“Once upon a time in Spain there was a little bull and his name was Ferdinand.”
Ferdinand was unusual. Ferdinand grew big and strong. But Ferdinand preferred to smell flowers and contemplate Life under a cork tree instead of romping and fighting with other bulls. Ferdinand’s mother, a cow, worried about him; why didn’t he want to go to fight famous Matadors in Seville or Madrid? Butting heads is okay, I guess, Ferdinand thought, but being poked by horns isn’t much fun. Flower-smelling, though . . .
One day five men came to Ferdinand’s village to choose bulls for an upcoming bull-fight. Ferdinand had just sat down on a bumble-bee in the pasture. The bumble-bee did what bumble-bees do and stung him. Ferdinand “jumped up with a snort. He ran around puffing and snorting, butting and pawing the ground as if he were crazy.” Already impressed with Ferdinand’s physique, the men now knew he’d be magnificent in a bull-fight. They took him away in a cart.
Along the way Ferdinand met Banderilleros who sported long, pointy, beribboned lances with which to poke him to make him mad. He met Picadores who wanted to stick him with even longer lances that would really hurt! The Matador entered the ring, dressed finely, ladies a’swooning with desire, bands playing, crowd cheering. He was handed a magnificent sword.
Into the ring came Ferdinand. Ferdinand didn’t want to fight. He just sat down. He caught the scent of the flowers, however, from the bouffant hair-dos of the ladies in the crowd. The Banderilleros were hopping mad! The Picadores, too. The Matador stamped and stomped, so frustrated was he that Ferdinand didn’t want to fight. But so obstinate was Ferdinand that the Matador, the Picadores and the Banderilleros went home. The crowd went home. The vendors went home. Ferdinand went home, and for all we know he’s sitting under the same cork tree, smelling those same flowers.
Viking Press’s first run in 1936 of The Story of Ferdinand, by Munro Leaf, who allegedly wrote the book in one sitting, made $14,000 at a buck a piece. By 1938 it was outselling Gone With the Wind (Silvey).
People saw in The Story of Ferdinand what they wanted to see. Set in Spain . . . Ferdinand must be a fascist. Because he refused to fight . . . Ferdinand must be a pacifist. Because he wanted nothing more than to sit down and smell the flowers . . . he must be a lazy, union-supporting Communist. The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s reviewer complained in 1936 that the story would corrupt the Youth of America (Hearn). The book was banned by Hitler. It wasn’t published in Spain until the death of Generalissimo Francisco Franco Bahamonde in 1975.
Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. Ferdinand, however, lives on and has never been out of print.
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