Did you know that there is a great deal of mystery surrounding just exactly how and when L. Frank Baum came up with the name Oz?
One of Baum’s great stories is that as he was orally relating the magical and wonderful stories taking place in his invented enchanted land he was interrupted by a young girl, a friend of his daughter. The girl, Baum says, asked him what the name of this wonderfully magical place was. Stumped, Baum look around the room until his vision fell upon a filing cabinet with three drawers. The third drawer contained papers filed under O-Z and, voila, that is where the land of Oz came from. It’s a great story and one that Baum told well and often. Except that when Baum first submitted his story to publishers it was titled The Emerald City and that was the only name given to the setting of his story. During the long publishing process that title was changed several times, including The City of the Great Oz. But that particular Oz was merely the name of the great and powerful leader and not the land itself. Finally, Baum came up with a title that pleased both himself and his publishers, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and in the original manuscript can be found scribbles that place the Emerald City “in the land of Oz.”
Several other notably reasonable explanations have been offered as to the origin of the name of Oz. The least interesting is that L. Frank Baum invented the Oz as a tribute to his favorite author Charles Dickens who was famous for writing under the pseudonym Boz. A more interesting idea is that Oz Baum’s bastardization of Uz, which was the Biblical land of Job. And finally, and one that seems to make the most sense, is that Oz was derived from the oohs and ahhs that Baum’s storytelling engendered amongst his young crowd of fans before he finally set the stories to paper.
love the atmosphere
LOL are we in new zealand?
No Colin you are in Old Zealand….lol
OZ, for short. (That’s what happens when your house is carried away by a strong wind.)
‘oz’ is another term for ‘australia’
since we are often shortened to ‘aus’
which is pronounced the same XD
Wow, I didn’t know that! Layers upon layers of meaning in this discussion… I love it…
the animal reminds of ‘grouwn-up puppy’ now..
oooh Old Zealand = OZ .. very clever!!
*applauds*
Did you know that there is a great deal of mystery surrounding just exactly how and when L. Frank Baum came up with the name Oz?
One of Baum’s great stories is that as he was orally relating the magical and wonderful stories taking place in his invented enchanted land he was interrupted by a young girl, a friend of his daughter. The girl, Baum says, asked him what the name of this wonderfully magical place was. Stumped, Baum look around the room until his vision fell upon a filing cabinet with three drawers. The third drawer contained papers filed under O-Z and, voila, that is where the land of Oz came from. It’s a great story and one that Baum told well and often. Except that when Baum first submitted his story to publishers it was titled The Emerald City and that was the only name given to the setting of his story. During the long publishing process that title was changed several times, including The City of the Great Oz. But that particular Oz was merely the name of the great and powerful leader and not the land itself. Finally, Baum came up with a title that pleased both himself and his publishers, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and in the original manuscript can be found scribbles that place the Emerald City “in the land of Oz.”
Several other notably reasonable explanations have been offered as to the origin of the name of Oz. The least interesting is that L. Frank Baum invented the Oz as a tribute to his favorite author Charles Dickens who was famous for writing under the pseudonym Boz. A more interesting idea is that Oz Baum’s bastardization of Uz, which was the Biblical land of Job. And finally, and one that seems to make the most sense, is that Oz was derived from the oohs and ahhs that Baum’s storytelling engendered amongst his young crowd of fans before he finally set the stories to paper.
He Obviously is in New Zealand. He must be on the set of The Hobbit.
Gandalf enters the last frame “YOU SHALL NOT NAP!”
Colin: Aw, but why not?
new zealand would have waaaaaaaaaay more sheep in my opinion XD
I’m so glad that Colin is feeling better!
I expect Colin naps a lot anyway. Why? Because he’s card-bored.
I wonder if any of those plants are monsters waiting to jump out and eat Colin?! Run, Colin! RUN!!!
I love Colin looking upwards! I don’t remember seeing that before!
I’m from New Zealand…and I confirm this…except there aren’t enough sheep >.>
New Zealand=Middle Earth? Colin is in Middle Earth!