The Story of Ferdinand

Ferdinand, the bull is the German title of the children's book published in 1936 The Story of Ferdinand by American author Munro Leaf ( 1905-1976 ).

Content

The main character of the book, Ferdinand, is a young Spanish bull who prefers smelling flowers to his pasture, as to compete in the bullring against Toreros. But one day he gets stung by a bee, and in pain, he is behaving wildly. As the see the manager of the bullring, buy it immediately for the next big bull. However, in the arena he is peaceful as ever. He brings the Picadores and bullfighters to despair, and today, they have no choice when Ferdinand to create back in his homeland.

Creation and reception

Leaf is said to have 1935, the book written in a very short time, to give his friend Robert Lawson an opportunity to prove his talent as an illustrator. It appeared in 1936, when the Spanish Civil War broke out, and as Ferdinand's story was ostracized as a pacifist or even communist propaganda fable. However, it was a great success and translated into many languages.

In 1938, Walt Disney adapted the book under the title of Ferdinand, the bull as a short animated film similar to his Silly Symphonies series. The following year, this film won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject ( Cartoons ).

All previous editions use the German translation of Fritz Güttinger. This appeared using the illustrations Lawson's first time in 1942 under the title of Ferdinand, the bull from the publisher Amstutz, Herdeg and Co., based in Zurich and Leipzig. Widespread found the book in 1946 in war-torn Berlin when the returned from exile in America Jella Lepman (later founder of the International Youth Library ) distributed thousands of copies of the children of the city.

Also under this title published the East Berlin Alfred Wood Publisher 1965 another version, the images were from Werner Klemke. This version has also been adopted by the West German parabolic -Verlag Munich under license. It was not until 1977, the Swiss Diogenes Verlag under the title of Ferdinand back a version with the original drawings Lawson.