Historical Fiction
Date Published: 09-23-2026
Publisher: Echoes Publishing
cinema and popular culture forever. But the true story began decades earlier
with the young composer who risked everything to bring it to the Broadway
stage.
At the turn of the century, twenty-three-year-old Paul Tietjens is a gifted
classical pianist with dreams of greatness and a non-refundable ticket to
Europe to study with the master composers of his time.
But when the bank calls in the debt on his family’s Missouri farm, Paul
forgoes his dream to save them from financial ruin. Desperate to find a new
road to success, he moves to up-and-coming Chicago, where he persuades author
L. Frank Baum to collaborate on a comic opera of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,
setting the stage for the defining cultural touchstone that we know today.
Paul embarks on his opera with high hopes, but scandal threatens his soaring
ambition when he falls in love with his best friend’s beautiful but
married sister, and his fears grow as the Wizard of Oz demands not only his
talent but his soul.
Inspired by Paul’s 1901 diary, The Lark follows Paul as he journeys from
the theaters of Chicago to the streets of Manhattan, from his family’s
Missouri farm to the beaches of Michigan, fighting to hang onto the chance of
a lifetime, his integrity, and the woman he loves.
From Chapter 27 of The Lark by Laura C. Rader
After lunch, I sat at the parlor piano and ran through some of the songs for The Wizard of Oz, replaying each moment with Katherine in my mind as my fingers played the keys. She sat nearby, silently reading Persuasion, our glances meeting now and again as Daisy played with Lina and Vita in between sorting through the boarding house accounts. I mulled over the sanctity of marriage, the frailties of the heart, and the ominous predictions of the palm reader. My fate was surely sealed, and I only prayed I hadn’t somehow thrown Katherine’s completely off course.
In addition to The Lark, Laura C. Rader is the award-winning author of the historical novel Hatfield 1677, based on the lives of her ancestors in Hatfield, Massachusetts, in the seventeenth century.
When she isn’t writing, you can find her researching history for her books and her family tree and spending time with family, friends, and pets.
A native of Southern California, she now lives north of Raleigh, North Carolina.
Please go to www.lcrwriter.com for more info on her books or to subscribe to her newsletter.
