L. Frank Baum's World of Oz

Suzanne Rahn is Associate Professor of English at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington and Director of their Children's Literature Program. She is also the author of Children's Literature: An Annotated Bibliography of the History and Criticism, Rediscoveries in Children's Literature and The Wizard of Oz: Shaping an Imaginary World.

• Chapter 1 AcknowledgmentsChapter 2 Introduction: "Analyzing Oz"Part 3 Part 1: Origins of OzChapter 4 1. The Wonderful Wizard of the West: L. Frank Baum in South Dakota, 1888-1891Chapter 5 2. Roots of Oz: The Upton's Vege-Men's RevengePart 6 Part 2: The World of OzChapter 7 3. "If I Ever Go Looking for My Heart's Desire": Home in Baum's OzChapter 8 4. The Comedians of OzChapter 9 5. Readers of Oz: Young and Old, Old and New HistoricistPart 10 Part 3: Oz on Stage and ScreenChapter 11 6. The Perfect ScarecrowChapter 12 7. "A Whole Book for a Nickel?": L. Frank Baum as FilmmakerChapter 13 8. "Aunt Em: Hate You! Have Kansas! Taking the Dog.—Dorothy": Conscious and Unconscious Desire in The Wizard of OzChapter 14 About the Contributors

...Rahn takes seriously the proposition that Baum deserves some consideration not just as a children's writer but as a representative figure in American cultural history....Rahn's crisply written and thoroughly researched introduction surveying a century's worth of popular, scholarly, and pedagogical responses to Oz, will be particularly useful....this is a good reference work and deserves recognition as such...