The Story of Ferdinand at 90: Eric Carle Museum Exhibition

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts, is hosting an exhibition celebrating the 90th anniversary of Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson's classic children's book "The Story of Ferdinand." Curated by Jane Bayard Curley, the show runs until November 8 and features original illustrations, ephemera, and Disney memorabilia. Leaf wrote the story in forty minutes to cheer up his friend Lawson, who was in a financial slump. Published in September 1936, the book was banned in Nazi Germany and Spain under Franco, yet outsold "Gone With The Wind" in 1938. Fans included the Roosevelts, Gandhi, and Thomas Mann. Disney's 1938 animated short won an Academy Award, and a 2017 feature film starred John Cena. Curley highlights Lawson's graphic genius, noting his three months of research at the New York Public Library and his visual jokes, like the cork tree. The exhibition includes a garden installation with cork bunches.