# Henry Littlefield > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Henry_Littlefield > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Henry_Littlefield.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Littlefield > Source revision: 1323536457 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Author and historian **Henry M. Littlefield** (June 12, 1933 – March 30, 2000) was an American [educator](/source/Educator), [author](/source/Author) and [historian](/source/Historian) most notable for his claim that [L. Frank Baum's](/source/L._Frank_Baum) *[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz](/source/The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz)* was a political [satire](/source/Satire), founding a long tradition of [political interpretations of this book](/source/Political_interpretations_of_The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz). He wrote an essay about his theory for his high-school students in [Mount Vernon, New York](/source/Mount_Vernon%2C_New_York), and published it[1] in the *[American Quarterly](/source/American_Quarterly)* in 1964.[2][3][4][5] Littlefield was also a well-known wrestling coach at [Mt. Vernon High School](/source/Mount_Vernon_High_School_(New_York)) and [Amherst College](/source/Amherst_College). Author [John Irving](/source/John_Irving) served as an informal assistant coach at Amherst, and mentioned Littlefield in his essay-cum-memoir, "Trying to Save Piggy Sneed." On page 118, Irving wrote, “Henry Littlefield was the coach at Amherst then; Henry was a heavyweight—everything about him was grand. He was more than expansive, he was eloquent; he was better than good-humored, he was jolly. Henry was very rare, a kind of Renaissance man among wrestling coaches, and the atmosphere in the Amherst wrestling room was, to Henry’s credit, both aggressive and good-natured—a difficult combination to achieve.” Littlefield served as dean of students at Amherst, leaving that position in 1976 to become headmaster of the [York School](/source/York_School_(California)) in [Monterey, California](/source/Monterey%2C_California). He also taught at [Golden Gate University](/source/Golden_Gate_University), [Naval Postgraduate School](/source/Naval_Postgraduate_School), and the [Stevenson School](/source/Stevenson_School).[6] Littlefield received his B.A. from [Columbia College](/source/Columbia_College_(New_York)), and his M.A. and Ph.D. from [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University).[6][7] During his studies, he also served as an officer in the Marine Corps from 1954 to 1958.[6] At Columbia, he played in the *[Varsity Show](/source/Varsity_Show)* and attended the [American Theatre Wing](/source/American_Theatre_Wing) with the intention of becoming an actor.[6] He died on March 30, 2000.[6] ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism"](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2710826), *American Quarterly*, Vol. 16, No. 1. (Spring, 1964), pp. 47-58. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Dighe, Ranjit S. *The Historian's Wizard of Oz: Reading L. Frank Baum's Classic As a Political and Monetary Allegory.* Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2002. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Thomas Singer. *The Vision Thing: Myth, Politics, and Psyche in the World* Routledge, 2000. p.63 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Goodwin, Jason. *Greenback: The Almighty Dollar and the Invention of America.* New York: Henry Holt, 2003. p.281 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Schlesinger, Arthur M. *A Life in the Twentieth Century.* Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. p.64 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:0_6-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:0_6-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:0_6-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-:0_6-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-:0_6-4) ["Columbia College Today"](https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct_archive/dec00/dec00_obituaries.html). *www.college.columbia.edu*. Retrieved May 4, 2022. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** ["Populism and the World of Oz"](https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/populism-oz). *National Museum of American History*. October 31, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2022. ## External links - [The essay](https://web.archive.org/web/20030220073143/http://www.ozclub.org/reference/littlefield.html) at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine) (archived February 20, 2003) - [His essay on the origins of the Oz essay](http://blog.beliefnet.com/viamedia/2005/07/in-honor-of-harry-potter_comments.html)[*[dead link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Link_rot)*] This biography of an American historian born in the 1930s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. - [v](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:US-historian-1930s-stub) - [t](/source/Template_talk%3AUS-historian-1930s-stub) - [e](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:US-historian-1930s-stub) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Henry Littlefield](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Littlefield) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Littlefield?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.