The classic tale of Dorothy in the land of Oz came from the imagination of L. Frank Baum, who made up the story for his son and a group
of children one evening in 1899.
When a little girl asked him the name of this magical land with the Scarecrow, Tinman, and Cowardly Lion, he looked around the room for inspiration.
He happened to be sitting next to a filing cabinet with the drawers labelled “A-G,” “H-N,” and finally “O-Z,” which gave him a quick answer: “Oz.”
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children’s novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W.W. Denslow, and was originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900.
It has since been reprinted countless times and has been in public domain in the United States since 1956.
