He tried his hand at many occupations, including chicken breeder, actor, marketer, journalist and travelling salesman, but L. Frank Baum would make his most indelible mark as the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Travelling to the Great Plains and Chicago during the last days of the American frontier, Baum saw a nation coming to terms with the economic uncertainty of the late nineteenth century. Yet he never lost his sense of wonder, and his keen observations would form the raw material for his writing, as this AMERICAN EXPERIENCE documentary relates.

Widely adapted and reinterpreted, most famously as the 1939 Hollywood classic, Baum’s magical tale of survival, adventure and self-discovery lives on to absorb, delight and inspire generation after generation.

Watch AMERICAN OZ on PBS UK, premiering on Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 of August at 8.45PM.