Wizard of Oz

By | LYMAN F. BAUM | The Wonderful Wizard of Oz | Introduction | Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations. Yet the old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as “historical” in the children’s library; the time has come for a series of newer “wonder tales” in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident. Having this thought in mind, the story of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modern fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained the horrors of heartaches and nightmares are totally left out for good. | L. Frank Baum, Chicago, April, 1900. | Chapter I | The Cyclone |

Thank You, LYMAN F. BAUM for sharing YOUR STORY
Mail letters to CHILDREN@janeleigh.com
Jane Leigh CHILDREN
12|00|2025