| Oz | |
|---|---|
| Oz books location | |
 1914 map of Oz and its neighboring countries. The regions beyond Oz's surrounding deserts were introduced after the first Oz book. | |
 Flag of Oz | |
| First appearance | The Wonderful Wizard of Oz |
| Created by | L. Frank Baum |
| Genre | Children's fantasy |
| In-universe information | |
| Other name(s) | Land of Oz |
| Type | Fairy country |
| Ruler | Princess Ozma |
| Ethnic group(s) | Munchkins, Winkies, Quadlings, Gillikins |
| Location | Nonestica |
| Locations | Emerald City (capital), Munchkin Country, Gillikin Country, Quadling Country, Winkie Country, Yellow brick road, Deadly Desert |
| Characters | Dorothy Gale, Toto, Wicked Witch of the East, Good Witch of the North, Wizard of Oz, Princess Ozma, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, Cowardly Lion, Glinda the Good Witch, Wicked Witch of the West |
| Population | 500,000[1] |
| Anthem | "The Oz Spangled Banner" |
| Language | English |
| Currency | none |
The Land of Oz is a magical country introduced in the 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow.
Oz consists of four vast quadrants, the Gillikin Country in the north, Quadling Country in the south, Munchkin Country in the east, and Winkie Country in the west. Each province has its own ruler, but the realm itself has always been ruled by a single monarch. According to Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz the ruler has mostly either been named Oz or Ozma. According to The Marvelous Land of Oz, the current monarch is Princess Ozma.
Baum did not intend for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to have any sequels, but it achieved greater popularity than any of the other fairylands he created, including the land of Merryland in Baum's children's novel Dot and Tot in Merryland, written a year later. Due to Oz's success, including a 1902 musical adaptation, Baum decided to return to it in 1904, with The Marvelous Land of Oz. For the next 15 years, he described and expanded upon the land in the Oz Books,[2] a series which introduced many fictional characters and creatures. Baum intended to end the series with the sixth Oz book The Emerald City of Oz (1910), in which Oz is forever sealed off and made invisible to the outside world, but this did not sit well with fans, and he quickly abandoned the idea, writing eight more successful Oz books, and even naming himself the "Royal Historian of Oz."[3]
In all, Baum wrote fourteen best-selling novels about Oz and its enchanted inhabitants, as well as a spin-off series of six early readers. After his death in 1919, publisher Reilly & Lee continued to produce annual Oz books, passing on the role of Royal Historian to author Ruth Plumly Thompson, illustrator John R. Neill (who had previously collaborated with Baum on his Oz books), and several other writers. The forty books in Reilly & Lee's Oz series are called "the Famous Forty" by fans, and are considered the canonical Oz texts.[4]
Baum characterized Oz as a real place, unlike MGM's 1939 musical movie adaptation, which presents it as a dream of lead character Dorothy Gale. According to the Oz books, it is a hidden fairyland cut off from the rest of the world by the Deadly Desert.[5]
- ^ Baum, Lyman Frank (1910). The Emerald City of Oz. Reilly & Britton. ISBN 978-0-7583-0792-7.
The Emerald City is built all of beautiful marbles in which are set a profusion of emeralds .... It has nine thousand, six hundred and fifty-four buildings, in which lived fifty-seven thousand three hundred and eighteen people .... There were more than half a million people in the Land of Oz
- ^ James Thurber, "The Wizard of Chittenango", in Fantasists on Fantasy, edited by Robert H. Boyer and Kenneth J. Zahorski, New York, Avon, 1984; pp. 64–65. ISBN 0-380-86553-X.
- ^ Thurber, "The Wizard of Chittenango", p. 66.
- ^ Simpson, Paul (2013). A Brief Guide to Oz. Constable & Robinson Ltd. p. xiii. ISBN 978-1-47210-988-0. Retrieved February 10, 2024.
- ^ Baum, L. Frank (1976). Hearn, Michael Patrick (ed.). The Annotated Wizard of Oz. Crown. p. 96. ISBN 0-517-50086-8.