Mother Goose in Prose

Description

Known by most as the writer of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum is the author of numerous other stories of equal complexity and value, Mother Goose in Prose being one of his lesser known, but truly wonderful collection of stories.

The book features stories developed from the widely known Mother Goose rhymes – each of the stories provides a sort of background to the rhymes. According to literary historians, Baum “tested” his stories on his own children – as a father of four, he often told his kids stories that backed up the lines in the rhymes, so much so that he eventually decided to put the stories on paper and publish them.

The book starts with the nursery rhyme itself, providing the background necessary for understanding the stories. There are 22 tales in the book – the reader meets Little Bo-Peep, The Man in the Moon, Jack Horner, Humpty Dumpty and many others, what’s more, one of the stories has as its protagonist a little girl called Dorothy endowed with the wonderful ability to communicate with animals, just like Dorothy of the Oz stories.

Baum is known today mostly for his Oz stories, but in fact he was one of the most prolific writers of his times. He wrote mainly children’s books, but he published several fantasy novels, short stories, poems, scripts for film and stage and he worked as a journalist as well. He was infatuated with the world of the theater all his life – he took to the stage several times, produced a number of theater plays, wrote songs to be included into his plays and for a while he also had his own theater. Despite his enthusiasm, he never became a famous actor or playwright, but many of his books are considered to be invaluable contributions to children’s literature and are read by kids and adults all over the world.
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