I took over as The Baum Bugle Editor-in-Chief for the Fall 1979 issue, after a rather casual invitation from the late James P. Haff.. Though I didn’t know what I was getting into, I was fortunate in having John Fricke fill the first issue with his trail-blazing articles on the M-G-M movie. My production editor, Patty Tobias (later Dan and Lynn Smith), put the journal together and introduced me to computer-generated proof-reading. And the Contributing and Consulting Editors provided invaluable material and advice.

Once launched, I began to enjoy reading the amazingly varied material submitted to The Bugle – material ranging from the scholarly through the entertaining to the frankly frivolous. I liked an inclusive approach, and on one occasion published two widely differing reviews of Philip Jose Farmer’s A Barnstormer in Oz. A critique of L. Frank Baum’s use of ethnic stereotypes proved controversial among some Club members. I introduced a “Commentary”section, and printed some original stories and poems. Among these were Fred M. Meyer’s “Scraps and the Magic Box,” “The Invisible Inzi of Oz” by Virginia and Robert Wauchope (first appearing in 1926), and Ruth Berman’s tribute, “A Map for Ruth Plumly Thompson.” The latter appeared in an issue devoted to Thompson and featured material by three of her personal friends: artist