Henry M. Littlefield (June 12, 1933 – March 30, 2000) was an American educator, author and historian most notable for his claim that L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was a political satire, founding a long tradition of political interpretations of this book.
He wrote an essay about his theory for his high-school students in Mount Vernon, New York, and published it[1] in the American Quarterly in 1964.
Author John Irving served as an informal assistant coach at Amherst, and mentioned Littlefield in his essay-cum-memoir, "Trying to Save Piggy Sneed."
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 in Monterey, California.
[6] At Columbia, he played in the Varsity Show and attended the American Theatre Wing with the intention of becoming an actor.