Lyman Frank Baum

From Philosopedia

Baum, Lyman Frank (15 May 1856 - 6 May 1919)

An American journalist and actor, Baum is best known for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) and thirteen other related books. In The New York Times (20 Dec 1991), his biographer, Michael Patrick Hearn, wrote,

Although raised in a strict Methodist family, Baum early rejected the Christian teachings of his childhood. Except for a brief period in Aberdeen, South Dakota, where he joined the local Episcopal church, he did not belong to any organized religion. He joined the Aberdeen church for its social, not its religious opportunities, and there is no record he ever attended services.

Baum and his wife, Maud, did not have any of their children baptized and did not send them to church, but they did say that the children could choose any religion they wanted once they were old enough to decide for themselves. The only reference to a church in any of Baum’s Oz books in Chapter 20 of The Wizard of Oz, and here it is “smashed . . . all to pieces” by the Cowardly Lion.

The Rev. E. P. Ryland, a friend of Baum in Hollywood, who spoke at Baum’s funeral, explained that the author of The Wizard of Oz “wasn’t a denominationalist. When he went to church at all in Hollywood,” Mr. Ryland said, “he attended mine, but he wasn’t a member of it. He had a gospel of his own, and he preached it through his books, although you certainly couldn’t call them religious either.”

The Judeo-Christian tradition had failed Baum. He once wrote, “When the priests acknowledge their fallibility; when they abolish superstition, intolerance and bigotry; when they abhor the thought of a vindictive and revengeful God; when they are able to reconcile reason and religion, and fear not to let the people think for themselves, then, and then only, will the church regain its old power and be able to draw to its pulpits the whole people.” L. Frank Baum was a skeptic. After all, the Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz proves at the end to be a humbug.

However, Maud and her husband joined the Theosophists in 1896, held seances in their home and consulted with clairvoyants and astrologers. They both believed in the transmigration of souls and were certain that they had been together in past lives and would be in future ones.

Maud's mother was Matilda Joselyn Gage (1826-1898), an abolitionist and women's rights activist.

(See entry for Wizard of Oz, the message of which is entirely secular and humanistic.)

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