in an accident and finally landed in Oz; when the people saw the letters
"OZ" on the balloon (in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, we find they
are his initials), they presumed he was their ruler and at his direction began building the Emerald City. Finding himself in a
country of witches, the soon-to-be-designated Wizard saw the need to maintain anonymity—hence his appearances to Dorothy and the
others, which are revealed as clever (for the dawn of the 20th century) special
effects.
The Wizard tries to persuade the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion that what they lack are not brains or a
heart or courage, but faith in themselves. But he still agrees to meet each of them and to give them (without their knowledge) a
placebo which brings out the qualities they had all along. In order to help Dorothy and Toto get
home, the Wizard realizes that he will have to take them home with him in a new balloon which he and Dorothy fashion from green
silk. Revealing himself to the people of the Emerald City one last time, the Wizard appoints the Scarecrow, by virtue of his
brains, to rule in his stead. Dorothy chases Toto after he runs after a kitten in the crowd, and before she can make it back to
the balloon the ropes break, leaving the Wizard to rise and float away alone.
Dorothy turns to the Winged Monkeys to carry her and Toto home, but they cannot cross the desert surrounding Oz. The Soldier
with the Green Whiskers advises that Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, may be able to send
Dorothy and Toto home. They, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion journey to Glinda's palace in the
Quadling Country. Together they escape the Fighting Trees, dodge the Hammerheads, and
tread carefully through the China Country. The Cowardly Lion kills a giant spider which is
terrorizing the animals in a forest, and he agrees to return there to rule them after Dorothy returns to Kansas--the
biggest of the tigers ruling in his stead as before. Dorothy uses her third wish to fly
over the Hammer-Heads' mountain.
At Glinda's palace, the travelers are greeted warmly, and it is revealed by Glinda that Dorothy had the power to go home all
along. The Silver Shoes she wears can take her anywhere she wishes to go. She tearfully embraces her friends—all of whom will be
returned, through Glinda's use of the Golden Cap, to their respective sovereignties: the Scarecrow to the Emerald City, the Tin
Woodman to the Winkie Country, and the Cowardly Lion to the forest. Then she will give the Cap to the king of the Winged Monkeys,
so they will never be under its spell again. Dorothy and Toto return to Kansas and a joyful family reunion. The Silver Shoes are
lost during Dorothy's flight and never seen again.
Sources of images and ideas
Baum acknowledged the influence of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, which he was deliberately revising in his "American fairy tales" to
include the wonder without the horrors.[3]
Local legend has it that Oz was inspired by a prominent castle-like building in the community of Castle Park near
Holland, Michigan where Baum summered. The Yellow Brick Road was derived from a road
at that time paved by yellow bricks.
Another influence lay in the Alice books of Lewis Carroll. Although he found their plots incoherent, Baum identified their source of popularity as
Alice herself, a child with whom the child readers could identify; this influenced his choice of a protagonist.[4]
-
Some scholars have theorized that the images and characters used by Baum and Denslow closely resembled political images that
were well known in the 1890s, specifically that the "yellow brick road" represents the gold
standard, and that the wizard and other characters represent identifiable politicians of the day. The wicked witches of
the east and west represented the local banks and the railroad industry, both of which drove small farmers out of business. In
the novel, Dorothy taps her silver slippers, which represented the new silver standard, together in order to return home. Some
biographers and scholars of Baum disagree, pointing to details of Baum's biography, his own statements and writing about the
purpose of his book, and the lack of contemporary press discussing these perceived metaphors.
A new theory that Baum based his character and place names on Irish is presented at
tirnanoz.net.
Cultural impact
The Wizard of Oz has been translated into well over 40 different languages. In some cases, the story proved so popular
in other countries that it was adapted to suit the local culture. For instance, in some countries where the Hindu religion is practiced, abridged versions of the book were published in which, for religious reasons, the Tin
Woodsman was replaced with a snake.
