The Baum Bugle: Winter 2008

Vol. 52, no. 3 (Winter 2008)

Front cover art by Sonoko Arai (Ozu to Fushigina Chika no Kuni)

Back cover art by Rob Roy MacVeigh (Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz)

Winter 2008 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.

Dorothy and the Wizard in a “Dark Passage”: Re-Examining the Oz Book for 1908

J. L. Bell analyzes Baum’s famously grim fourth Oz book, looking at its undertones of violence and death; Baum’s reinvention of the Wizard as a heroic character; and the evolution of Neill’s illustrations. 

The Amazing Truth About Dorothy and the Wizard

Robin Hess looks at real-life evidence to try and determine when and where the opening scene of Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz takes place. A second and more compact version of this article was later published in the Autumn 2022 issue. 

Bibliographia Illustriana: The Christmas Stocking Series

Bill Thompson provides extensive background information, and a full bibliographical examination, of the six-volume series introduced by L. Frank Baum and published by Reilly & Britton from 1905 until well into the 1920s. Photographic examples of bindings and gift-box editions are included. 

In Memoriam

Clarence Swensen (actor, MGM’s The Wizard of Oz) and Philip Jose Farmer (author, A Barnstormer in Oz). 

Reviews

Tin Man (TV movie on DVD; reviewer Jared Davis)

Oz in Perspective: Magic and Myth in the L. Frank Baum Books by Richard Tuerk (non-fiction; reviewer Joe Bongiorno)

The Road to Oz: Twists, Turns, Bumps and Triumphs in the Life of L. Frank Baum by Kathleen Krull (non-fiction; reviewer Michael Gessel)

The Bouncy Bunnies in Oz by Marin Elizabeth Xiques (fiction; reviewer Suzanna E. Henson)