THE STORY OF FERDINAND

New York: Viking, 1936. First edition. Very good in good jacket.. First printing, in later printing dust jacket, with 3 Christmas cards from the Leaf family laid in. 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. 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).

Each of the Christmas cards laid in has an illustration by Leaf created especially for the card. One has an extra pen note and ink doodle by Leaf with a long note on the verso from Leaf's wife. Another is inscribed by Leaf. A wonderful work, in which the beauty of nonconformity still reads as subversive. 8'' x 7''. Original quarter tan cloth, red pictorial boards. Original unclipped ($1.00) red pictorial dust jacket. Yellow pictorial endpapers. Illustrated by Lawson throughout with black-and-white line drawings. [72] pages. Three Leaf family Christmas cards, approximately 4'' x 5.5'', laid in. Edgewear to boards, with tan cloth spine somewhat soiled. Jacket rather faded, especially at spine, with a few closed tears (the longest, 2'' on front panel, repaired with tape on verso); spine dried out with two small holes and faint evidence of repair.