The Wizard of Oz was very successfully introduced in the Soviet Union in 1939.
Translator Alexander M. Volkov took liberties with his translation,
editing as he saw fit, and adding a chapter in which Elli (his name for Dorothy) is kidnapped by a man-eating Ogre and rescued by her friends. The book was titled The Wizard
of Emerald City. Volkov went on to write his own independent series of sequels to the book, very loosely based on the
originals, including: Urfin Jus and His Wooden Soldiers, Seven Underground Kings, The Firey God of the
Marrans, The Yellow Fog, and The Secret of the Deserted Castle. Some characters in these sequels clearly have
their origins in the later Oz books, such as Cap'n Bob, who is a combination of Baum's Cap'n
Bill and Johnny Dooit. The original book and all of its sequels were translated in a
more faithful fashion some time later, and Russians now see these two versions as wholly different series. Russian illustrator
Leonid Vladimirsky drew the Scarecrow short, round and tubby; his influence is evident in
illustrations for translations across the Soviet bloc, where the Scarecrow is almost always portrayed as short, round and tubby.
Leonid Vladimirsky has written at least two additional sequels to Alexander Volkov's alternative Oz, or "Magic Land" as it is
called in Russian; additional sequels to this alternative Oz have been written by two more Russian authors and one German.
References to The Wizard of Oz are thoroughly ingrained in British, American, Russian, and other cultures. A mere
sampling of the breadth in which it is referenced might include Futurama and
Scrubs (the former parodied it in an episode, the latter based an
episode off it), The Cinnamon Bear (a 1938
radio serial), RahXephon (a 2002 Japanese animated television show),
Zardoz (a 1974 Sean Connery movie), Wizard and
Glass (a 1997 Stephen King fantasy/Western novel), and the science fiction literature of Robert A. Heinlein. The Wizard of Oz Mystery, a murder mystery
game based on the famous characters was released in 2007 from Shot In The Dark
Mysteries.
Some of these references, however, can possibly be attributed more to the now-phenomenal popularity of the 1939 film version than the original novel. MGM's classic Technicolor film version of the novel has become
an ingrained part of popular culture ever since it began to be shown annually on American television.
Criticisms
Although widely held as a classic of children's literature, the novel has repeatedly come under fire over the years. Some
religious commentators, for example, have objected to Baum's portrayal of "good witches".[5] On a more secular note, others have questioned the novel's literary value; for
example, feminist author Margery Hourihan has described the book as a "banal and mechanistic
story which is written in flat, impoverished prose" and dismissed the central character as "the girl-woman of Hollywood".[6]
Adaptations
-
Stage and screen
The earliest musical version of
the book was produced by Baum and Denslow (with music by composer Paul Tietjens) in
Chicago in 1902, and moved to New York in 1903. It used the same characters, and was aimed more at adult audiences. It had a
long, successful run on Broadway. Baum added numerous additional political references to the script. For example, his actors
specifically mention President Theodore Roosevelt, Senator Mark Hanna, and John D. Rockefeller by name. (Swartz, Before the
Rainbow, pp 34, 47, 56) He wrote a version more faithful to the book in 1901, but it has never been produced. Although it
included many of the same songs, it featured far fewer interpolations of other songs which
had nothing to do with the story than the 1902 version did.
The earliest "Oz" film series were produced by Baum in 1908 and 1914 and twice featured the young silent film actress
Mildred Harris. Another series that Baum had nothing to do with, aside from a contractual
agreement, appeared in 1910, which may have featured Bebe Daniels as Dorothy.
