![]() ![]() ![]() Margaret Leaf recalls in her home in Garrett Park, Md. Lawson fell in love with it at once and began the picture book's "dummy" that evening. Within 40 minutes, Leaf had the manuscript ready to show his friend. And the story had to be funny, so Leaf made his bull a gentle beast who prefers to sit in the shade of a cork tree and smell the flowers.Īs with so many classics of children's literature, The Story of Ferdinand seemed to write itself. He called his hero Ferdinand, from Ferdinand and Isabella, the only Spanish names the writer knew. Although he had never been there and had never seen a bullfight himself, Leaf set his fable in far-off Spain. He finally settled on the story of a bull. He could draw animals beautifully, but cats, dogs, horses were everywhere in the picture books of the day. The new story had to be tailor-made to Lawson's special talents. He had had only slight success so far as an illustrator for juveniles and was struggling to live off his fine etchings. Munro Leaf had already written two books for boys and girls with his own pictures, but for some time he had wanted to come up with one for his friend Robert Lawson. ![]() ON A WET Sunday afternoon in October 1935, a 29-year-old director of a New York publishing house began a new children's story. By Michael Patrick Hearn November 9, 1986 ![]()
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