1961
Dick Martin
(1927-1990)
Dick Martin received the very first L. Frank Baum Memorial Award at the International Wizard of Oz Club’s first convention. He was honored for his advancement and preservation of the Oz saga. Dick served the Oz Club as a bibliographer, researcher, consultant, advisor, auctioneer, editor and contributor to The Baum Bugle, and president and vice-president.
A gifted writer and artist, Dick illustrated the 40th Oz book, Merry Go Round in Oz by Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren Lynn McGraw, as well as several abridgements of Baum’s books and numerous other books for children.
In his years as editor of The Baum Bugle, Dick quietly expanded its breadth, greatly increased its literary quality, and established a remarkably high standard for its series of early bibliographical essays on Baum and Oz books.
From 1969 to 1980, the Oz Club published other work illustrated by Dick, such as Yankee in Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson and The Forbidden Fountain of Oz by the McGraws. In 1986, the Club published The Ozmapolitan of Oz, a novel Dick wrote and illustrated and which he regarded as one of his major works. He and James E. Haff also designed the map of Oz that is still sold by the Oz Club today.