Larry Semon, in collaboration with Frank Joslyn
Baum, created a rather well-known but unsuccessful version in 1925. The
most famous adaptation is the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, featuring Judy Garland as
Dorothy. This, in turn, has been adapted into two separate stage productions, first by Frank
Gabrielson, (who wrote the 1960 teleplay of The Land of Oz for Shirley Temple), and more
recently by the Royal Shakespeare Company's John
Kane), but the first stage production, in 1902, used a score that is now forgotten, and not
the one heard in the 1939 film, though there have been attempts, mostly in Florida, to revive
it. Early film versions of the book include a 1914 film produced by Baum himself entitled
His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz, which incorporates several
incidents from the book—the Scarecrow is first seen hanging on a pole, from which Dorothy rescues him, and the Tin Man is
discovered standing rusted in the forest—and a 1925 film, Wizard of Oz, featuring Oliver Hardy as the Tin
Woodsman [sic]. The Wiz was a hit musical with an all-black cast produced in the 1970s on
Broadway; it was later made into a 1978 movie
directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Diana Ross as
Dorothy and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow. The most recent adaptation of the novel is
Disney's 2005 TV movie The Muppets' Wizard of Oz.
An animated series based on the 1939 film was broadcast on ABC network
during the 1990-1991 TV season. The cartoon featured Dorothy returning to Oz, reuiniting with her four friends, and journeying
through the magical realm in an attempt to rescue the Wizard from a resurrected Witch of the West.
A recent musical adaptation of an Oz-related book is the musical Wicked, based
on the book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by
Gregory Maguire. The musical has broken Broadway and West End records and received
considerable critical and popular success.
There has also been a spin-off, called "The Oz Kids".
This animated series features the offsprings of the main characters of the original novels.
Comics
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (2006), adapted by David Chauvel. Art by Enrique Fernandez.
The novel was adapted into a comic book in 2005, illustrated/painted by Enrique Fernandez and adapted by David Chauvel, with
almost all dialogue and narration taken directly from Baum's original. The comic was originally published in 2005 in France,
where it won the prestigious Grand Prix de La Ville De Lyon Award of Illustration. In 2006 it was adapted into English and
published in America by Image Comics.
The comic book Dorothy was launched by Illusive
Arts Entertainment in November 2005. Presented in semi-fumetti style using digitally
altered photographs, this retelling of Baum's story has been updated to 2005 and "stars" model Catie
Fisher as 16-year-old Dorothy Gale, a disaffected youth with dyed hair and piercings who steals her uncle's car and runs
away from home ... until she encounters a tornado and is knocked unconscious. She awakens in a
strange land and utters: "I don't think this is Kansas ... maybe it's Colorado." This version
of the tale, created by Greg Mannino, written by Mark Masterson
with artwork by Greg Mannino and Ray Boersig, is in part a retelling of Baum's tale and in part a
retelling of the 1939 movie version of the story, as it incorporates elements of the Judy Garland film.
An erotic re-telling of the story is featured in Lost Girls, by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie, in which an adult Dorothy meets
Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Wendy
Darling from Peter Pan and the trio recount the stories of their respective
works as allegories for their sexual awakenings.
Oz no Mahōtsukai
-
A Japanese animation adaptation of four of Baum's Oz books known as Oz no Mahoutsukai
was created in 1986. It consists of 52 episodes and follows the story of Dorothy and her adventures
in Oz with the Tin Woodman, Cowardly Lion, and Scarecrow. It continues on to the story of Ozma and Mombi, and follows through the events of other Oz books.
In 1987, HBO purchased the rights to the series and dubbed/edited together key episodes of the
series into a series of movies. Production for the English version was done by the Canadian studio Cinar. Actress Margot Kidder was hired as narrator for the series, which aired as a
mini-series.
An earlier, feature-length anime adaptation of the story was made by Toho in 1982 and was directed by Fumihiko Takayama, with music by Joe Hisaishi (known for composing the music to many of Hayao
Miyazaki's works). The English version of the movie stars Aileen Quinn as the voice
of Dorothy. Like the 1939 Judy Garland film version, this anime take on The Wizard of Oz ends the story with Dorothy's
trip home to Kansas after visiting the Wizard, and is a musical boasting original vocal songs such as "It's Strictly Up To You,"
"I Dream Of Home," and "A Wizard Of A Day," all sung by Aileen Quinn in the English version. The lyrics to these songs were by
Sammy Cahn and Allen Byrnes. This film was seemingly made
with the American market in mind, as it was released in the United States before it premiered in Japan. In the U.S., it was
released on video and also syndicated to local television stations.
