With 2011 coming to an end, we want to recognize the 75^th anniversary of one of our favorite children’s books: Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson’s The Story of Ferdinand. Published by Viking Press in 1936, the book has been translated into more than 60 languages (including Latin!) and the rights have recently been acquired by Fox Animation Studios, who plan to make a full-length animated film. Of course, we’re partial to The Story of Ferdinand here at the Free Library since we are lucky to have the papers of both author Munro Leaf and illustrator Robert Lawson in our Rare Book Department.  The Munro Leaf papers were donated by his wife Margaret Leaf in 1977-1983 and the Frederick R. Gardner collection of Robert Lawson was donated by the avid collector Gardner in 1969-1977.  Both collections are the largest source of materials for both Lawson and Leaf, and thanks to a CLIR-funded “Hidden Collections” grant, we were able to process these amazing materials and make them available to researchers.

Munro Leaf wrote The Story of Ferdinand for his friend Robert Lawson. Lawson had already received some recognition for his children’s book illustrations, but complained about the lack of artistic freedom inherent in illustrating other authors’ books. Ferdinand was to be a showcase for his incredible talent with pen and ink.  One of the most popular items in the Munro Leaf papers is the original handwritten manuscript Leaf claimed to have dashed off in twenty minutes.  While the book was an immediate hit in September 1936, it was not without controversy. Coincidentally published in the early days of the Spanish Civil War, the story about the Spanish bull who would rather smell the flowers than fight was interpreted by some as a pacifist fable.  More elaborately, letters to Leaf accused him of “the laissez-faire theory of economics seconded by the bourgeois ideology of utility,” “Red propaganda,” and “Fascist propaganda” (New York Times November 20, 1937). Leaf had a simpler motive: “It’s a happy-ending story, about being yourself” (Washington Post June 25, 1967).  As time passed and Ferdinand became a permanent part of the culture, the controversy wasn’t the only thing to fade. In 1968, a friend sent Leaf a clipping from the Washington Post which recommended buying The Story of Ferdinand at Brentano’s Book Store, which had “a version by Munro Leaf” (December 17, 1968).

While we are excited to see what Fox Animation Studios produces, it will not be Ferdinand’s first time on film.  In 1938, Walt Disney Productions released the short film “Ferdinand the Bull” (you can find it on YouTube) which won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoon) the following year.  Unsurprisingly, the film release included a diverse array of merchandising opportunities for Ferdinand.  Among the Walt Disney Enterprises ephemera in our collection, there is a Ferdinand pencil sharpener, fabric swatches, a charm bracelet, and some adorable decorative buttons memorializing Ferdinand and the unfortunate bullfighters.  We also have two original painted animation cels from the Disney film which really put into perspective the enormous undertaking of a classically-animated film, even one only seven minutes long.

Disney may have been the highest-profile adapter of The Story of Ferdinand, but it was hardly alone.  Our favorite unexpected adaptation is the program from “The Ballad of Ferdinan’: A Folk Rock Opera” from 1972.  For slightly more historical interest, we also have a number of materials, including photographs and the script, from the 1939 marionette play adaption done by the WPA Federal Theatre Project. Another puppet-related highlight is the Puppet Theatre of Ljubljana’s “Zgodba o Ferdinandu” (produced in 1978), and while Slovene fluency would be helpful to anyone reading the program, the photographs require no translation.

We can’t help but get carried away with all of the exciting Ferdinand materials here at the Free Library, and we hope you’ll check out our Facebook page for updates or make an appointment to come visit the collections at the Rare Book Department.  We’d be remiss not to mention one last masterpiece: the dummy of The Story of Ferdinand, made by Robert Lawson in 1935. The dummy, which is a mockup of the future book, includes the full text and elaborate graphite sketches that Leaf and Lawson used when shopping the story to various publishers.  In fact, the copyright page credits “So-and-So Press,” waiting for the lucky publisher to recognize a masterpiece. While the dummy includes some corrections to the text, it is no surprise that the end remains unchanged: “He is very happy.”

-Caitlin Goodman

Tags: CLIR Grant, Children's Literature Research Collection, Exhibitions, Rare Book Department, archives

Yesterday marked 200 years since the death of Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe (1787–1811), mother of Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar was just 2 years-old when his mother died. 

Born in England, Eliza Poe was the daughter of two actors. She made her stage debut at the age of nine as a character named Biddy Bellair in David Garrick’s farce Miss in Her Teens. Coming to America with her mother in 1795, Eliza performed in a number of successful productions. She married fellow actor Charles Hopkins at the age of 15, and six months after his death in 1806 married David Poe, Jr. Eliza had three children with David: William Henry Leonard in 1807, Edgar in 1809, and daughter Rosalie in 1810.

