Roger Stanton Baum (born 1938) is an American former banker and stockbroker, and currently (as of 2005) a children's author. Baum publishes under the name Roger S. Baum. He also tours the country, reading from and signing his children's books.

Biography

Baum is a former resident of Los Angeles, since which he has lived in Missouri (Springfield) and Nevada (Las Vegas). Baum is a 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 In Candy Land (1968), before being asked 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 In Candy Land's "Candy Land" reappears in his 2000 Toto book, for example. His work does not follow the history of the canon Famous Forty Oz books, even disregarding information given by his great-grandfather's fourteen. Baum's book Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage was adapted into the film Lion of Oz (2000). A film adaptation of his book Dorothy of Oz was produced by Summertime Entertainment. It was titled Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return, and was released in 2014.

Selected bibliography

Oz series: Stand-alone: