“When I was young I longed to write a great novel that should win me fame. Now that I am getting old my first book is written to amuse children.”

— L. Frank Baum

Personal inscription on a copy of Mother Goose in Prose (1897) which he gave to his sister, Mary Louise Baum Brewster, as quoted in The Making of the Wizard of Oz (1998) by Aljean Harmetz, p. 317
Letters and essays
Context: When I was young I longed to write a great novel that should win me fame. Now that I am getting old my first book is written to amuse children. For aside from my evident inability to do anything "great," I have learned to regard fame as a will-o-the-wisp which, when caught, is not worth the possession; but to please a child is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one's heart and brings its own reward.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "When I was young I longed to write a great novel that should win me fame. Now that I am getting old my first book is wr…" by L. Frank Baum?

L. Frank Baum 108

Children's writer, editor, journalist, screenwriter 1856–1919

Related quotes

“I didn't mind getting old when I was young. It's the being old now that's getting to me.”

John Scalzi (1969) American science fiction writer

“Even now as a manager, when I suffer a loss it still feels like a first loss, the first I suffered as a player. And when I win, it is like my first win, too. This is me, this is my personality, it is who I am and will always be.”

Diego Maradona (1960) Argentine association football player

Daily Mail interview

“I discovered that I had, in the past two decades, written a far greater amount in the essay form than I remembered. Certainly I have written enough of it to demonstrate that I harbor no disdain for literary journalism or just plain journalism, under whose sponsorship I have been able to express much that has fascinated me, or alarmed me, or amused me, or otherwise engaged my attention when I was not writing a book.”

William Styron (1925–2006) American novelist and essayist

"A note to the reader" - This Quiet Dust and Other Writings (1982)

“When I was young, the old regarded me as an outrageous young fellow, and now that I'm old the young regard me as an outrageous old fellow.”

Fred Hoyle (1915–2001) British astronomer

As quoted in Scientific American (March 1995)

“When I decided to write a novel, I had two full time jobs and three children under the age of six, so I don’t want anyone telling me they don’t have time to write a book, but I learned to work in the middle of the night, and I still do that…”

Diana Gabaldon (1952) American author

On balancing novel writing with her personal life in “Diana Gabaldon on Her ‘Outlander’ Writing Process & Knowing Sam Heughan Was Jamie” https://collider.com/diana-gabaldon-outlander-interview/ in Collider (2018 Aug 2)