A Leaf, a bull, a book

The Daily Heller celebrates the ninetieth birthday of Ferdinand the bull. Sensitive Ferdinand was introduced to the world in the book The Story of Ferdinand, which was published in 1936 by Viking Books and has been in print ever since. Ferdinand preferred smelling flowers to fighting in the bull ring. Here he sits in the middle of the bull ring refusing to pay any attention to the matador and the others. And here he is as a youngster, smelling the flowers: The text was by Munro Leaf (1905-76) and the illustrations by Robert Lawson (1892-1957). Leaf was born Munroe Wilbur Leaf in Hamilton, Maryland. His father worked as a printer at the Government Printing Office in Washington. Lawson, a New Yorker, was also a writer, and is one of the few people to have won both the Caldecott Medal for illustrations (The Were Strong and Good, 1945, and Wee Gillis, 1938) and the Newbery Medal for text (Rabbit Hill, 1945). Leaf wrote 40 children’s books and Lawson 17 (as well as illustrating 40 more).…