Today is the birthday of the man who wrote The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, according to The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor.
In 1900, Baum wrote the book that made him famous, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The book began as a story he told to some neighborhood children; Frank thought it was so good that he stopped in the middle of the story to go start writing it down. The story of Dorothy, her dog Toto, the Scarecrow, the Lion, and the Tin Man was an instant classic.
Frank Baum wrote, "No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home."
Last summer we were thrilled when our daughter Elaine gave us tickets for our wedding anniversary to see the wonderful musical Wicked, based on the novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, a re-telling of the 1939 film of Baum's classic story from the perspective of the witches of the Land of Oz.
What memories do you have of watching The Wizard of Oz or reading the book? What books have you enjoyed that re-imagined a classic story from a whole new perspective?
My husband, a Brit lit specialist, and I love Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, so when I saw a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith for sale at our SMSU campus bookstore, I couldn't resist. I haven't read it yet, but I'm prepared for the laughs and the ride I know it will provide. Mary Ellen Quinn writes on amazon.com: "Mash-ups using literary classics that are freely available on the Web may become a whole new genre." I say, why not?
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