wix%bergil.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (06/25/85)
From: wix%bergil.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (Jack Wickwire) From: mccullough.pa@Xerox.ARPA >Another little known fact, visible if you go to a B. Dalton >bookstore and look at the recent republishing of Oz books...most >were not written by L. Frank Baum, but by another author, and >published under Baum's name. Do you mean to say that credit for certain of the books belongs to someone other than L. Frank Baum? L. Frank Baum wrote (I think) 10 Oz books. After he stopped writing them, more were written by, first, Ruth Plumly Thompson and then a few more by at least one more author. Baum was credited on the covers of these books with the creation of Oz and the basic charactors. They were not published "under Baum's name." If someone is claiming that any of those first books were ghost written then it is not a "little known fact", but a major accusation. It came as news to a member of the Ozian fan club member that I spoke to about this. If you have more information than the sketchy details you have given please submit something a little meatier. Baum also published other children's fantasy such as _Queen_Xixi_of_Ix_ and _Dot_and_Trot_in_Merryland_. While Thompson's books are enjoyable they lack the wonderful period narrative mixed with social satire that made the Oz books of Baum's so much fun to read. I have not yet seen the movie but the only negative reviews that I have been told of are comparing it to the loosely related musical version. The new film sounds like it tries to capture the charm of the books and not be _OVER_THE_RAINBOW:_PART_II_ .wIx.