About L. Frank Baum
L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) was an American author of books, short stories, and poetry. He is best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and thirteen other books about the Land of Oz. His books have been adapted for stage and screen and continue to be popular today.
About Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault (1628–1703) was a French author and intellectual. Known as a founding writer of the fairy tale genre, he rewrote numerous folk tales, including Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Blue Beard, and Puss in Boots. His stories, which continue to enjoy worldwide acclaim, have been adapted to opera, ballet, theater, and film.
About Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75) was born in Odense, Denmark. The son of a poor shoemaker, who nonetheless was a great reader, made a toy theater for his son and taught him to notice every natural wonder as they walked in the woods together on Sundays. His father died when he was 11, and it wasn’t until six years later that, with the help of a patron, he finally went to a state secondary school attended by much younger children. There he suffered at the hands of a cruel headmaster, but he acquired an education and was determined to be a writer. He published his first novel and his first fairy tales in 1835; thereafter he wrote over 150 more of these stories which have become classics in many languages.Although he originally addressed his fairy tales to children (and some would maintain he had a streak of childhood in his nature) he insisted they were “for all ages,” and the gentleness and humor that are their characteristics are recognized by everyone.
About The Brothers Grimm
Wilhelm Grimm and his brother, Jacob, are most famous for their classical collections of folk songs and folktales, especially Children's and Household Tales, which is generally known as Grimm's Fairy Tales. Stories such as "Snow White" and "Sleeping Beauty" have been retold countless times, but the Brothers Grimm first wrote them down. In their collaboration, Wilhelm, who was the more imaginative and literary of the two, selected and arranged the stories, while Jacob was responsible for the scholarly work.
Wilhelm was born in Hanau, Germany, in 1786. His father, who was educated in law and served as a town clerk, died when Wilhelm was young. His mother, Dorothea, struggled to pay the education of the children. With financial help from Dorothea's sister, Jacob and Wilhelm were sent to Kasel to attend the Lyzeum. Wilhelm always suffered from poor health, which made regular work difficult. He was nonetheless more animated, jovial, and sociable than Jacob. After studying law at Marburg, he worked as a secretary at Kassel, where Jacob served as librarian. In 1812, the year their fairy tales were first published, the Grimms were surviving on a single meal a day. Between 1821 and 1822, the brothers raised extra money by collecting three volumes of folktales. With these publications they wanted to show that Germans shared a similar culture and to advocate the unification process of the small independent kingdoms and principalities.
In 1829, the brothers moved to Gottingen, where Wilhelm became assistant librarian and Jacob librarian. In 1835, Wilhelm was appointed professor, but they were dismissed two years later for protesting against the abrogation of the Hanover constitution by King Ernest Augustus. In 1840, the brothers accepted an invitation from the King of Prussia, Frederick William IV, to go to Berlin. There, as members of the Royal Academy of Sciences, they lectured at the university. In 1841 they became professors at the University of Berlin, and worked with their most ambitious enterprise, the Deutsches Worterbuch, a large German dictionary. Its first volume appeared in 1854. The work, which totaled sixteen volumes, was finished in the 1960s.
The Grimms made major contributions in many fields, notably in the studies of heroic myth and of ancient religion and law. They worked very close, even after Wilhelm married in 1825. Jacob remained unmarried. Wilhelm died of infection in Berlin on December 16, 1859, and Jacob four years later on September 20, 1863.
About Emma Faye
Emma Faye, a.k.a. "The Clean Reads Queen," is an audiobook narrator and actor with a passion for bringing stories to life. She specializes in YA, sweet romance, fantasy, inspiring nonfiction, and anything clean.
She has twenty-plus years of acting experience and has voiced over thirty audiobooks. Recording in her professional home studio, Emma dives deep into the characters and stories to bring them to life in a fresh and captivating way. She puts her heart into every project and it comes across when you are listening to her audiobooks.
Emma also runs a local community theater, moderates a support group for women going through betrayal trauma, and is a proud cat mom of four kitties.
About Rebecca H. Lee
Rebecca H. Lee grew up in Washington State, where she graduated from the University of Washington with a double degree in Drama and Music. She has spent much of her adult life traveling abroad and working as a performer in resorts, theme parks, and cruise ships, but now stays mainly at home in Seattle with her loved ones, narrating audiobooks and performing improv and scripted theater on stage.
About Lauren Pedersen
Lauren Pedersen lends a pleasantly confident voice to fiction and nonfiction. Her many roles in life provide great range to her vocal productions. As a pharmacist educator her voice is comfortably professional with health and wellness topics. As a group fitness instructor her voice is clear and authoritative. As a mother of two her voice provides kind animation to characters, drawing listeners into discovery as each chapter unfolds. Her love for storytelling is articulated in memoirs and fiction. And her strong personal faith means she will bring life to uplifting content with Christian values.