The Wonderful Galaxy of Oz
-
Another Japanese animation consisting of 26 episodes, this time involving Dorothy and the characters traveling in space around
the galaxy of Oz. It was dubbed and edited into the feature-length (75 minute) Supêsu Oz no bôken for U.S.
consumption.
Footnotes
- ^ On May 17, 1900 the first copy of the book came off the press; Baum
assembled it by hand and presented it to his sister, Mary Louise Baum Brewster. The public saw the book for the first time at a
book fair at the Palmer House in Chicago, July 5-20. The book's copyright was registered on
Aug. 1; full distribution followed in September. Katharine M. Rogers, L. Frank Baum, pp. 73-94.
- ^ http://www.ozclub.org/reference/oztlfrm.htm
- ^ L. Frank Baum, Michael Patrick Hearn, The Annotated Wizard of Oz, p
38, ISBN 0-517-500868
- ^ L. Frank Baum, Michael Patrick Hearn, The Annotated Wizard of Oz, p
38, ISBN 0-517-500868
- ^ Wizard of Oz - Frequently Asked Questions - The Books http://thewizardofoz.info/faq02.html#20
accessed 9th June 2007
- ^ Margaret Houihan, Deconstructing the Hero, p. 209, ISBN
0-415-14186-9
References
- Baum, Frank Joslyn & MacFall, Russell P. (1961) To Please a Child. Chicago: Reilly & Lee Co.
- Culver, Stuart. "Growing Up in Oz." American Literary History 4 (1992) 607-28.
- Culver, Stuart. "What Manikins Want: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Art of Decorating Dry Goods Windows and Interiors",
Representations, 21 (1988) 97-116.
- Dighe, Ranjit S. ed. The Historian's Wizard of Oz: Reading L. Frank Baum's Classic as a Political and Monetary
Allegory (2002)
- Gardner, Martin & Nye, Russel B. (1994) The Wizard of Oz and Who He Was. East Lansing : Michigan State
University Press
- Gardner, Todd. "Responses to
Littlefield" (2004), online
- Green, David L. and Dick Martin. (1977) The Oz Scrapbook. Random House.
- Hearn, Michael Patrick (ed). (2000, 1973) The Annotated Wizard of Oz. W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0-393-04992-2
- Littlefield, Henry. "The Wizard of Oz: Parable
on Populism." American Quarterly. v. 16, 3, Spring 1964, 47-58.
- Parker, David B. (1994) "The Rise
and Fall of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a 'Parable on Populism'." Journal of the Georgia Association of
Historians. 16 (1994): 49-63
- Riley, Michael O. (1997) Oz and Beyond: The Fantasy World of L. Frank Baum. University of Kansas Press ISBN
0-7006-0832-X
- Ritter, Gretchen. "Silver slippers and a golden cap: L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and historical memory in
American politics." Journal of American Studies (August 1997) vol. 31, no. 2, 171-203.
- Rockoff, Hugh. "The 'Wizard of Oz' as a Monetary Allegory," Journal of Political Economy 98 (1990): 739-60 online at
JSTOR
- Rogers, Katharine M. L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz. New York, St. Martin's Press (2002).
- Sunshine, Linda. All Things Oz (2003)
- Swartz, Mark Evan. Oz Before the Rainbow: L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" on Stage and Screen to 1939
(2000).
- Velde, Francois R.
"Following the Yellow Brick Road: How the United States Adopted the Gold Standard" Economic Perspectives. Volume: 26. Issue: 2.
2002. also online
here
- Ziaukas, Tim. "100 Years of
Oz: Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' as Gilded Age Public Relations" in Public Relations Quarterly, Fall 1998
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