The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a famous children’s novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W.W. Denslow, was originally published in 1900. It has since been reprinted on numerous occasions, most often under the title The Wizard of Oz.

The novel is one of the best-known stories in American literature and has been translated into more than 50 languages. The Library of Congress has declared it “America’s greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale”. Its great success of the Broadway musical adaptation led Baum to write thirteen additional Oz books that serve as official sequels to the first story. The first edition sold 10,000 copies quickly. By 1956 when it came in public domain, five million copies of the Oz books had been published in the English language, while hundreds of thousands had been published in eight foreign languages.

As the readership of the novel spread from America to other parts of the world, it became an established part of multiple cultures. The novel’s film adaptation in 1939 has made it a classic of popular culture, shown annually on American television from 1959 to 1991 and then several times every year beginning in 1999. In recent times, the story has become an American stage production with an all-black cast, set in the context of modern African-American culture.

The novel received positive critical reviews soon after its release. The New York Times wrote that it would immensely appeal to children. It also praised the illustrations as a pleasant complement to the text.