1963
Harry Neal Baum
(1889-1967)
Harry Neal Baum was the third of the four sons born to L. Frank and Maud Gage Baum. He was the unacknowledged coauthor of at least one of his father’s later books. One of Baum’s pseudonymous books, Mary Louis Solves a Mystery by “Edith Van Dyne,” was written entirely by Harry.
Harry earned his Ph.D. in medieval history, and was both a skillful writer and a scholar. His largest work was the four-volume Book of History, written with Olive Beaupré Miller and published in 1929 by the Bookhouse for Children in Chicago and Toronto.
In 1959, Harry, the last of the surviving Baum sons, became honorary president of the International Wizard of Oz Club. In 1961, he and his vivacious wife, Brenda, hosted the first Oz Club Convention at the Wizard of Oz Lodge they operated at Bass Lake in Knox, Indiana. The convention was such a great success that the Baums continued to host it each June until Harry’s death in 1967.