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                             The WONDERFUL
                                 WIZARD
                                   OF
                                   OZ

                            BY L. Frank Baum

                             W. W. Denslow.

[Illustration]

                            Geo. M. Hill Co.
                               New York.




                             INTRODUCTION.


Folk lore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood
through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and
instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly
unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more
happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations.

Yet the old-time fairy tale, having served for generations, may
now be classed as "historical" in the children's library; for the
time has come for a series of newer "wonder tales" in which the
stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all
the horrible and blood-curdling incident devised by their authors
to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes
morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its
wonder-tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident.

[Illustration]

Having this thought in mind, the story of "The Wonderful Wizard of
Oz" was written solely to pleasure children of today. It aspires to
being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are
retained and the heart-aches and nightmares are left out.

                     L. FRANK BAUM.

  CHICAGO, APRIL, 1900.

[Illustration]

  Copyright 1899
  By L. Frank Baum
  and W. W. Denslow.
  All rights reserved

[Ill