The International Wizard of Oz Club Background Publications Conventions Becoming a member

Background

The International Wizard of Oz Club was founded in 1957 to bring together all those interested in L. Frank Baum and Oz. During succeeding decades, the club has grown until today it has nearly 2500 members. Its magazine, The Baum Bugle, first appeared in June 1957 and has been published continuously ever since.

Publications

The Baum Bugle, which is issued three times each year, specializes in popular and scholarly articles about Oz and its creators with biographical and critical studies, and first-edition checklists. Research into the people and places within the Oz books appears frequently. There are also features on Oz films and stage shows, reviews of new editions of books about Oz or its authors, and current Oz (or associated) news. The magazine is illustrated with rare photographs and drawings, and the covers are usually in full color.

The Oz club also publishes:

• Bibliographia Oziana, a book that includes: descriptions of the first editions of the Baum Oz series, with 83 photographs descriptions of the Oz books by Ruth Plumly Thompson and by Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren Lynn McGraw, and full-color maps of Oz, with places from the forty books.
• Unexplored Territory in Oz, a collection of Ozian essays.
• Oziana, an annual of original Oz stories.
• The Oz Trading Post, a sale and exchange list for collectors issued three times a year.

Conventions

The club sponsors conventions in different areas of the country each year. These gatherings feature:

• scholarly presentations (lectures, talks, and papers for reading) about different Oz subjects
• displays of rare Oz and Baum material
• an Oz quiz
• a showing of Oz films (including those Baum produced in 1914)
• an auction of hard-to-find Baum and Oz items
• much conversation about Oz in all its aspects

Piglet Press Tour Guide