This day in history .....

Lyman Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was born on May 15, 1856, in Chittenango, New York. The son of a successful entrepreneur, Baum embarked on many careers before beginning to write for children. In his youth, he ran a small printing press to produce a monthly magazine for family and friends. As an adult, his creative work as an actor, playwright, and journalist was interspersed with commercial pursuits including poultry farming, store keeping, and window dressing.

Baum's career as a children's author began with the 1899 publication of Father Goose: His Book. Although Father Goose was the children's bestseller of the year, it was soon overshadowed by The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The demand for additional stories about Dorothy and her friends was so great that Baum wrote thirteen more Oz books. Other fictional works created for boys and girls were published by Baum under the pen names "Floyd Akers" and "Edith Van Dyne." After Baum's death in 1919, a new generation of authors continued the Oz series as well as several of Baum's other story lines.

There were many versions of this tale over the years like "The WIZ"