The Baum Bugle: Spring 1976

Vol. 20, no. 1 (Spring 1976)

Layout and cover design by Dick Martin

Front cover art by Dick Martin, adapted from an advertisement by Ike Morgan (The Woggle-Bug Book)

Back cover art by Dick Martin, adapted from an advertisement by an unknown artist (The Maid of Arran)

Spring 1976 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 Guns of Oz

Robert B. Luehrs examines the near-constant state of war in L. Frank Baum’s Oz, how Baum expressed his view of the military and its leadership, and how often his sympathetic characters are shown to be aggressors or conquerors.

Oz in Russia (Part 2)

March Laumer continues his comprehensive examination of Alexander Volkov’s The Wizard of the Emerald City, which was adapted from and supplanted The Wizard of Oz in the USSR. Part 1 was published in the Spring 1975 issue, while Part 3 followed in Spring 1978. 

How the Tin Woodman Escaped the Magic Flood

A reproduction of one installment of L. Frank Baum and Walt McDougall’s Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz newspaper comic page in 1904.

Bibliographia Pseudonymiana

James E. Haff collates bibliographical data about the books Baum wrote under psuedonyms. This installment focuses on Aunt Jane’s Nieces Abroad.

In Memoriam

Ruth Plumly Thompson (author, second Royal Historian of Oz). The next issue, Autumn 1976, was a themed tribute issue in her honor.

Reviews

Journey Back to Oz (animated feature film; reviewer John Fricke)

MGM’s Marvelous Wizard of Oz and The Marvelous Land of Oz adapted by Roy Thomas (giant comic books; reviewer Barbara S. Koelle)

Written for Children: An Outline of English-Language Children’s Literature (non-fiction; reviewer Fred Erisman)