The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and W. W. Denton (1900) is one of maybe a dozen books I've re-read so many times over the course of my life that I've forgotten just how many times. It for all its flaws is a quintessentially American fantasy novel, especially when taken in context with the later Oz books.
The multimillion-copy bestselling story of Wicked comes full circle in The Witch of Maracoor, the final installment of Gregory Maguire’s Another Day series.
Today in Labor History August 11, 1894: Federal troops drove over 1,000 jobless workers from the nation's capital. Led by Charles "Hobo" Kelley, an unemployed activist from California, and Jacob Coxey, they camped in Washington D.C. starting in July. Kelley's Hobo Army included a young journalist named Jack London and a young miner-cowboy named Big Bill Haywood. Frank Baum was an observer of the protest and some say it influenced his Wizard of Oz, with the Scarecrow representing the American farmer, the tin man representing industrial workers and the Cowardly Lion representing William Jennings Bryan, all marching on Washington (Oz) to demand redress from the president (the Wizard). 650 miners, led by a "General" Hogan, captured a Northern Pacific train at Butte, Montana, en route to the protest. The Feds caught up with them at Billings, forcing a surrender, but a few eventually made it to Washington.