L. Frank Baum 
Rinkitink in Oz 

Lyman Frank Baum (1856-1919) was an American writer of children’s books, best known for creating the marvelous Land of Oz in ’The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’. This fanciful kingdom was catalogued in a series of children’s books beginning with the publication of ’The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’. Baum’s Oz series compasses the first fully developed fantasy world created by an American author. In 1900, Baum and Denslow, famous illustrator with whom he shared the copyright, published ’The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’, making it one of the first commercially successful uses of color illustrations in American publishing. Dorothy and her friends soon began their journey toward becoming an integral part of the American consciousness. ’Rinkitink in Oz’ is the tenth book in the Land of Oz series. An interesting aspect of this book is that no one from Oz appears in it until its climax. Baum originally wrote most of it as an original fantasy novel over ten years prior to its publication. The action takes place on three islands—Coregos, Regos and Pingaree—and within the Nome King’s caverns.