Background
Wilbur Munro Leaf was born in Hamilton, Maryland, United States, the son of Charles Wilbur Leaf, a printer, and Emma India Gillespie. Leaf was a third-generation descendant on both maternal and paternal sides of Maryland families.
(Soon to be a major motion picture! Ferdinand is the worl...)
Soon to be a major motion picture! Ferdinand is the world's most peaceful--and--beloved little bull. While all of the other bulls snort, leap, and butt their heads, Ferdinand is content to just sit and smell the flowers under his favorite cork tree. Leaf's simple storytelling paired with Lawson's pen-and-ink drawings make The Story of Ferdinand a true classic. Commemorate the 75th anniversary of the book's original publication with this beautiful and affordable 8x8 paperback edition.
https://www.amazon.com/Story-Ferdinand-Munro-Leaf/dp/044845694X?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=044845694X
(The first collection of abridged versions of Munro Leaf’s...)
The first collection of abridged versions of Munro Leaf’s most popular children’s guides to proper behavior—featuring retro, midcentury modern illustrations, this is the perfect gift for grandparents, parents, and children alike. Renowned children’s book illustrator and author Munro Leaf captured the whimsy and innocence of childhood for an entire generation of young readers. Now, more than fifty years later, those same readers are passing these stories down to their children and their children’s children, and Leaf’s collection of children’s books has reached iconic status. Collected here for the first time in one affordable volume are selections from some of Leaf’s most beloved childhood guides. With a charming mixture of fatherly concern and kindhearted humor, and without ever coming across as a scold, Leaf has helped generations of American children (and adults) learn how to behave like proper grown-ups (in grown-up company), how to speak politely, to enjoy reading, and even to remember to brush their teeth. With over 500,000 copies of his beloved books in print, this new edition will bring Leaf’s unique voice to an entirely new group of young readers.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Simple-Rizzoli-Classics/dp/0789331098?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0789331098
(Updated for the 21st century, How to Speak Politely and W...)
Updated for the 21st century, How to Speak Politely and Why is a picture book with a point: proper speech and good grammar without nagging. It aims to remove “ain’t” and “uh-huh” and “gimme” and “got” and a score of unfortunate nuances by a simple, sure painless and humorous process. In his signature style of amusing stick figure drawings and captions, Leaf makes clear such things as the difference between can and may, and the reason why one does not say “he done it” or “she come.” Exasperated parents (and grandparents) faced with the unpleasant task of dealing with grammatical lapses acquired by their children from (gasp!) their neighbor’s children will be delighted (and relieved) by this veritable “grammar without tears.” Teachers will find it an indispensable ally, and even the culprits themselves—the children—will discover that learning to speak politely and correctly isn’t such a chore after all.
https://www.amazon.com/Speak-Politely-Munro-Leaf-Classics/dp/0789313529?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0789313529
(Reading Can Be Fun is a children’s classic by Munro Leaf,...)
Reading Can Be Fun is a children’s classic by Munro Leaf, the bestselling author of Manners Can Be Fun. From the desktops of Andy and Gil Leaf: One of the most important lessons our father taught us is the value of reading. The exhilaration of turning a page and having words leap out, begging to be uttered and embraced, is a profound experience that is permanently etched in the mind. This was his message to every child. A springboard for the imagination, a book can be educational and fun. It is a huge joy that the key to the amusing, creative, and engaging world of our father can once again be found on bookshelves. He would be tremendously pleased and satisfied to know that today, nearly seventy years and one century later, his words still have resonance—words that will be fondly remembered by generations past, and words that will be savored, chuckled over, and read countless times by a new generation of curious, inquisitive, and impressionable young eyes.
https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Can-Munro-Leaf-Classics/dp/0789312034?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0789312034
( The landmark collaboration of two of children's books m...)
The landmark collaboration of two of children's books most beloved talents, Ludwig Bemelmans and Munro Leaf, available again! Noodle is a little dog who's very long from front to back and very short from top to bottom, which makes it hard for him to dig for bones. One day Noodle finds a wishbone, and the dog fairy arrives with a flip-flap of wings to grant him a wish: "What size and shape do you want to be?" Noodle asks all the animals at the zoo what he should wish for, only to discover he might just be perfect -- exactly the way he is. Originally published in 1937 by children's book greats Ludwig Bemelmans and Munro Leaf, NOODLE is a classic with a quiet wisdom that continues to hold true today.
https://www.amazon.com/Noodle-Munro-Leaf/dp/0590043099?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0590043099
(A Caldecott Honor Book by the creators of the beloved Sto...)
