 Original title page | |
| Author | L. Frank Baum |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | W. W. Denslow |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Oz books |
| Genre | Fantasy, children's novel |
| Publisher | George M. Hill Company |
Publication date | May 17, 1900 |
| Publication place | United States |
| OCLC | 9506808 |
| Followed by | The Marvelous Land of Oz |
| Text | The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at Wikisource |
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a 1900 children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow.[1] It is the first novel in the Oz series of books. A Kansas farm girl named Dorothy ends up in the magical Land of Oz after she and her pet dog Toto are swept away from their home by a cyclone.[2] Upon her arrival in the magical world of Oz, she learns she cannot return home until she has destroyed the Wicked Witch of the West.[3]
The book was first published in the United States in May 1900 by the George M. Hill Company.[4] In January 1901, the publishing company completed printing the first edition, a total of 10,000 copies, which quickly sold out.[4] It had sold three million copies by the time it entered the public domain in 1956. It was often reprinted under the title The Wizard of Oz, which is the title of the successful 1902 Broadway musical adaptation as well as the 1939 live-action film.[5][6]
The ground-breaking success of both the original 1900 novel and the 1902 musical prompted Baum to write thirteen additional Oz books, which serve as official sequels to the first story. Over a century later, the book is one of the best-known stories in American literature, and the Library of Congress has declared the work to be "America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale".[7]
- ^ Baum & Denslow 1900.
- ^ Greene & Martin 1977, p. 11.
- ^ Greene & Martin 1977, pp. 11–12.
- ^ a b The New York Times 1900a, p. T13.
- ^ The New York Times 1903, p. 9.
- ^ Twiddy 2009.
- ^ Library of Congress: Oz Exhibit 2000.