The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

Long before Coca-Cola and department store window displays, L. Frank Baum imagined the real story behind the red suit. Abandoned as an infant in an enchanted forest, the child called Claus is rescued and raised by the gentle wood-nymph Necile, his existence a bridge between the mortal world and the immortals who dwell in Burzee. Growing up among beings who never age, Claus discovers something the nymphs and fairies have forgotten: there are children in the human world who suffer and grieve and need hope. And so begins his extraordinary vocation. Baum constructs a whole mythology of Santa Claus: the Vale of Laughs where toys are made, the Ryls and Knooks and Fairies who serve as his workshop elves, the ancient Awgasi who oppose joy. But beneath the invention lies something timeless: the story of a man who never quite belongs to either world, yet creates something that belongs to everyone. Written in 1902, this is the Santa Claus origin story that started them all, and it remains oddly moving in its portrait of solitary kindness transformed into universal magic.