A Caldecott Honor Book by the creators of the beloved Story of Ferdinand Wee Gillis lives in Scotland. He is an orphan, and he spends half of each year with his mother's people in the lowlands, while the other half finds him in the highlands with his father's kin. Both sides of Gillis's family are eager for him to settle down and adopt their ways. In the lowlands, he is taught to herd cattle, learning how to call them to him in even the heaviest of evening fogs. In the rocky highlands, he stalks stags from outcrop to outcrop, holding his breath so as not to make a sound. Wee Gillis is a quick study, and he soon picks up what his elders can teach him. And yet he is unprepared when the day comes for him to decide, once and for all, whether it will be the lowlands or the highlands that he will call his home. Robert Lawson and Munro Leaf's classic picture book is a tribute to the powers of the imagination and a triumph of the storyteller's and illustrator's art.
https://www.amazon.com/Gillis-York-Review-Childrens-Collection/dp/159017206X?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=159017206X
(Through stick figure drawings and a brief text, beloved a...)
Through stick figure drawings and a brief text, beloved and bestselling children’s author, Munro Leaf explains why good manners are important. Kirkus believes Manners Can Be Fun to be the author’s “best, both in idea and execution. Manners books are perennials—hardy ones at that—and this makes first steps in etiquette easy and fun.” The children’s classic begins: “Having good manners is really just living with other people pleasantly.” This pleasant book will explain to children why good conduct is essential in the household, on the playground, and beyond. Munro Leaf is best known for How to Behave and Why and The Story of Ferdinand, which was an overnight international sensation upon its release in 1936.
https://www.amazon.com/Manners-Can-Munro-Leaf-Classics/dp/0789310619?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0789310619
Wilbur Munro Leaf was born in Hamilton, Maryland, United States, the son of Charles Wilbur Leaf, a printer, and Emma India Gillespie. Leaf was a third-generation descendant on both maternal and paternal sides of Maryland families.
He was educated at public schools in the Washington, D. C. He received a B. A. from the University of Maryland in 1927 and an M. A. in English literature from Harvard in 1931.
During summer vacations from college, Leaf worked on such jobs as road construction in Virginia, ranching in Montana, and as a deckhand on a British tramp steamer carrying coal from Baltimore to Dublin, Ireland. He also went to Army Reserve officers camp. For approximately ten years before Leaf began writing and illustrating children's books, he taught in preparatory schools and worked in publishing.
From 1929 to 1931 he taught English and coached football in Belmont, Massachussets, and Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. He worked briefly for Bobbs-Merrill as a manuscript reader before being employed by Frederick A. Stokes, Publishers, as an editor and director from 1932 to 1939.
Leaf's first children's book, Grammar Can Be Fun (1934), was inspired when he overheard a mother in the New York City subway struggling to explain to her child why "ain't" was ungrammatical. The book illustrated other frequent mistakes in grammar with prankish personified stick figures. Grammar Can Be Fun became the first in a series of ten semididactic titles, all in a similar format, on a variety of important childhood subjects covering manners, safety, health, history, geography, patriotism, reading, and science. The last book in this series was Metric Can Be Fun! (1976).
Over a period of forty-two years, Leaf wrote, illustrated, or collaborated with other artists on more than forty books, mostly for readers aged three to nine. Although he had no formal art training, Leaf's unique style and simple pen-and-ink drawings succeeded in large part due to their sincerity, refreshing humor, common sense, and broad range of interest. His writing was clear and easily understood; his ideas appealed directly to a wide range of readers.
His best-known book, The Story of Ferdinand (1936), was written in "forty minutes one rainy Sunday afternoon" and illustrated by his friend Robert Lawson. The story of a gentle young bull who would rather sniff at flowers than fight in a bullring, Ferdinand immediately captured the imagination of young and old alike and became both a perennial best-seller and a modern American classic. The seemingly simple story struck a deep emotional chord with the public. Leaf maintained that his whimsical tale, a mere eight hundred words long, had no inherent message. But many readers including critics, established a canon of symbolic interpretation and controversial analysis around peace-loving Ferdinand. Discussion ranged from psychoanalytic theory to various political ideologies, including antiwar support during the Vietnam War. Speaking on behalf of her late husband during a fiftieth-anniversary celebration for the book held in 1986, Margaret Leaf stated what she believed to be the book's message, "that Ferdinand has the courage to refuse to do what he knows is wrong for him. " However, Leaf himself always maintained that the message was not his but rather Ferdinand's and that readers should get the message from Ferdinand according to their own need. Leaf also explained that he chose a passive bull named for the Spanish king so that it would stand out among the countless juvenile books on dogs, cats, and other common animals already in print.