The Rare Book Department is home to two extraordinary mementos of Poe's mother. The first is a copy of Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson, signed "E. Poe Born Arnold. 1807." In 1807 Eliza was 20, already widowed and recently remarried. Susanna Rowson was not only a novelist but an actress who performed in the same circuit as Poe's mother. Their paths crossed in both Alexandria, Virginia and Boston. 

The other item is a miniature portrait on ivory. According to biographer Kenneth Silverman, Poe carried this miniature with him on his final trip to Richmond in 1849, and must have had it in his possession at his death, although what happened to it immediately following is anybody’s guess. The miniature was used by John Ingram in his biography (1880), then lost, but subsequently recovered by an American, Ivan Katz, at a Paris flea market in 1955. It is the only known portrait of Poe’s mother. This precious object, together with a small, empty jewel case, was long thought to constitute Edgar’s entire inheritance from his parents, who both died when he was two years old.

Tags: Exhibitions, Rare Book Department

 It’s the most wonderful time of the year . . . the time when we get to show off all of the beautiful artists’ Christmas and New Year’s cards in the children’s literature collections of the Free Library of Philadelphia. When we started processing the papers of children’s authors and illustrators Lloyd Alexander, Carolyn Haywood, and Robert Lawson as part of a CLIR-funded “Hidden Collections” grant, we didn’t expect that some of the most charming pieces of artwork would be mundane, ephemeral greeting cards. But these artists’ creativity spilled over into everything they did, and their handmade Christmas cards are often miniature gems. Robert and Marie Lawson even designed Christmas cards professionally, producing one a day for three years in the 1920s in order to pay for their first house. Other authors like Lloyd Alexander, best known for his Chronicles of Prydain series, only dabbled in drawing. Alexander’s humorous self-caricatures adorn Christmas cards sent to his friends, who would be sure to get the joke. Carolyn Haywood’s papers include not only the cards she designed, but also the hand-made cards sent to her by her artistic mentors, the Red Rose Girls. Don’t miss this seasonal exhibit, now on display on the ground floor of Parkway Central!

Tags: CLIR Grant, Children's Literature Research Collection, Exhibitions, Holidays, Rare Book Department, archives

Today marks the opening of the eagerly anticipated Rare Book Department exhibition on the life and work of Charles Dickens. "From the Desk of Charles Dickens: Celebrating the Great Writer at 200" brings together printed works, correspondence, autograph manuscripts, and original drawings, as well as objects Dickens used throughout his life.

From the tip of his quill pen Dickens conducted his life—conscious and in control of all the moving parts. He took such an interest in so many things: art-directing his publications, producing amateur theatricals, raising money for the less fortunate, planning outings and holidays with his family and friends, and expressing gentle and sometimes not-so-gentle concern for their well-being.

Dickens was an exceptional correspondent; many of his letters are every bit as engaging as his published works. Letters to close friends where he jokes and teases them affectionately, instructions to the artists who were illustrating his works, correspondence explaining his worldview and his reasons for writing what he did illuminate the way Dickens lived and worked.

The exhibition shows the works that were the product of the author’s creative genius and places them in the context of the life of a man for whom no detail was too small and who wielded the power of his celebrity for the causes he believed in and for the good of those he cared about.

The Free Library is home to one of the finest Charles Dickens collections in the world, mostly owing to the generosity of two distinguished benefactors. William McIntire Elkins, a Philadelphian and a trustee of the Free Library, bequeathed the Library a complete record of Dickens’s literary and public career. D. Jacques Benoliel, a Philadelphia industrialist, focused his collecting on Dickens's lifelong passion for the theatre. His collection of autograph letters and playbills was donated to the Free Library by his family after his death in 1954 and has been extensively augmented from an endowment set up by the family in Mr. Benoliel’s memory.

The exhibition runs through May 25, 2012 and can be viewed Monday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Rare Book Department on the 3rd floor of the Parkway Central Library. Tours of the general collection are conducted at 11:00 a.m. To learn more about the Free Library's Charles Dickens Collection or for more information on events related to our Year of Dickens visit freelibrary.org/dickens.

Tags: Exhibitions, Rare Book Department, Year of Dickens

This weekend, the Free Library of Philadelphia opened a new photography exhibition in the West Gallery of the Parkway Central Library. Running through November 27, “Celebrate Philadelphia Performers” features iconic images of Philadelphia-area vocalists, musicians, and bands from a wide range of musical genres, from blues to classical to New Orleans funk and more. Curated by Sabina Clarke with photographs by Katharine Gilbert, “Celebrate Philadelphia Performers” illuminates the lives and craft of these diverse and talented musicians and entertainers.

After you check out the exhibition, why not stop by Parkway Central's Music Department, which has a large number of CDs, LPs, and books about music and dance, as well as musical scores ranging from classical to contemporary pop music. In addition, it houses four large special collections: the Drinker Library of Choral Music; the Chamber Music Collection; the Sheet Music Collection; and the Edwin A. Fleisher Collection of Orchestral Music, which is the largest lending library of orchestral music in the world.

Tags: Exhibitions