History Creator / LFrankBaum

** Not only that, but the Oz series is known for its SurpriseCreepy, with a fair amount of FamilyUnfriendlyViolence and NightmareFuel for a little kid's series. Many readers have also noticed some oddities about how Oz is presented (often due to ValuesDissonance), such as how [[BanOnMagic no one but the two regents are allowed to use magic]] or how the former Wizard of Oz is [[DesignatedHero treated as a "good man" despite all his previous misdeeds]]. It's essentially a dictatorship, [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans but it's a ''benevolent'' one, so few citizens are unsatisfied]]. Still, these implications are enough to make writers brainstorm. So the ''Land of Oz'' books is reinterpreted as more [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical political than intended]]. As a result, Oz and its characters routinely get referenced in dark, political manners and many adaptations politicize the setting. Glinda the Good Witch and the Wizard of Oz are especially prone to getting reinterpreted as more [[AdaptationalVillainy amoral than intended]]. The Emerald City will also be turned into a StepfordSuburbia that looks pretty and shiny but hides darker secrets underneath. To resume, Creator/LFrankBaum unintendedly created a whole literary genre, that is a Sub-trope to FracturedFairytale called DystopianOz.

* WeirdWeather: ''The Magical Monarch of Mo'' is about a {{Cloudcuckooland}} where it rains lemonade and snows popcorn, "and the lightning in the sky resembles the most beautiful fireworks; and the thunder is usually a chorus from the opera of ''[[Theatre/{{Tannhaeuser}} Tannhauser]]''." The land, rain, and snow all return in ''The Scarecrow of Oz''.

* LevelAte:

[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/baum-frank_9228.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:Picture missing the ball and chain attached to silver shoes.]]

[[quoteright:285:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/baum-frank_9228.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:285:Picture missing the ball and chain attached to silver shoes.]]

'''Lyman (long for "L.") Frank Baum''' (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author, best known for ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' – a work so popular that, in fact, he was chained to the series and wrote Oz book after Oz book while longing to write ''anything'' else. Which helps explain what a ContinuitySnarl the Oz books are. Before being utterly trapped by Oz, he wrote a number of other works, such as ''WesternAnimation/TheLifeAndAdventuresOfSantaClaus''.

* NightmareFuelStationAttendant: He wrote the Oz books partly because he thought traditional FairyTales were too scary (and definitely had a point there).[[note]]The other reason was that he felt American children needed a fantasy world distinct from and unconnected to classical European fairytales.[[/note]] But when your first book has a character who was enchanted to hack himself to pieces with an axe, becoming a {{Steampunk}} {{Cyborg}}; the second book has a protagonist forced to live her life as the wrong gender; and the third book has a vain princess and her hall of interchangeable severed heads (yes, severed from previous owners, with plans to do the same to Dorothy), then you kinda missed the point about not loading your work with Nightmare Fuel.

* Literature/LandOfOz series, including

** ''Literature/QueenZixiOfIx''

* CloudCuckooLand: A lot of his fictional countries, but especially Mo in ''The Magical Monarch of Mo''. For point of reference, this is a place where the treatment for sore throat is to remove a person's neck, turn it inside out, put it out to ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curing_(food_preservation) cure]]'', turn it right-side-in again, and put the person's neck back. You can also get out of a deep pit by pushing the side so hard it flips the pit upside-down so you're at the top, not the bottom.

* NightmareFuelStationAttendant: He wrote the Oz books partly because he thought traditional FairyTales were too scary (and definitely had a point there)[[note]] the other reason was that he felt American children needed a fantasy world distinct from and unconnected to classical European fairytales[[/note]]. But when your first book has a character who was enchanted to hack himself to pieces with an axe, becoming a {{Steampunk}} {{Cyborg}}; the second book has a protagonist forced to live her life as the wrong gender; and the third book has a vain princess and her hall of interchangeable severed heads (yes, severed from previous owners, with plans to do the same to Dorothy), then you kinda missed the point about not loading your work with Nightmare Fuel.

'''Lyman (long for "L.") Frank Baum''' (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author, best known for ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' -- a work so popular that, in fact, he was chained to the series and wrote Oz book after Oz book while longing to write ''anything'' else. Which helps explain what a ContinuitySnarl the Oz books are. Before being utterly trapped by Oz, he wrote a number of other works, such as ''TheLifeAndAdventuresOfSantaClaus''.

* LevelAte
* NightmareFuelStationAttendant: He wrote the Oz books part because he thought traditional FairyTales were too scary (and definitely had a point there), but when your first book has a character who was enchanted to hack himself to pieces with an axe, becoming a {{Steampunk}} {{Cyborg}}, the second book has a protagonist forced to live her life as the wrong gender, and the third book has a vain princess and her hall of interchangable, severed heads (yes, severed from previous owners; she plans to do the same to Dorothy), then you kinda missed the point about not loading your work with Nightmare Fuel.

** The ''[[Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz Oz]]'' books are now public domain as well, at least those published before 1922, which includes all of Baum's work. Certain aspects from later books and adaptations are still copyrighted, most famously the [[Film/TheWizardOfOz 1939 film's]] [[AdaptationDyeJob Ruby Slippers]].

* CameoProp: Baum died before MGM's version of ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' was filmed, but, in a remarkable coincidence, Frank Morgan as Professor Marvel wore a secondhand coat that turned out to have belonged to the author. (It's true; {{Snopes}} [[http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/ozcoat.asp confirms it]].)

* TheMirrorShowsYourTrueSelf: In ''Queen Zixi of Ix'', Queen Zixi can only make herself look beautiful to others because of this trope. Her reflection shows her true age, which is considerable.
* OfferedTheCrown: In ''Queen Zixi of Ix'', Bud is offered the crown after the king dies and the laws decree that the forty-seventh person to pass through Nole's eastern gate at sunrise is the new monarch.

* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Queen Zixi of Ix.

* VainSorceress: Queen Zixi of Ix.

* AuthorAppeal: Magic (he had a strong interest in Theosophy), strong and sensible frmale characters (his wofe and mother in law were suffragettes and proto-feminists).

'''Lyman (long for "L.") Frank Baum''' (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author, best known for ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' -- a work so popular that, in fact, he was chained to the series and wrote Oz book after Oz book while longing to write ''anything'' else. Which helps explain what a ContinuitySnarl the Oz books are. Before being utterly trapped by Oz, he wrote a number of other works, such as ''TheLifeAnd AdventuresOfSantaClaus''.

'''Lyman (long for "L.") Frank Baum''' (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author, best known for ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' -- a work so popular that, in fact, he was chained to the series and wrote Oz book after Oz book while longing to write ''anything'' else. Which helps explain what a ContinuitySnarl the Oz books are. Before being utterly trapped by Oz, he wrote a number of other works, such as ''The Life and Adventures of SantaClaus''.