Thursday, August 4, 2011

Matilda Joslyn Gage's son-in-law was L. Frank Baum?

How did I not know this?

Wait, I'm sure someone is asking "Who is Matilda Joslyn Gage?" & anyone who knows me can probably guess... Yep, she was a suffragist, among other things. Her house in Fayetteville, NY (just east of Syracuse) is a house museum (one of my other favorite things) open to the public & run by The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation. It was on this website, after I purchased the book Matilda Joslyn Gage: She Who Holds the Sky by foundation director Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner, that I noticed one of the rooms is called "The Family Parlor & Oz Room". Oz Room? I knew Baum was from central NY, but to be the son-in-law of such a radical suffragist... Come to find out, Matilda was a great influence on Mr. Baum's writing.

The more I read, the more I realized I was glad I ordered the book. I was also glad the library is right outside my office window. Sure enough, they have The Annotated Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum on the shelf. I've never felt the desire to read any of the Oz tales before, I dislike the movie immensely, but the Matilda Joslyn Gage connection is enough to get me to try.