This is a belated post.  Poor L. Frank Baum got lost in the fray.  Better late than never though.  I saw this book in one of the Smithsonian bookstores when I went to visit Jimmy and ended up hanging out in museums by myself all day.  It was like thirty bucks.  I passed.  THEN, back in Denver I was in Tattered Cover and saw it on one of the bargain racks.  TEN BUCKS.  Sold.

I love the Wizard of Oz.  I have the collector’s edition.  I also love the Gregory Maguire series of Oz books.  I’ve yet to read Baum’s original stories, but I’m glad I read his biography first.  It was so fascinating to me mostly due to the time period in which he lived.  He experienced World War I, heading West to find land and struggling to survive, and living in a time where the likelihood that your child would die before they were five years old was about 75%.  

That’s one thing this book does give you: history.  Like the Nancy Drew book I read, you’ll not only get the life of L. Frank Baum, but you’ll get all the history of the time as well (HENCE, the title).  There was a lot of history involved in this story.  And the great part is, if you start to get bored with all the history, just skim over it until you get back to the Wizard part.

I found this story to be quite interesting and I’m excited to read all the Wizard stories.  This dude was a hard worker and succeeded in three or four different careers.  Another badass.  Wizard badass.