In 1938, Walt Disney Studios bought the movie rights to Ferdinand for $800, which Leaf divided among himself, Robert Lawson, and the book's publisher, Viking Press. The Oscar-winning animated film version was remarkably true to the book and remained popular even after its re-release on videotape. Ferdinand also inspired original music scores as well as numerous popular recordings; various merchandise items including diamond pins, toys, board games, and cereal favors were successfully sold to Ferdinand's fans. During the late 1930's and 1940's, Ferdinand was one of the most popular characters in children's literature and was translated into sixty languages.
Leaf collaborated with Robert Lawson on two additional books. Wee Gillis (1938), a fable set in Scotland about a small boy who resolves a family clan conflict as well as a personal problem, earned a Caldecott honor award in 1939. Their third and last book together was a version of Aesop's Fables (1941). Noodle (1937), the story of a dachsund, was illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans. Turnabout (1967) was a departure from Leaf's usual style, using full-color artwork to educate as well as entertain children about the proper treatment of animals.
From 1938 to 1960, Leaf wrote and edited a "Watchbirds" column for the Ladies' Home Journal using his trademark stick characters to teach children rules of etiquette based on kindness and helpfulness. These monthly columns, which gave Leaf his widest adult readership, were published in a series of four books as well as in an omnibus, Flock of Watchbirds (1946).
In 1942, Leaf enlisted in the United States Army, serving in the Pentagon and Europe during World War II and earning the rank of major before he left in 1946. During his service he collaborated with Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel) to produce an army field manual on malaria entitled The Story of Ann, short for anopheles mosquito. While unorthodox in presentation, their pamphlet was widely circulated to Allied forces in the Pacific and went into nearly seven million copies.
The war years began a long and productive relationship with the government. Leaf's publications included a series of political pamphlets supporting the postwar Marshall Plan and a goodwill handbook on the United Nations. He also helped write some of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's fireside chats and later worked with President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty program.
From 1961 to 1964 he served the State Department as an emissary for American democratic ideals and the promotion of literacy and good books for children. Accompanied by his wife, Leaf made three tours of duty to over twenty countries in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East as part of a cultural and educational exchange program. Together the Leafs lectured and shared their commitment with cultural attachés, writers and publishers, educators, librarians, students, and children, with Leaf using his particular style to illustrate his talks. A direct result of these cultural exchanges was the booklet I Hate You! I Hate You! (1968), which Leaf wrote and illustrated. He later considered it his most satisfying work. In keeping with Leaf's philosophy of international unity and concern for children all over the world, its message was one of tolerance and understanding between races, nationalities, and religions.
Leaf, who loved and respected children, did not sentimentalize or speak down to them. He remained steadfast in his belief that basic education was the "hottest commodity" in the world and books the backbone of education. An early book for children on ecology and the environment, Who Cares? I Do, was published in 1971. Leaf's concern with adult attitudes and behavior was evident in his collaboration with William C. Menninger, the noted psychiatrist, on You and Psychiatry (1948). Other adult works included Listen, Little Girl, Before You Come to New York (1938) and the book and lyrics for a musical comedy, You Can Take It, Columbus (1949), produced by the Connecticut Playmakers of Old Greenwich, Connecticut Leaf also wrote under two pseudonyms, Mun (Lo, the Poor Indian, 1934) and John Calvert (Gwendolyn the Goose, 1946). Leaf was a small, dynamic man possessing high energy, good humor, a keen intellect, and deep convictions. Although semiretired, Leaf continued to accept speaking engagements, using his famous chalk talks, until shortly before his death. He died of cancer at his home in suburban Garret Park, Maryland.
( The landmark collaboration of two of children's books m...)
(The first collection of abridged versions of Munro Leaf’s...)
(Through stick figure drawings and a brief text, beloved a...)
(Updated for the 21st century, How to Speak Politely and W...)
(Reading Can Be Fun is a children’s classic by Munro Leaf,...)
(A Caldecott Honor Book by the creators of the beloved Sto...)
(Soon to be a major motion picture! Ferdinand is the worl...)
Leaf married Margaret Butler Pope of Washington, D. C. , on December 29, 1926. The couple had two children.