Lyman Frank Baum (1856-1919) was an American author, screenwriter, and playwright best known as the creator of the Land of Oz. Before achieving literary fame at age 44 with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), Baum pursued a wide variety of careers-including chicken breeding, theater management, and traveling sales-that often failed financially. He is credited with creating the first truly "American fairy tale," deliberately removing the dark, moralistic violence common in European traditions.