E-text prepared by Michael Gray (Lost_Gamer@comcast.net)
The Suprising Adventures of
TheMagical Monarch of Mo
And His People
byL. FRANK BAUM
With pictures by Frank VerBeck
1903
To the Comrade of my
boyhood days
Dr. Henry ClayBaum
THIS book has been written for children. I have no shame in acknowledging thatI, who wrote it, am also a child; for since I can remember my eyes have always grown big at tales ofthe marvelous, and my heart is still accustomed to go pit-a-pat when I read of impossible adventures.It is the nature of children to scorn realities, which crowd into their lives all too quickly withadvancing years. Childhood is the time for fables, for dreams, for joy.
These stories are nottrue; they could no be true and be so marvelous. No one is expected to believe them; they were meantto excite laughter and to gladden the heart.
Perhaps some of those big, grown-up people willpoke fun of us—at you for reading these nonsense tales of the Magical Monarch, and at me forwriting them. Never mind. Many of the big folk are still children—even as you and I. We cannotmeasure a child by a standard of size or age. The big folk who are children will be our comrades; theothers we need not consider at all, for they are self-exiled from our domain.
L. FRANK BAUM.
June, 1903.
