L. Frank Baum

Birth Name:

Lyman Frank Baum

Birth Place:

Chittenango, New York, United States

Profession

Writer, Producer, Actor

Became the best-selling children's book author in America with the publication of "The Wizard of Oz" in 1900
Was the secretary of Aberdeen's Women's Suffrage Club
After starting a family, but before focusing on writing, he ran a bazaar, started a baseball club, reported for a frontier newspaper and bought dishware for a department store
Attended Peekskill Military Academy from the age of 12 to the age of 14
His early jobs included raising chickens, writing plays, running a theater company and starting a business that produced oil-based lubricants
Quote: "You see, in this country there are a number of youths who do not like to work, and the college is an excellent place for them․"
A children's author, he is best known for writing "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and its 13 sequels
Credited with founding a new genre of children's literature that broke from the authorial discourse and overt focus on morality that characterized European children's literature at the time
After finishing his first novel, "The Wizard of Oz," he framed the stub of the pencil he had written it with
After seeing his granddaughter for the first time, he declared that Ozma was a more fitting name for her than her given name of Frances, and her name was changed

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