I had started writing letters to Ruth Plumly Thompson as a child, and she encouraged me to go on writing to her over the years. When Roland Baughman at Columbia University organized a Baum/Oz exhibition in 1956, RPT told me about it. She said that I could get a copy of the display catalogue by writing to Columbia.

When it arrived, I was interested to see that it told how they got a lot of help in the way of Baumian rarities to display from then 12-year-old Justin Schiller. I thought it would be interesting to write to another Oz fan my own age, and wrote to Justin c/o Columbia.

Of the rest of the founding members (about 16), some were people Justin met in connection with the Columbia display, some --  including Fred M. Meyer, I think -- were people who had been in correspondence with Jack Snow. There names had been passed on to Justin by Jack as Oz enthusiasts, and some were school-friends of Justin’s. 

Ruth Berman