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From wonderland to wasteland: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Great Gatsby, and the new American fairy tale.(Critical essay)

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From: Papers on Language & Literature
Date: 20060322
Author:Barrett, Laura

THE FAIRY TALE IN AMERICA

In 1919, The New York Timesran an editorial lamenting the end of an era: "L. Frank Baum is dead, [...] and the children have suffered a loss they do not know" ("Fairy Tales" 140). While this article is ostensibly an obituary, it mourns the death of the fairy tale genre as much as it does one of its artists. But the announcement of the fairy tale's demise is a bit late, the article implies, because "a fairy story has to be written by one who believes in fairies," and Baum did not. Observing that "behind the scenes you could see the smile of the ...

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