L. Frank Baum’s Oz is probably the Great American Fairytale. Where other countries have their Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersons, we have Oz. Baum wrote numerous installments in the original series, and he’s been followed by official and unofficial successors in maintaining, or undermining, his creation. Oz is now part of the cultural imagination, an open world for all to visit and, if they want, recreate. One thing that Oz is not, is static. It’s not fixed in the stories by Baum (although they and the authorized Ruth Plumly Thompson stories that immediately followed do provide the canon). It wasn’t fixed by the definitive MGM musical. And it’s not fixed by the phenomenally popular Broadway musical Wicked. That’s why it’s the Great American Fairytale. It endures in the original, and it can be revived for different generations with just as much impact, if not more.

The most successful recent versions of the story have indeed come from the creator of Wicked, which of course was a novel first. That book, as Gregory Maguire claims in an interview for Omnivoracious, was intended to be a standalone, but as it turned out, he’s just released his fourth and final tale in his Oz series. It didn’t start out as a big hit, but over time, well, it happened.

If you’re a fan, this is the interview for you. Watch Exclusive Interview With “Wicked” Series Author Gregory Maguire.