Ozma of Oz

Dorothy Gale, sailing with her Uncle Henry to Australia, is washed overboard in a storm with a hen named Billina, who can talk, and lands in the magic Land of Ev, next to Oz. There she meets Tik-Tok, a clockwork copper man who must be wound up to think, speak and move, and Princess Langwidere, who changes her head every day. With Ozma, the ruler of Oz, she sets out to free the royal family of Ev from the cruel Nome King, who has turned them into ornaments in his underground palace.

L. Frank Baum published the third Oz book in 1907, bringing Dorothy back for the first time since The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Read The Marvelous Land of Oz, and see his life.

L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) tried many careers before he found his calling: actor, breeder of fancy chickens, shopkeeper and newspaper editor in South Dakota, and travelling salesman. In Chicago he began writing for children, and in 1900, with illustrations by W. W. Denslow, published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Its success led to thirteen more Oz books, written partly because children demanded them, and Baum moved to Hollywood, where he even founded a film company. He wanted to write American fairy tales that entertained without frightening children with moral lessons.