The Hidden Prince of Oz The Hidden Prince of Oz The Hidden Prince of Oz is a novel written by Gina Wickwar and illustrated by Anna-Maria Cool. As its title indicates, the book is an entrant into the series of Oz books by L. Frank Baum and his many successors. The publication of the book was timed to coincide with the centennial of the original Oz book, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (as was also true of Edward Einhorn's "Paradox in Oz" and Dave Hardenbrook's "The Unknown Witches of Oz"). It was the winner of the Club's Centennial book contest, which received over 100 entries
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz continued to include these faces on gates. Baum did not offer any conclusive proof that he intended his novel to be a political allegory. Historian Ranjit S. Dighe wrote that for 60 years after the book's publication, "virtually nobody" had such an interpretation until Henry Littlefield, a high-school teacher. In his 1964 "American Quarterly" article, "The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism", Littlefield posited that the book contained an allegory of the late 19th-century bimetallism debate regarding monetary policy. Littlefield's thesis achieved some support, but has been strenuously attacked by others. "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" has become an established