We're pleased to announce that several well-known Oz experts will be attending this year's national convention.
Michael Patrick Hearn, author of The Annotated Wizard of Oz and renowned scholar of L. Frank Baum and the Oz books, will be on hand to share his expertise about Ruth Plumly Thompson.
Dorothy Curtis Maryott, niece of Ruth Plumly Thompson, will be interviewed about her memories of her close family relationship with the second Royal Historian.
John Fricke, Judy Garland and MGM expert, will talk about the classic film and its leading lady.
Atticus Gannaway will talk about publisher William F. Lee of the Reilly and Lee company and his involvement with the Oz books.
Eric Shanower, award-winning cartoonist, author, and illustrator, will talk about John R. Neill’s Philadelphia as part of our Ozzy tour of the city.
Angelica Shirley Carpenter, past Oz Club President and author of a new book about Matilda Gage, will talk about the famed suffragist and influential mother-in-law to L. Frank Baum who disrupted the 1876 national centennial celebration at Independence Hall to present the Women’s Declaration of Rights.
Cindy Ragni, Bill Thompson, and Michael Gessel will collaborate on a display of early work by W.W. Denslow, Philadelphia native and illustrator of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
And this is only the beginning! More speakers and events will be announced between now and August, so watch this space!