The Wizard of Oz: A Populist Parable?
By Henry M. Littlefield. L. Frank Baum’s series of 14 Oz books, from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900 to the posthumous publication of Glinda of Oz in 1920, was phenomenally successful. However, the series has been either attacked or ignored by librarians and critics. The books were removed from the Detroit Public Library in 1957 because, in the words of the library’s director, “There is nothing uplifting or elevating about the Baum series.”