The International Wizard of Oz Club is pleased to offer outstanding presenters on our 2025 convention program–all with unparalleled expertise in L. Frank Baum and his Aberdeen years.
Michael Patrick Hearn rose to the forefront of Oz research as his book, The Annotated Wizard of Oz climbed the New York Times list of bestsellers in 1973. Today considered the world’s leading Oz scholar, Michael’s early research into Baum and Oz placed him face-to-face with Baum’s descendants. He was given full access to primary research materials in libraries and private collections in what became a lifetime of study. Subsequent Oz projects include editing the Critical Heritage Series edition of The Wizard of Oz, providing the introduction to the publication of the MGM screenplay, co-writing W.W. Denslow’s biography, a revision of The Annotated Wizard of Oz in 2000, as well as innumerable articles, checklists, presentations, and interviews. Fifty years after that first Annotated Wizard, he continues to discover new information and share new insights.
Nancy Tystad Koupal’s first book specific to Baum’s Aberdeen years, Our Landlady, looks at a humor column found in his newspaper, The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer. Rich with humor, parody, and puns, Baum used the characters in his “Our Landlady” column to voice his opinions about topics of the day. Nancy’s Baum’s Road to Oz, the Dakota Years followed in 2000 exploring how his experiences there later surfaced in his children’s writing. A native of South Dakota, Nancy is director and editor-in-chief of the Pioneer Girl Project and founder of the South Dakota Historical Society Press. She was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 2009. An authority on the history of woman suffrage in South Dakota and author Laura Ingalls Wilder, she has worked with the Western History Association, the South Dakota Center for the Book, and others. In 2002, she participated in a symposium on “Women of the West” at the White House.
Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner was born in Aberdeen and befriended Baum’s niece Matilda Jewel Gage more than 50 years ago. She recorded their annual interviews and regularly unearthed from Matilda’s home correspondence, photos, and ephemera tied to the Baum and Gage families—most particularly to Matilda Joslyn Gage, whose leadership of the Woman’s Suffrage movement had been largely lost to history. Describing what followed, Sally says she “fell in love with a dead woman.” It was a love that would change her life, leading Sally to receive one of the first doctorates in the country for work in women’s studies, to find and restore the Matilda Joslyn Gage Home in Fayetteville, NY, and to create the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation that works for social justice to this day. Sally is a nationally recognized lecturer, author, and storyteller of the history of women’s rights who has taught women’s history for more than 50 years.
Follow our blog to meet additional presenters in the weeks ahead, and to learn more about what you can expect when you join us in Aberdeen.
Ready to register for the convention? Sign up online here, or use the flier mailing now with The Baum Bugle.
