Lyman Frank Baum (1856-1919) was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He wrote thirteen novel sequels, nine other fantasy novels, and a host of other works and made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen. His works predicted such century-later commonplaces as television, laptop computers and wireless telephones. Baum made use of several pseudonyms for some of his other, non-Oz books. On May 5, 1919, Baum suffered from a stroke. He died quietly the next day, nine days short of his 63rd birthday.