‘THE WIZARD OF OZ’

SCARCE SENTIMENT & SIGNATURE FROM THE AUTHOR

L. FRANK BAUM

BAUM, L. FRANK.  (1856-1919).  American writer; author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900).  His scarce Signature and Sentiment Signed “L. Frank Baum”.  One full page, octavo. [approximately 7 x 7 inches].  No place, No date.  He pens:

                            “To my old army friend

                              Millicent Barst

                              As an evidence of

                              My steadfast affection.

                                                 L. Frank Baum”

 

In 1868, at the age of 12, Baum was sent to the Peekskill Military Academy, in Peekskill, N.Y., for his only formal education outside the family home. He stays less than two years. It is most likely that this is the ‘army’ to which he refers in our piece.  It is also interesting to note that at this time, the idea of the “Yellow Brick Road” may have entered Baum’s subconscious mind. There are various accounts of what inspired the yellow brick road and one account says it was a brick road in Peekskill that Baum would have encountered when there.  Other accounts say it was inspired by a road paved with yellow bricks near Holland, Michigan, where Baum spent summers. And Ithaca, New York, also makes a claim for being Frank Baum’s inspiration as he opened a road tour of his musical, ‘The Maid of Arran’, in Ithaca, where he met his future wife Maud Gage Baum while she was attending Cornell University. At the time, yellow bricks paved the local roads.  Who is to say?  But our item is simply a scarce and wonderful artifact of the man who brought us “OZ”.                   

 

$3800.00