Emerald City Podcast: Ruth Plumly Thompson vs. The Wicked Witch

In this third episode of the Emerald City podcast, we delve even deeper into the censorship of the Oz books.  In this episode:

• We examine the negative attitudes of powerful children's librarian Anne Carroll Moore toward the works of L. Frank Baum, and her efforts to see that children weren't able to read them. 
•  It also takes a look at the ugly scene that took place at a Jell-O sponsored party between Moore and Oz book writer Ruth Plumly Thompson.  
• Finally, we begin a discussion about Baum's influence in commercializing children's literature, and we begin to talk about the commercial empire of Oz.
  

We have a third example of an over-zealous librarian failing to find the joy in the land of Oz.

Emerald City Podcast: A Woggle-Bug in Detroit

In this second episode of the Emerald City podcast, I continue my discussion of the censorship of the Oz books by looking at the 1957 campaign of Ralph Ulveling, a librarian in Detroit, to keep children away from Baum's books.  In this episode, I touch upon the following issues:

• The immense popularity of the Oz books and their value in getting children interested in reading.
• The difference between library "selection" and "censorship."
• How the concerns of librarians forming collections are often at odds with the children reading the "selected" books.

We have a second example of an over-zealous librarian failing to find the joy in the land of Oz. 

Emerald City Podcast: Dorothy (Dodd), I don't think we're in Florida anymore...

In this, the first episode of the Emerald City podcast, I begin my examination of censorship of L. Frank Baum's Oz books.  

• This episode deals with Florida State Librarian Dorothy Dodd's decision to eliminate the Oz books from Florida's libraries in 1959 in a flurry of anti-communist furor.  
• Also in this episode is a discussion of the Tin Woodman's  "subversive" description of the political system in Oz.

I hope everyone enjoys this introduction to the contentious (and often unknown) history of the Wonderful Wizard and his land of Oz.