L. Frank Baum

L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) children's author, playwright and journalist wrote the American classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. (1900). He also wrote under numerous pseudonyms including Edith Van Dyne (Aunt Jane's Nieces and Mary Louise series), Floyd Akers, Capt. Hugh Fitzgerald, John Estes Cooke, Laura Bancroft, Schuyler Staunton, and Suzanne Metcalf.

Lyman Frank Baum was born 15 May, 1856 in Chittenango, New York. His father was Benjamin Ward Baum, who would make a fortune in Pennsylvania Oil, and his mother Cynthia Stanton. Frank, as he preferred to be called, was born with a weak heart so wasn't a boisterous child, but timid and shy. He was home schooled and having few playmates, he also spent hours reading in his father's library. He developed an aversion to the usual scary creatures and violence of folklore and popular children's fairytales of the time and would end up creating his own adaptations of them in order to give other children, later including his own, delight in stories rather than grim and frightful moral lessons. Baum's childhood and home life with nine siblings was happy and no doubt set the tone for his future Oz series.