Author: Jane Albright

Oz Club members David and Karen Diket are hosting the third annual Oz on the Bayou event for fans Feb. 15-16 in Gray, Louisiana. Timed to follow on the heels of both Mardi Gras and Valentine’s Day, your New Orleans adventure offers a Thursday/Friday event serving up Oz fun with a Tin Woodman theme. The Terrebonne Parish North Branch Library’s display cases are now filled with Oz. You’ll see selections from the collections of the Dikets, Mary Pertuit, Catherine Bryan, and Linda Rodrigue.  A big hit in past years, a display scavenger hunt will be a convention activity. New this year is an art show following a call for entries the Dikets released this year for area high school students. Karen tells me other planned activities include a discussion of The Tin Woodman of Oz, viewing some of the Sci-fi miniseries Tin Man as well as favorite Tin Man moments that mix up everything from the classic MGM film to Heartless and Pentatonix. A school theater group will do readings from The Tin Woodman of Oz, and knowing the Dikets I’d consider it a safe bet to expect live music.  A recap of the Club’s 2017 National Convention will whet your appetite for OzCon International this summer. Adult and child craft projects, children’s story telling, and a book discussion are organized as joint activities with the library. The event is free and open to the public. In addition to the planned program, you can join others for Cajun food at the Bayou Delight restaurant Friday night, and get a feel for life in the old south Saturday with a tour of the Ardoyne Plantation. I attended their 2016 event and had a blast!  The exhibit was impressive, live performances beautifully done, and I’ll never forget feeding alligators on a tour of the bayou.  Check those flights into New Orleans; there’s still time to join the party!

This week I have been sending letters to all the Oz Club’s supporters expressing our thanks for their 2017 contributions. As a not-for-profit educational organization, we are responsible for acknowledging donations, and for getting them mailed this month. Those who itemize deductions on their income taxes can use these letters as receipts. So your generosity is top of mind to me right now. The support of our Contributing, Sustaining, Patron, and Wizard’s Circle members—collectively nearly one-third of our membership—helps us keep general membership at $30 and children’s memberships at $15. Donations to special funds we have provide things like funding for our annual contests, and support expenses associated with maintaining the Oz Club Collection. We thank a member who donates the entire cost of printing the calendar every year, members who—at their own expense—attend public events to promote Club membership, and members who support Club conventions in countless ways. It’s a humbling to witness your generosity toward our Club. Ozma’s Honor Roll, to be printed in the Winter 2017 Baum Bugle, shares the names of those who contribute through our membership programs. Conventions generally find a way to include heartfelt thanks from a program or podium. As I said to international members I wrote since they might be tax-paying American’s living abroad, our letter of thanks might not be necessary, but it’s simply not possible to thank our supporters too much. Of course, it’s not a flawless system; if you plan to claim a contribution you made to the Club on your 2017 taxes, and a letter acknowledging your support doesn’t arrive shortly, please drop me a note at [email protected]. I’ll be happy to take care of it right away.

Riddle me this, fellow collectors:  What book weighs 60 pounds and has 48 color plates?  Give up?  Bibliographia Baumiana!  OK, so actually it’s just printed on 60-pound stock, but at more than 400 pages this marvelous new book-collector’s guide does have some serious heft.  Described by the authors as covering “every known printing of every [Baum] book submitted for publication during his lifetime,” it’s available in hard- and soft-cover editions from the Oz Club; members receive a $10 discount off the list price.  You’ll find actual reviews and reports about it in upcoming issues of the Baum Bugle, but I can’t resist the opportunity share my personal enthusiasm in this blog. We collectors delight in turning up varied editions of Baum’s many different titles, most of which were reprinted over time in multiple editions. Maybe with color plates. Sometimes with strikingly different binding designs.  Oh, and dust jackets. Determining which came earlier than another is where this book is invaluable.  Bill Thompson (best known to some of us as the Oz Club’s auctioneer) has contributed bibliographical essays and checklists to The Baum Bugle for years. This book reflects decades of his sleuthing through extensive Baum collections. His co-authors for the new volume are Peter Hanff, one of the Bibliographia Oziana writers, and the late Patrick Maund. They, too, have contributed bibliographic content to the Bugle.  Independently and collaborating the three have amassed an impressive body of research — now available with this publication. If bibliography is a new field to you, you may be thinking, “400 pages? Really?”  Consider this; it’s work that consists of studying books in painstaking detail. Books are compared for changes in type — like typesetting and spelling error corrections, as well as things like the numbers of pages sewn together in a gathering, the weight and finish of paper stock — like the “60-pound acid-free” stock used in this publication — and packaging variants.  Every minute change is a clue that helps specialized researchers like Thompson, Hanff, and Maund define and distinguish one variation of the book from another, place them in sequence, and conclude which should be the more desirable to collectors.  Thoroughly enjoyable essays introduce each book, too, before the bibliographical details are itemized. So there is plenty of fascinating reading in addition to the identification specific guidelines for serious collectors.  The Oz Club’s publication, Bibliographia Oziana, has been the go-to book for Oz book collectors since it was published in 1976. For forty years book collectors who seek L. Frank Baum’s other books — his non-Oz titles — have anticipated the day The International Wizard of Oz Club would deliver this companion volume. At last, it’s here. Purchase Bibliographia Baumiana from the Oz Club here.

