A Kidnapped Santa Claus: Magical Creatures, A Weiser Books Collection

L. Frank Baum

Dec 2011 · Weiser Books

About this ebook

Varla Ventura, fan favorite on Huffington Post’s Weird News, frequent guest on Coast to Coast, and bestselling author of The Book of the Bizarre and Beyond Bizarre, introduces a new Weiser Books Collection of forgotten crypto-classics. Magical Creatures is a hair-raising herd of affordable digital editions, curated with Varla’s affectionate and unerring eye for the fantastic.

From the beloved author of the Oz series this short story, first published in 1904 woman's magazine The Delineator, this short Christmas tale takes place in Laughing Valley where Santa Claus and his magical crew live, surrounded by demons in the mountains above. A seldom read story that will delight any fan of L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz, and fairy-tales.

About the author

L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) is best known for writing The Wizard of Oz and its corresponding 13 sequels, Baum was a prolific writer, writing 55 novels, 82 short stories, and over 200 poems in all, utilizing more than 7 pen names. His works are characterized by extreme fantasy, political satire, and advanced knowledge of future technologies: in his stories and novels, he predicted the inventions of television, laptops, cell phones, and the use of clothing for advertising. His Oz series, although still somewhat violent, marks a breaking away from the extreme violence that characterized earlier fairy tales of the Bros. Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson. Baum intended to separate his writing from such violence as well as the moral that violence was supposed to teach; his books are also devoid of any romance, a subject he believed uninteresting and incomprehensible to children. Although known for his writing, Baum’s true passion was with the theater—directing, playwriting, and acting—and he experienced financial difficulty throughout his life because of this ongoing obsession. A true man of imagination, he whispered "Now we can cross the Shifting Sands" on his deathbed.
Varla Ventura is the author of Fairies, Pookas and Changelings; Banshees, Werewolves, Vampires and Other Creatures of the Night; Among the Mermaids; The Book of the Bizarre; and Beyond Bizarre. She can often be found lurking about the deep dark woods and lakes of Minnesota on the hunt for mushrooms, magical herbs, and the elusive little men of legend. Visit her at www.varlaventura.net.