The Wicked Witch of the East is a fictional character created by American author L. Frank Baum. She is a crucial character but appears only briefly in Baum's classic children's series of Oz novels, most notably The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). The Wicked Witch was a middle-aged, malevolent woman who conquered and tyrannized the Munchkin Country in Oz's eastern quadrant, forcing the native Munchkins to slave for her night and day. Her charmed Silver Shoes (famously changed to magic ruby slippers in the 1939 film musical) held many mysterious powers and were her most precious and prized possession. The Witch met her demise when Dorothy Gale's farmhouse landed on her after being swept into the sky by a cyclone. Her old and withered body turned to dust, leaving behind the magical shoes that were passed to Dorothy as their new owner. The Classic Oz Books The Wicked Witch of the East was believed to be more powerful than the Good Witch of the North, but not as powerful as Glinda, the Good Witch of the South. She also appeared to be more powerful than Mombi, the Wicked Witch of the North, as the Good Witch of the North was able to defeat Mombi, but was powerless to overthrow the witch of the east and free the Munchkins. She was not in any way related to the Wicked Witch of the West (as is made out to be in several adaptions) but was in league together with her, the Wicked Witch of the North, and the Wicked Witch of the South to conquer and divide Oz among themselves in four sections as recounted in Baum's fourth Oz book, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908). After the fall of Pastoria, the last mortal King of Oz, the old witch conquered the eastern section of Oz and held the native Munchkins in her bondage for a number of decades. She had lived in a rather humble dwelling deep within the woods in a cottage located somewhere in Oz's eastern quadrant called Munchkin Country. She was bribed by an old woman who owned a beautiful Munchkin maid Nimmie Amee, who worked for her as a full-time servant, and happened to fall deeply in love with a local woodsman by the name of Nick Chopper. The woman gave her two sheep and a cow if the witch promised to prevent Nimmie Amee from