Finding Dorothy: A Novel

About this book

This richly imagined novel tells the story behind The Wonderful Wizard of Oz the book that inspired the iconic film through the eyes of author L. Frank Baums intrepid wife Maud. A breathtaking read that will transport you over the rainbow and into the heart of one of Americas most enduring fairy tales.Lisa Wingate author of Before We Were Yours Hollywood 1938: As soon as she learns that M-G-M is adapting her late husbands masterpiece for the screen seventy-seven-year-old Maud Gage Baum sets about trying to finagle her way onto the set. Nineteen years after Franks passing Maud is the only person who can help the producers stay true to the spirit of the bookbecause shes the only one left who knows its secrets. But the moment she hears Judy Garland rehearsing the first notes of Over the Rainbow Maud recognizes the yearning that defined her own life story from her youth as a suffragettes daughter to her coming of age as one of the first women in the Ivy League from her blossoming romance with Frank to the hardscrabble prairie years that inspired The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Judy reminds Maud of a young girl she cared for and tried to help in South Dakota a dreamer who never got her happy ending. Now with the young actress under pressure from the studio as well as her ambitious stage mother Maud resolves to protect herthe way she tried so hard to protect the real Dorothy. The author of two New York Times bestselling nonfiction books The Eighty-Dollar Champion and The Perfect Horse Elizabeth Letts is a master at discovering and researching a rich historical story and transforming it into a page-turner. Finding Dorothy is the result of Lettss journey into the amazing lives of Frank and Maud Baum. Written as fiction but based closely on the truth Elizabeth Lettss new book tells a story of love loss inspiration and perseverance set in Americas heartland. Praise for Finding Dorothy In some ways reminiscent of Jerry Stahls excellent I Fatty Letts Finding Dorothy combines exhaustive research with expansive imagination blending history and speculation into a seamless tapestry. . . . Its a testament to Letts skill that she can capture on the page without benefit of audio that same emotion we have all felt sometime over the last 80 years while listening to Over the Rainbow.BookPage (starred review)