Edward Garboczi
If you asked most Americans when fantasy novels first became popular in the United States, they would either answer “Huh?” since most Americans don’t read fantasy novels, or else they would say, “The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, of course!” Or maybe they would say, “The Chronicles of Narnia.” But surprisingly, fantasy novels that were popular in America did not start with these British books. About 30 years before The Hobbit came out, and 50 years before The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Wizard of Oz, by Frank L. Baum, was published in 1900. This was the start of the 14-book Oz series, which became quite popular in the US, popular enough so that a classic movie was made in the 1930s adapting this first novel in the series. Twenty-six further Oz books were written by other authors after Baum’s death in 1919 since the series was so loved.
The Wizard of Oz was Baum’s second successful book. The first was The Story of Santa Claus, which is a lovely book giving a back story to Santa Claus. The Wizard of Oz is most definitely American fantasy, which at that time was quite different from British fantasy. Since The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit have become popular, the imagination of most every American fantasy author now seems to be dominated by Professor Tolkien. But as I said, The Wizard of Oz is quite different. It is much more light-hearted and does not use the traditional fantasy types such as dwarves and elves. The Munchkins are a little people but they are more akin to hobbits than to dwarves and they are probably the most normal of the many peoples in that imaginary land. Furthermore, the wizard in the book is as unlike Gandalf as you can imagine. Finally, the heroine, Dorothy of Kansas, takes her little dog with her on her adventures – can you imagine pets in Tolkien? The book is much richer than the classic 1930s movie and well worth reading, by middle grades on up to adult. A little, perhaps anecdotal, tale about the writing of Baum’s book: he was trying to think of a title and saw his two-volume dictionary, where the first volume was labelled A-N and the second volume was labelled O-Z. He instantly had the name of his magical land – Oz.
The book in our library is illustrated by Michael Hague, a well-known illustrator especially of fantasy books. His illustrations are lovely and add to the story. Hague has also actually illustrated The Wind in the Willows, The Hobbit, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Pilgrim’s Regress, by C.S. Lewis.