Known as one of the most famous devotees of the Hamburg chicken, L. Frank Baum wrote The Book of the Haumburgs: A Brief Treatise upon the Mating, Rearing and Management of the Different Varieties of Hamburgs in 1886 as one of his first books of his career. At the age of 20, Baum left his job at the stamp dealership to pursue a career in the breeding of poultry, a very popular vocation at the time. After ten years in the business and having established a monthly trade publication about Hamburg chickens for Hamburg breeders, he published The Book of Hamburgs. Though the work was not as successful as Baum would have hoped, given his financial struggles during the time, he still valued the work throughout his career, evident in the brief appearances of Hamburgs in a few of his Oz books.
