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Three American girl cousins leave the comforts of home to join the Red Cross and go abroad to nurse wounded soldiers during World War I.

This book follows the adventures of three nieces who join the Red Cross to help the war effort during World War I. Edith Van Dyne weaves a thrilling yarn that takes readers from the home front to the front lines. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in early 20th-century literature, adventure stories, or World War I history. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Inspired by Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, this book, which Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum wrote under the pen name Edith Van Dyne, is much in the same vein as Alcott's cozy coming-of-age tale. The first in a series, the story of this novel follows three nieces who are summoned to their wealthy aunt's estate so she can decide to whom she will bequeath her sizable inheritance. Although the girls couldn't be more different personality-wise, a series of calamities brings them closer together. Aunt Hane's Nieces is a delightful read for fans of classic young adult fiction.

L. Frank Baum, well known for creating the Land of Oz, wrote the young adult novel Aunt Jane's Nieces in the Red Cross in 1915. It is the tenth and last book in Baum's Aunt Jane's Nieces series for teenage girls, which is his second-greatest literary success (after the Oz books themselves). Aunt Jane's Nieces in the Red Cross was published under the pen name "Edith Van Dyne," one of Baum's many aliases, just like the other works in the series. The novel is notable in Baum's canon because it articulates his opinions and sentiments towards World War I. An unusual but not exceptional approach for books in the series was to include an opening letter from "Edith Van Dyne" in the book. (There is also an author's introduction in the second book, Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad.) The Siege of Maubeuge's end and the German victory are described in a newspaper article that Patsy Doyle, Beth De Graf, and their uncle John Merrick is reading at the beginning of the book on September 7, 1914. The war news deeply affects both of the girls, but Beth is more committed to the French cause.

The "Aunt Jane's Nieces" series was a wildly popular juvenile fiction collection written by L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, using the feminine pen name "Edith Van Dyne." This book, the last in the series, has the girls tending to wounded soldiers in the early battles of World War I.

Since it was first introduced over a hundred years ago in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum's world of Oz has become one of the most enduring and beloved creations in children's literature. It has influenced numerous prominent writers and intellectuals, and become a lasting part of the culture itself. L. Frank Baum was born in 1856 in upstate New York, the seventh child of a very successful barrel-maker and later oil producer. However, Baum's own career path was a rocky one. Beginning as an actor, Baum tried working as a traveling salesman, the editor of a small town newspaper and the publisher of a trade journal on retailing, failing to distinguish himself in any occupation. His careers either failed to provide a sufficient living for his beloved wife Maud and their children or were so exhausting as to be debilitating. In the 1890's, L. Frank Baum took the advice of his mother-in-law, suffragist leader Matilda Gage, and turned his attention to trying to sell the stories he'd been telling to his sons and their friends. After a few children's books published with varying success, he published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900 and it quickly became a bestseller and has remained so ever since. In this first full-length adult biography of Baum, Rogers discusses some of the aspects that made his work unique and has likely contributed to Oz's long-lasting appeal, including Baum's early support of feminism and how it was reflected in his characters, his interest in Theosophy and how it took form in his books, and the celebration in his stories of traditional American values. Grounding his imaginative creations, particularly in his fourteen Oz books, in the reality of his day, Katharine M. Rogers explores the fascinating life and influences of America's greatest writer for children.