The real wizard of Oz: L. Frank Baum

Like many writers today, Baum saw that the world he’d created could become a series. He swiftly published a number of Oz books, including “The Marvelous Land of Oz” (1904), “Ozma of Oz” (1907), “Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz” (1908), and “The Road to Oz” (1909). (Buyenlarge / Getty Images)

March 8, 2013 10:54 AM PT

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Born Lyman Frank Baum (no wonder he went by Frank) near Oneida, N.Y., in 1856, the author of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and the books that followed started out infatuated by the theater. He and his wife moved west to the Dakota Territory in the 1880s, where he failed to succeed at business; then they moved to Chicago, where his writing career began.

Baum died May 16, 1919, at home in Hollywood, just shy of his 63rd birthday. By that time he had published five more Oz books: “The Patchwork Girl,” “Tik-Tok of Oz,” “The Scarecrow of Oz,” “Rinkitink in Oz,” and “The Lost Princess of Oz.” The story of Oz was carried on by other authorized authors and, of course, filmmakers. (Buyenlarge / Getty Images)

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