L. Frank Baum - Baum Becomes An Author

Baum Becomes An Author

After Baum's newspaper failed in 1891, he, Maud and their four sons moved to Humboldt Park section of Chicago, where Baum took a job reporting for the Evening Post. Beginning in 1897, for several years he edited a magazine for advertising agencies focused on window displays in stores. The major department stores created elaborate Christmas time fantasies, using clockwork mechanisms that made people and animals appear to move. In 1900, Baum published a book about window displays in which he stressed the importance of mannequins in drawing customers. He also had to work as a traveling salesman.

In 1897, he wrote and published Mother Goose in Prose, a collection of Mother Goose rhymes written as prose stories, and illustrated by Maxfield Parrish. Mother Goose was a moderate success, and allowed Baum to quit his door-to-door sales job (which had had a negative impact on his health). In 1899 Baum partnered with illustrator W. W. Denslow, to publish Father Goose, His Book, a collection of nonsense poetry. The book was a success, becoming the best-selling children's book of the year.