Journalist and playwright Lyman Frank Baum (1856–1919) was born on this day in New York. As a sickly child, he found comfort in fairy tales, spinning stories to escape and eventually transform the world around him.

“To please a child,” he once said, “is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one's heart and brings its own reward.”

Inspired by the writing of Charles Dickens, Baum became a storyteller whose imagination knew no bounds. Neighborhood children would gather to hear his bedtime tales—crafted from pumpkins, scarecrows, and dogs. Everyday things became enchanted in his hands.

Urged by his mother-in-law to write down his stories, he published Mother Goose in Prose in 1897. Then came the breakthrough: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), a story born of courage, color, and conviction. In twenty years, Baum wrote over 70 books, inviting readers into his magical world.

Baum didn’t just create a fairyland. He gave us yellow brick roads that led to courage, love, and wisdom. He gave us Dorothy, Toto, the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Woodman, and the Scarecrow—timeless reminders that the answers we seek are often already within us.

“Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable,” Baum wrote. Yet his tender, fantastical worlds made hearts stronger—with characters who sang and soared, who missed home, who made us believe again.

The book's magic sparked a beloved series and the unforgettable 1939 MGM film. Judy Garland, just 17, became Dorothy, etching “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” into the soul of generations. Her voice carried Baum’s message: that dreams you dare to dream really do come true.

Baum didn’t just write fantasy—he wrote truth wrapped in wonder. He showed that even the most impossible journeys can begin with a single step… and end with a click of your heels and the whisper, “There’s no place like home.”

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