“Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story” is a fascinating book by Evan Schwartz about the roots of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” in the life of its author L. Frank Baum and the contemporary events that surrounded that life. It’s a great combination of biography and historical speculation with some really great research underlying its suggestions. A lot of them make sense, and as a lover of the Oz books (Baum wrote 14 of them, the last published after his death) as well as the MGM classic I thought it was great. Several examples: Baum’s uncle was a doctor in the Civil War … both Baum and his uncle would know veterans who had undergone amputations. Major figures in the Oz series have “alternate” bodies. The Tin Man is the first of many examples. In the original book, his origin is explained. He was originally a human wood-cutter, who fell in love with a Munchkin maiden. To prevent their marriage, the Wicked Witch of the East (the one Dorothy’s house falls on later) enchants his ax, causing it to cut off various parts of his body. A kindly tinsmith replaces the lost body parts with tin … and finally he is entirely made of tin. Of course, he then has no heart, and no longer loves the Munchkin girl. While standing rusted in the woods, he reflects he was much happier when he had a heart, and therefore after being rescued by Dorothy and the Scarecrow decides to seek one. Baum lived for a while in the Dakotas, where a brother and sister-in-law lived on a bleak farm on the prairies (which is reflected in the opening lines of “Wizard”, when Dorothy lives with her grey and bleached out aunt and uncle on the great grey prairies of Kansas. Dorothy, Baum says, is prevented from becoming as grey and depressed as her surroundings by Toto, her little black dog). Baum failed at several business ventures, including store-keeping and newspaper publishing, before finally finding his real vocation as a children’s storyteller in his 40s. While working as a traveling salesman, he relocates his family to Chicago about the time of the great Worlds Fair, which featured a fabulous city that appeared to be made of white marble, surrounded by lakes and fountains (almost certainly a model for the Emerald City). One of the major pavilions of the Fair was dedicated to the inventions of Edison, the Electrical “Wizard of Menloe Park.” But perhaps the most fascinating link between Baum’s life and “Oz” is his love-match and very successful marriage with Maud Gage, the daughter of noted feminist and suffragette Matilda Joslyn Gage, a friend and colleague of Susan B. Anthony. It’s no accident that Baum’s Oz is ruled by powerful women. The only male figure of real power is the Wizard … and he turns out to be a fake hiding behind circus tricks. The witches of Oz, however, have real power. In the book, Dorothy is sent on her way to the Emerald City by the Good Witch of the North, who protects her with a kiss … and from that point on no one dares harm her for she is protected by the power of good. (the kiss leaves a shining mark on her forehead … even the Witch of the West dares not harm her, though she makes threats … very different from in the film). Her house destroys the Wicked Witch of the East (hence it is Dorothy who saves the Munchkins), and later she melts the Wicked Witch of the West (thus freeing the Winkies). And it’s interesting to note that in the book the melting takes place because Dorothy finally gets enough of the Witch’s ill treatment. The Witch has tricked her and stolen one of her shoes, and Dorothy gets so angry she picks up the bucket with which she has been washing the castle floors and throws the water over the Witch. Dorothy is quite a brave and forthright young lady in the book. She melts the Witch, frees the Lion from the prison in which the Witch has kept him (and she’s been feeding him for some time in secret even before the melting), and persuades the Winkies to help her find and rescue her friends. Interesting to note … in the book, it’s Dorothy who saves her friends … not the friends who save Dorothy. And after the companions discover the Wizard is a humbug, they must make one more perilous journey to the South country of Oz to meet with Glinda, Good Witch of the South, whose power, beauty, and wisdom is evident and who knows immediately the power of the shoes which will take Dorothy home. Baum himself was an early feminist and supporter of women’s rights. That passion is reflected in the strong women of his books … including Dorothy herself.
And that’s just the beginning! Perhaps the greatest change MGM made with the film is making Dorothy’s experience a dream/hallucination. Not so with the book. Oz, as Judy Garland says in the movie, is in actuality a “real, truly live place!” Dorothy has really been to Oz, and is gone for a good while. When she returns home, Aunt Em’s first words to her are, “My darling child! Where in the world did you come from?” with Dorothy’s down-to-earth reply … “From the land of Oz. And here is Toto, too.” In Baum’s books, Oz is real, and separated from our world by a great desert. In the second book of the series, Baum’s wonderfully subversive humor and wisdom is even more evident, when the adventures of the boy Tip with the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman and a new set of characters, including Jack Pumpkinhead (a man of wood with a Jack-o-Lantern head) and H.M. Wogglebug, T.E. (a beetle who is highly proud of the fact that he is Highly Magnified and Thoroughly Educated … a wonderfully satiric jab at those who are proud of their titles and in reality are just shy of being idiots), are ended by Glinda’s discovery that Tip is in reality the enchanted form of the lost princess Ozma, rightful ruler of Oz. Glinda reverses the enchantment, restoring Ozma to her true feminine gender, and the beautiful and eternally young Ozma rules Oz as a benevolent matriarchy for the rest of the series. She never seems to be bothered by the strangeness of having once been a boy and now being a girl … saying to her friends: “I’m just the same Tip, only …” prompting Jack to say, “Only different!” which they all agree is the wisest speech the Pumpkinhead ever made. In the next book Dorothy returns to Oz for a second adventure with Ozma and yet more characters (the Disney “Return to Oz” was based on book 2 and 3 of the series); and eventually in book 6 the Kansas farm finally goes bankrupt, causing Ozma to graciously allow Dorothy to settle in Oz, along with Toto, Uncle Henry and Aunt Em, as permanent residents. It turns out that Oz … not Kansas … is really Dorothy’s home.
I guess when all is said and done, I’m writing this as an advocate for Baum’s entire “Oz” series. The series was so successful it was continued by other writers for years after Baum’s death … but the Baum books for me are the “real” Oz. Check them out. What makes them wonderful is their strange mix of characters … ranging from the ones we all know and love from the film (Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion) to Jack and Ozma and Scraps the living doll made from a patchwork quilt who loves crazy rhymes and dancing to Tik-Tok the clockwork robot who must be wound up to think, talk, and move (his instructions state that when properly wound he can do everything but live). And one couple I’ve always loved from Oz is the Cowardly Lion and the animal who becomes his constant companion from book 3 on … the Hungry Tiger, who is always hungry because he would love to eat fat babies but his conscience will not allow him. These two male animals are each others’ constant companions … and Ozma’s trusted bodyguards. (Nowhere in the Oz canon are a cowardly lioness or a hungry tigress mentioned … but the Lion and the Tiger are inseparable, and loved and trusted by both Ozma and Dorothy). In Oz, it doesn’t matter if you are “meat,” animal, robot, wood, vegetable, magic or even a humbug (for the Wizard eventually returns to Oz and learns real magic from Glinda and becomes a trusted adviser) … at Ozma’s table they all sit as equals and as loved friends. What matters is your character. No wonder Gore Vidal said of the Oz series that those who read them become “what they were not – imaginative, tolerant, alert to wonders, life.” It may be even more amazing that these stories were first published between 1900 and 1920 … they still teach some wonderful lessons. It wouldn’t be so bad if our struggling and all too often prejudiced and fearful “real world” were more like Oz … perhaps the Royal Ozma can still teach us a thing or two, with the help of her best friend the Princess Dorothy. If you only know Oz through the film … and love the film … check out the books. I don’t think you’ll regret it.
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