Sources
An influence on the creation of Dorothy appears to be the Alice books of Lewis Carroll. Although he found their plots incoherent, Baum identified their source of popularity as Alice herself, a child with whom the child readers could identify; this influenced his choice of a protagonist.
The name of the character possibly comes from Baum's own niece, Dorothy Louise Gage, who died in infancy. Baum's wife was deeply attached to the little girl and deeply grieved by her death, so there is speculation that he inserted her into his story as a memoriam. Elements of her character are possibly derived from Matilda Joslyn Gage, Dorothy's grandmother. Dorothy Gage is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Bloomington, Illinois.
The fictional Dorothy's last name is never mentioned in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz or The Marvelous Land of Oz, the first two Oz books. Not until the third book, Ozma of Oz (1907), is it revealed. Dorothy's last name of Gale comes from Baum's script for the 1902 Broadway stage version of The Wizard of Oz.
Read more about this topic: Dorothy Gale
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