Vol. 35, no. 2 (Autumn 1991)
| Editor-in-Chief | Michael Gessel |
| Production Editor | Dan Smith, Lynne Smith |
| Bibliography Editor | Peter E. Hanff |
| Review Editor | Stephen J. Teller |
| Contributing Editors | John Fricke, Martin Gardner, Douglas G. Greene, Michael Patrick Hearn, Dick Martin, Dorothy Curtiss Maryott, Patrick Maund, Jim Vander Noot |
Front cover art by William G. Krieghoff (Ruth Plumly Thompson portrait)
Back cover art by Charles J. Coll (“The Amiable Old Dragon”)
Autumn 1991 Selected Contents
This is a guide to the articles and reviews from the issue that will most benefit researchers, scholars, and collectors. The printed issue includes additional content such as news, editorial letters, and other commentary-based departments.
The Mantle is Passed
Michael Patrick Hearn discusses the active career that allowed Ruth Plumly Thompson to be chosen as Baum’s successor. In addition, he examines various aspects of her interpretation of Oz, including its broad humor, references to contemporary pop culture, and lack of pretension.
Life With Aunt Ruth: An Interview with RPT’s Nieces
Michael Patrick Hearn and Michael Gessel interview Ruth Plumly Thompson’s surviving nieces, Dorothy Curtiss Maryott and Janet Thompson Crewe, who discuss their aunt’s personality and beliefs, how she was inspired by family and friends, and her frustrations with publishers and psychoanalytic readings of the Oz series. This is followed by a selection of transcribed letters written by children to Ruth Plumly Thompson.
Ledger Notes
Ruth Berman examines Ruth Plumly Thompson’s time at the Philadelphia Public Ledger, highlighting references to the Oz books, rare instances of political satire, and existing work by other authors that she reprinted. This is followed by a black-and-white reproduction of one of her Public Ledger pages from December 1915, as well as Berman’s partial checklist of her Public Ledger writing (covering only those stories and poems reprinted later in books or published outside the children’s page).
The Cowardly Lion’s Lament
Sheet music for one of Thompson’s five original songs from A Day in Oz, the playlet she wrote to promote the Oz books in the 1920s.
Thompson’s Other Oz Titles
Michael Gessel reveals the lists of potential titles Thompson composed for several of her later Oz books. A sidebar includes L. Sprague de Camp‘s recollection of a visit with Thompson in 1934).
Ruth Plumly Thompson: A Checklist of Her Published Work
Ruth Berman compiles a brand new checklist, replacing the one from Autumn 1965 (expanded in Autumn 1970). The new list provides more details of Thompson’s books, pamphlets (advertising and otherwise), her work at the Philadelphia Public Ledger, magazines, newspapers, plays, and other miscellany. There is also a category for books and articles about Ruth Plumly Thompson.
An Ozian Television Odyssey
Ruth Plumly Thompson recounts her appearance on her local CBS station on Christmas Day, 1963, to talk about the Oz books—and her encounter with the head of the children’s department of the Philadelphia Free Library. Guess who won?
In Memoriam
Laura Jane Musser (Ozmopolitan convention regular).
Reviews
The Shaggy Man of Oz afterword by Douglas G. Greeene, Oz Club edition (fiction; reviewer Chris Dulabone)
The Shaggy Man of Oz Books of Wonder edition (fiction; reviewer Chris Dulabone)
Before Oz edited by Mark I. West (fiction; reviewer Michael Patrick Hearn)
Denslow’s Picture Book Treasury introduction by Michael Patrick Hearn, Arcade Publishing edition (fiction; reviewer Irene Fisher)