One of his earliest works, the book was significant in Baum's evolution from amateur to professional author.

A poem from the South Dakota years, "Nance Adkins," has a farm wife as its heroine.

[6] Though By the Candelabra's Glare was a privately printed vanity project, it led to Baum's first literary and commercial breakthrough.

The result was his and Denslow's Father Goose, a major and pathbreaking success of 1899 that launched Baum's literary career.

Copies of the original edition of By the Candelabra's Glare are "now extremely rare and much sought by collectors.