His final words to his wife were, вЂњNow we can cross the Shifting Sands,вЂќ a reference to the desert that surrounds Oz, separating it from the rest of BaumвЂ™s fictional universe.Д«aumвЂ™s last Oz book was published in 1920. He awoke only briefly before dying the following day. On May 5, 1919, Baum suffered a stroke and slipped into a coma. And under the pseudonym Edith Van Dyne, Baum wrote fifteen volumes in the вЂњ Aunt JaneвЂ™s NiecesвЂќ series, aimed at the audience of girls who had loved Little Women.

The Master Key, a fantastic fable about a boyвЂ™s adventures with the вЂњdemon of electricity,вЂќ was popular, and continued to see well into the 1920s. He did have success outside the world of Oz. He kept saying that he was done with Oz but wrote sixteen more Oz books, the last two of which were published posthumously. Like many authors of popular books, Baum came to feel trapped by the success of Oz. Toto was absent, replaced by Imogene the Cow and the story was so dramatically different that there was no Wicked Witch of the West This production took some major liberties with the plot. It was the first adaptation to shorten the title to The Wizard of Oz. It was the best-selling childrenвЂ™s book in the United States for the next two years.ДЄ stage musical version opened in Chicago in 1902 and played on Broadway for much of 19. The first printing of 10,000 copies was sold out within a month, and the second printing of 15,000 copies sold out almost as quickly. The 1899 follow-up, Father Goose: His Book, was a collection of nonsense poetry that sold even better.ДЄnd then came The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In 1897, Baum ventured into writing for children with Mother Goose in Prose, which was moderately successful. Unlike his earlier journals, this one has actually survived to the present day itвЂ™s now called VMSD, for visual merchandising and store design. By 1891, the Baums had left the Territory and moved to Chicago.Д«aum worked for a few years as a traveling salesman and founded yet another trade journal, The Show Window, on the art and craft of merchandising displays. It didnвЂ™t last long Baum was overly generous in extending credit to his friends and neighbors, and the store went bankrupt. In 1888, Baum and his wife moved to the Dakota Territory and opened a general store. Baum had some success managing the theater, but it was burned down in 1882-ironically, during a production of his play Matches, and never rebuilt. In 1880, his father built a theater, BaumвЂ™s Opera House, where he could put on plays, including those he had written himself. His first book, published in 1886, was a guide to raising the Hamburg chicken, his favorite breed.ДЄnother consistent love during BaumвЂ™s life was the theater. He established another trade journal, The Poultry Record, in 1880. By the time he was 17, Baum had started a more serious journal, The Stamp Collector, and gone into business as a stamp dealer.ДЄ few years later, he began raising specialty poultry, which was something of a fad in the United States at the time. They sold advertisements to local businesses and gave the paper away to their friends and family. While still a child, he started a local newspaper with his younger brother. Writing and publishing were always part of BaumвЂ™s life. After two years, he was sent home when he had a mild heart attack-at 14!-after being disciplined for daydreaming. He was miserable there he found it difficult to focus and didnвЂ™t respond well to the schoolвЂ™s strict discipline. Baum and his siblings were mostly tutored at home, though Baum was sent to military school when he was twelve. His father was successful in real estate, the oil business, and several other enterprises. Baum was the seventh of nine children born into a prosperous family.

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