The Baum Bugle: A Journal of Oz is the official journal of The International Wizard of Oz Club. The journal was founded in 1957, with its first issue released in June of that year (to a subscribers' list of sixteen). It publishes three times per year, with issues dated Spring, Autumn, and Winter; Issue No. 1 of Volume 50 appeared in the Spring of 2006. The journal publishes both scholarly and popular articles on L. Frank Baum, the Oz books written by Baum and other writers, and related subjects. These regularly include researched historical pieces; interviews with authors, illustrators, and other creatives; pop culture appreciations; bibliographical analyses; plus reviews of Oz-related books, multimedia, films and theater productions, rare photographs and illustrations, and similar materials.
Among the range of articles published in The Baum Bugle:
"W. W. Denslow, The First Illustrator of Oz," by Douglas G. Greene, 1972 - a biographical article of the original Oz artist[1]
"The Radio Road to Oz," by John Fricke, 1986 - describing and summarizing each episode of the 1933 radio series[2]
"Jack Snow and the Land of Oz," by Peter E. Hanff, 1988 - detailing the author's life and career[3]
"Tale of a Parable," by Michael Gessel, 1992 - explaining the famous 'Parable on Populism' inaccurately propagated by many textbooks[4]
"L. Frank Baum, the Witches of Oz, and the Witches of Folklore" by Robert B. Luehrs, 1994 - examining Baum's witches in context[5]
"The Tik-Tok Man of Oz: The Fairyland Extravaganza of 1913-14," by Scott Cummings, 2014 - fully detailing the musical play[6]
"30 Beautiful Heads: Return to Oz Through a Disability Lens," by Coyote Shook, 2020 - analyzing the 1985 film[7]
"Bibliographia Oziana" and "Bibliographia Baumiana"
The Oz Club was established by collectors looking to compile and disseminate good and accurate information about the works of L. Frank Baum and his successors. To that end, one of the earliest and longest-running projects was "Bibliographia Oziana," a series of articles initiated by Dick Martin to bibliographically describe each edition and state of the forty Oz books. After a stuttering start, these were published between Christmas 1963 (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) and Autumn 1968 (Merry-Go-Round in Oz).
In 1967, Martin moved on to initiate two other bibliographic series: "Bibliographia Baumiana," examining Baum's non-Oz works under his own name, and "Bibliographia Pseudonymiana," examining his pseudonymous works. These series were initiated in the Spring 1967(A New Wonderland/The Magical Monarch of Mo) and Winter 1968 (Annabel) issues, respectively. They continued into a more developed set of bibliographic descriptions up to Winter 2001. Several older articles were revisited and greatly expanded in the 1980s and 1990s, under the aegis of new authors, including James E. Haff, Peter E. Hanff, and Patrick Maund.
The success of these articles led to two seminal Oz Club publications, Bibliographia Baumiana (by Peter E. Hanff and Douglas G. Greene)[8] and Bibliographia Baumiana (by W. Neal Thompson).[9]
Beginning in the Spring 2008 issue, W. Neal Thompson has written bibliographical examinations of the works of major illustrators connected to Oz and Baum. These continue on an occasional basis under the name "Bibliographia Illustriana."
Editors of The Baum Bugle
The Baum Bugle has been edited by a number of individual volunteers, some of whom were major figures within the Oz Club. These were not originally credited in the pages of the Bugle, although Justin G. Schiller is acknowledged as the original editor. Starting in 1968, an editorial team was credited. In 1975, Jerry Tobias become the first credited editor-in-chief, a role that has been filled to date as follows:
1975–77: Jerry Tobias
1977-78: David L. Greene
1978-79: James E. Haff and Dick Martin
1979–84: Barbara S. Koelle
1984–87: John Fricke
1988–92: Michael Gessel
1993–95: Lynne Smith
1996–2000: William Stillman
2001–04: Atticus Gannaway
2005–09: Sean P. Duffley
2009–12: Scott Cummings
2013–16: Craig Noble
2016: Scott Cummings
2017: John Fricke
2018–present: Sarah K. Crotzer
Four guest editors-in-chief have also led issues outside the usual run: Fred M. Meyer (Spring 1995); Marcus Mébès (Autumn 2008); Sean P. Duffley (Winter 2012); and Cynthia Twohy Ragni (Spring 2015).
