"The Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum
In an inscription in an earlier children's book that he gave his sister, L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) noted : " I have learned to regard fame as a will-o-the-wisp, which when caught, is not worth the possession; but to please a child is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one's heart and brings its own reward." With The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Baum won the fame that had eluded him in his early careers. By the time he died in 1919, Baum had written thirteen other books set in Oz.The books were so well loved that Baum's publishers continued the series with other authors to extend the Oz canon to forty books. Although the story seems quintessentially American, the Oz books have become popular world-wide, and the Wizard has been translated into most major languages.