Yes, that L(yman) Frank Baum (1856–1919), the man who created the most magical and popular series of fairy tales ever written by an American, beginning with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900.

Although born to a wealthy family that made its fortune in the oil business, Baum went out on his own in search of a career, first as a journalist, then as a poultry farmer. When the family fell on hard times, he struggled to earn a living for himself, his wife, and their four children. In addition to journalistic pieces for newspapers and magazines, he wrote short stories and, in 1897, a successful children’s book, Mother Goose in Prose, followed two years later by Father Goose: His Book, which became a bestseller. His next book was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), the publication of which he financed himself, launching one of the most successful careers in American literature. He wrote sixty more books, mostly for young readers, including seventeen additional Oz books (a couple of which were published posthumously and one, The Royal Book of Oz, credited to him was written entirely by Ruth Plumley Thompson, who wrote more Oz novels than Baum—nineteen). Many of the Oz novels were filmed, though none as successfully as the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, with its iconic portrayals of Dorothy by Judy Garland (though the studio’s first choice had been Shirley Temple), the Cowardly Lion by Bert Lahr, the Scarecrow by Ray Bolger, and the Tin Man by Frank Haley. Like all of Baum’s books for young readers, they offered positive, optimistic views that assured children that they could be successful by embracing the traditional American virtues of integrity, self-reliance, candor, and courage.

It is, therefore, especially shocking to accept the notion that the same person could have written the following story, which is as diametrically opposite those sentiments as it is possible for anyone to be. It is one of the darkest stories in this book.

“The Suicide of Kiaros” was first published in a now-forgotten literary magazine, The White Elephant, in its issue of September 1897.