From: "William Ansley" 
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2002 12:05:53 -0400
Subject: Re: (urth) A Sad Loss

Adam,

Thank you very much for solving the magic bean mystery. You have the thanks
of a grateful discussion group.

As far as Wolfe having read Baum's Oz books as well as Ruth Plumley Thompson's,
I am certain that he did. Quite a while ago, I posted a very long and roughly
written series of messages analyzing Wolfe's novella "The Eyeflash Miracles"
and I was able to find some pretty specific references to Baum's Oz books. Of
course, I suppose this isn't definitive: Thompson and the other subsequent Oz
authors reused charaters and settings from Baum as well as inventing their own.
I only re-read Baum's original 14 Oz books during my "Eyeflash" analysis. Now
that I know he preferred the Thompson books, I'll have to try to find time to
re-read those, as well.

--
William Ansley

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