Children have adored The Story of Ferdinand ever since the book was published' (Early Childrenâ s Books and Their Illustrations). The overworked word â classicâ is well deserved here. The simple, delightful Leaf story about a Spanish bull who prefers the fragrance of flowers to the roar of the bull-ring is lovingly illustrated by Robert Lawson. 'This is perhaps one of the finest 20th-century examples of the inspired wedding of a text and illustrations to make a childrenâ s book that as a whole is even greater than the sum of its parts-which are in themselves very fine indeed. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with the price of $1.00 on the front flap.

Octavo, original half tan cloth, illustrated endpapers. Jacket spine sunned, chipping to spine ends and corners.įirst edition of Munro Leafâ s beloved childrenâ s classic. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white line drawings by Lawson. Original unclipped ($1.00) red pictorial dust jacket. Original quarter tan cloth, red pictorial boards. A nice copy in jacket, and scarce as such. A wonderful work, in which the beauty of nonconformity still reads as subversive.

Although he hadn't meant for the book to carry an ideological message, Leaf received angry letters claiming he was 'deliberately corrupting children of an impressionable age' (quoted in Davis). The first collaboration of Lawson and Leaf, FERDINAND was a hit with children but caused controversy among adults: the story of the bull who would rather smell the flowers than fight with the other bulls was read politically in the context of the Spanish Civil War. First printing of the pacifist children's classic, soon to be banned in Franco's Spain at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Condition: Fine in very good plus jacket.

The story of ferdinand 1936