Wicked (Maguire novel) Wicked (Maguire novel) Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West is a novel published in 1995 written by Gregory Maguire and illustrated by Douglas Smith. It is a revisionist exploration of the characters and land of Oz from L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", its sequels, and the 1939 film adaption "The Wizard of Oz". Unlike the popular 1939 movie and Baum's writings, this novel is not for children; it contains adult language and content, including violent imagery and sexual situations. The novel presents events, characters and situations from Baum's books
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"s publication in 1900, it received little critical analysis from scholars of children's literature. According to Ruth Berman of "Science Fiction Studies", the lists of suggested reading published for juvenile readers never contained Baum's work. The lack of interest stemmed from the scholars' misgivings about fantasy, as well as to their belief that lengthy series had little literary merit. It has frequently come under fire over the years. In 1957, the director of Detroit's libraries banned "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" for having "no value" for children of his day, for supporting "negativism", and for bringing