Get your holiday mailing?  After the year it was so wildly mishandled by a fulfillment center that some members wound up getting their’s in February, I have to ask. You’ll find a letter from me, a holiday card with delightfully Ozzy artwork by Darrell Colt Spradlyn, a flier about OzCon International 2018 where the Club’s board will meet this year, and a ballot if you’d like to cast your vote for open seats on our board of directors. A renewal form for 2018 also is included; we hope you’ll stay with us for another year. 2018 membership materials also are mailing separately to those who have already joined or renewed for the next calendar year.  If you’ve already renewed, watch for that mailing. And if you haven’t, please consider renewing now. When members renew before the Spring Bugle mails, it’s much easier for us to know how many copies we should print. With thanks to all our 2017 members for your support, Jane    

My very first blog was about an exhibit I provided on behalf of the Oz Club to the Oz Museum in Wamego, Kansas.  Imagine how pleased I am to report that my good friend and fellow Oz Club member Blair Frodelius has now set up an exhibit on behalf of the Oz Club at All Things Oz in Chittenango, New York. “Christmas in Oz” used material from Blair’s collection and a few things from me to showcase L. Frank Baum’s novel, Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, WW Denslow’s Night Before Christmas and other Wizard of Oz and Christmas connections.    Thank you, Blair, for sharing your collection and promoting our Club!

Oziana 2017 has arrived in my mail. What a pleasure!  Reading the new Oz stories written and illustrated by Oz Club members has been an annual tradition for me since I first joined the Club in 1971. That was also the first year we published Oziana.  A high school student, Gary Ralph, edited that first issue. As a young reader, I loved it. With Marcus Mébés in the editor’s seat, I still love it — although these days, I’m only a “young reader” at heart. First to love is the creative work. Each publication offers new stories and art by a mix of both professional and aspiring amateur writers and artists. In the 46-year tradition of Oziana editors, Marcus features stories that intend to be consistent with L. Frank Baum’s original vision of Oz. The characters may be new or beloved favorites. The plots often tackle an inconsistency in the Oz books for which the writer poses a solution, or something that tosses a magical interruption into the tranquil fairyland of Oz. There is nearly always a fresh adventure. This year there’s even a touch of romance. Second?  I love that this publication simply is.  Before the Internet, self-publishing, websites, and blogs like this one, Oziana was the best way, if not the only way, for someone with an original Oz idea to have a voice within the Oz community. Illustrators could see their talents bring a tale to life. Here was a way to share our original Oz stories with other fans, and find out if people liked our work. “Our” means I joined the party. Oziana stepped deeper into my life in 1985 when a short story I wrote was published. And in 1992 I scored a real fangirl jackpot.  Eric Shanower illustrated my “Christmas Tree for Dorothy.”  Eric Shanower!!!  He was already well known in Oz circles for his professional work.  I could scarcely contain my delight. It’s been more than 40 years, but I won’t forget the first time I sent a story to Oz Club secretary Fred Meyer for inclusion in an Oz Club contest. Or the first time I was published. Or that incredible pleasure at having something of mine beautifully illustrated arrive in my mail. For all our digital age, that much hasn’t changed. There’s still a rush of joy when an editor accepts your work with a congratulatory note. It’s still exciting to see your own story illustrated, printed, and to know that other fans are enjoying it. Marcus and his contributing editors, Joe Bongiorno and Eric Gjovaag, still give today’s Oz-theme writers and artists that opportunity. While they secure work for all to enjoy, they are also opening a door. And those with budding talents are still invited to step through and discover an appreciative audience of Oz fans. If your membership level does not include Oziana, it can be purchased on Lulu:  http://www.lulu.com/shop/l-frank-baum/oziana-2017/paperback/product-23400178.html