Dead Love: RIP L. Frank Baum

Posted by on May 12, 2010 in Between the Lines | 2 comments

What would Lyman Frank Baum think of Dead Love? He’d disapprove of the violence and the absence of munchkins … except perhaps for Snark, the mean little dwarf who is part of the  Brent Breshtikowsky Circus troupe.

L. (he didn’t like his first name) Frank Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz back in 1900, after trying to make a living as a seller of fancy poultry, actor, store proprietor, reporter and traveling salesman. He wrote thirteen sequels to the original Oz book, as well as nine other fantasy novels, 55 novels total (including four “lost” ones), 82 short stories, over 200 poems, and countless scripts and other scribblings. But we know him for the blow-hard Wizard, the munchkins, the ruby slippers, the good and bad witches, that Dorothy kid, and my own personal favorite—the flying monkeys. Those Oz books were dark … in their own strange way. I like the movie best with Pink Floyd.

As a child Frank was sent to Peekskill Military Academy, which was not a good place for him. I guess coming home after two miserable years must have been a lot like getting back to Kansas.

He’s buried in Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, California. The lawn is very green there.

—Erin Orison, DEAD LOVE/The Daily Slice


photo image courtesy of Bart D. Frescura, copyright Bart D. Frescura

  • debbiegoelz

    I see you like the lawn at Forest Lawn. Have you visited a lot of cemeteries? Do you have a favorite?

  • Absolutely. My favorite is Pere Lachaise in Paris, in the 20th, reputedly the most visited cemetery in the world. I could hang out there. Many do but most of them are truly dead.