TO PLEASE A CHILD

A guessably appreciative story of the life of that wonderful wizard of--- this combines a biography with a bibliography of the books he wrote, some excerpting from them, and the attendant appeal they had which ramified into the production of the Oz story on the stage, toys, etc., etc. The 7th child of an upper New York static family, shy and sedentary. Baum tried his hand at a good many things- acting- writing- selling- newspaper work before he wrote the series which were to become an ""institution of American childhood""; he married the girl his aunt picked out for him, had four boys (the eldest- who has since died- co-authored this book), invented the magic kingdom which took its name from the letters (O-Z) on a file box, was stunned by its success (a royalty check of $3, 542.64), and eventually was part of the publishing firm which had his books as a mainstay.... A plain story of a man whose sunny fantasy world has held an audience- young and old- captive for many years. Even so there's little reason to believe that there will be a readymade market for this.