Roger Baum

Roger Stanton Baum is a former banker and stockbroker, and currently a children's author, residing in Branson, Missouri. Baum publishes under the name Roger S. Baum. Baum is a former resident of Los Angeles and the vicinity of Las Vegas. He also tours the country, reading from and signing his children's books. Baum is the great-grandson of L. Frank Baum, the original creator of the "Oz" series, and grandson of Frank Joslyn Baum, who published The Laughing Dragon of Oz in 1935. Many of Roger S. Baum's children's books are set in the same world.

Baum had written short stories and another children's book, entitled Long Ears and Tailspin, before being approached by the International Wizard of Oz Club in 1987 to write original "Oz" stories. The success of his "Oz" books allowed him to leave his banking job in 1990, and become a full-time children's author. Sometimes Baum's earlier material is reworked in his later books; Long Ears and Tailspin's "Candy Land" reappears in his 2000 Toto book, for example.

One of Baum's books was made into the movie, Lion of Oz, and a film adaptation of Dorothy of Oz is planned by Summertime Entertainment. Dorothy of Oz is slated for a 2012 theatrical release. Hide