The Maryland Writers’ Association created the Writers’ Round Table Program to encourage writers, poets, playwrights and authors through monthly articles and activities.
The Notable Maryland Author articles and associated Fun With Words writers’ prompts are the centerpiece of the program. Each month, Southern Maryland Newspapers will feature a Maryland Writer’s Association article about an author. Marylanders are encouraged to read the articles and try their hand at the writing prompts each month.
Author: Munro Leaf
Genre: Children’s books, written especially for children, usually classified by genre or the intended age of the reader, and contain pictures or illustrations that compliment the story.
Sample reading list: “How to Speak Politely and Why,” “The Story of Ferdinand,” “Wee Gillis,” “The Story of Simpson and Sampson,” “Four-And-Twenty Watchbirds” and “Sam and the Superdroop.”
“Early on in my writing career I realized that if one found some truths worth telling they should be told to the young in terms that were understandable to them.”
Munro Leaf was born Dec. 4, 1905, in Hamilton, Md., but raised in Washington, D.C. He earned a bachelors of arts from the University of Maryland in 1927, taught English at Belmont Hill School in Boston a few years and earned a masters in English literature from Harvard University in 1931. He also worked for Frederick A. Stokes publishing company, which is where he developed an interest in writing and illustrating children’s book. It was a career that would span 40 years.
His most famous work, “The Story of Ferdinand,” in 1936 he wrote in one sitting and tells the story of a large, gentle bull on a farm in Spain who is stung by a bee. His violent reaction to the sting impresses a man looking to aggressive bulls for bull fighting. He happily buys Ferdinand who is sent to the ring, but won’t fight. He wants to smell flowers. The story ends with Ferdinand being taken back to his farm where he sits under a cork tree smelling flowers.
The book sold 14,000 copies in 1936, 68,000 in 1937, and in 1938 it sold 150,000 copies to beat “Gone With the Wind” as the top selling book in America. The book has never been out of print. In 1939, his book “Wee Gillis” tells of a boy living in Scotland halfway between his father’s family in the Highlands and his mother’s in the Lowlands was listed as a Caldecott Honor Book.
The release of “Ferdinand” overlapped the beginning of the Spanish Civil War and because it was about a peaceful bull in Spain it was viewed by supporters of Dictator Francisco Franco as a pacifist book and banned in Spain and elsewhere. Leaf said he wrote the story on a whim one afternoon in 1935 to give his friend and illustrator Robert Lawson a book to work on. The rest of the world loved “Ferdinand” and Disney won an Academy Award in 1938 for his animated version.
Leaf put his talents to use for the federal government during WWII, when he and Ted Geisel — also known as Dr. Seuss — wrote “This is Ann”, a pamphlet to prevent the spread of malaria.
Leaf went on to write 25 books after his service in World War II and died in 1976 at the age of 71.
Fun With Words
The MWA invites writers to have fun writing a children’s book like Munro Leaf. In 100 words, write the beginning of a whimsical children’s story that identifies the main character and hints at the plot. In parenthesis add 10 additional words to describe the illustration that would go with the words you wrote. Title your work and send to https://marylandwriters.org/Notable_Maryland_Authors by the 22nd of the month to receive an MWA Fun With Words submission certificate. Selected responses will be published with next month’s article and on the MWA Website.
Last month writers were asked to be a women’s fiction writer like Sophie Kerr and place a plucky heroine in a working environment confronted by gender or class issues.
Here are some regional selections:
To Victoria Go the Spoils
Victoria piloted her crab boat from Pasadena down the bay to Kent Island. When the early storm came up, she took shelter behind the island, secured her boat, and walked to the local marina. Three men at the bar scoffed at her and commented on how a woman shouldn’t be crabbing in a storm. She ignored them and called a buyer. “I got a bushel of males before the storm broke.” She turned with the phone in her hand, “You fellows want to sell your crabs? He’ll take ‘em all.” The red-faced men shook their heads and mumbled, “Didn’t get any.”
- Cindy Herndon, Sunderland
Lileft
“And this the garden thou forsakest?” spake Adam unto Lilit.
“Yes,” said she, her mien exceedingly lofty, giving that single word all the potency of Language in a mere three letters.
“And what shalt thou hast elsewhere? — Fool that thou art! Why stayest not?” Adam’s tone was strained, hoarse with desperation.
“But what have I here?” returned Lilit; held between her arms was already the Apple Tree’s bough — wisdom with which she shall travel thence: the wisdom Adam ate of not.
“Thou knowest not what festereth there, in that blasted world beyond.”
“Then I shall find out.”
And she left.
- Eric Waldow, La Plata
Pumping Iron-y
I don’t need steroids, estrogen supplements, or any other booster. I’ve worked years, not just on my body but also on my style and technique. It hasn’t been easy, but well worth the effort. I am amphibious, a creature comfortable on land and in the water.
From my earliest days, I was taught that biology is a constant. Hanging out or all tucked in, we are what we are. But today the politicians chasing votes are wobbling. You can be whatever you choose to be.
OK. Ed(wina) might out swim me today. But I’ll kick his candy-ass tomorrow.
- Leslie Dickey, Prince Frederick
Silent Roars The Wounded Heart
One white-hot June morning, two days shy of year five turning wrenches at Road Worriers Automotive (“Leave knocks and pings to us”), Karleen Blokely heard boss “Toothless” Tom Sook say to her, “K, I can’t have you work here no more.”
She knew why. From the shop’s center bay all four reasons smirked. Male techs held you to a higher stand-ard. Accelerating past that standard proved a fireable offense.
“I’ll send guys,” she said, “for my tool chests.”
Tom’s drinking buddies wanted salty waterworks. But she never much cried. A life of dignity in public meant keeping your tears private.
- Lawrence McGuire, Waldorf
Home on the Range
His head bloodied and right leg broken just above the ankle. The stampede had subsided. I raced to Buck’s aid, though he was the one resistant to me driving herd.
I threw him on his horse and found the doc in Cowpoke Crossing. Buck looked at me in a thankful, apologetic way. He knew I could punch out cows or cowboys. I could out-ride, out-rope, and out-shoot most drivers. Buck needed a hand and gave me a chance, sure I would quit.
It gets lonely out here, just me and my pride.
- Gary Gunnelfsen, Chesapeake Beach
Ferry Princess
Mary Grace surveyed the river from the pilot house of the “ Traveler”, the boat used to traverse the river on a ferry boat route continuously run since colonial times with only male captains. She smiled when she reflected that for the first time the hand on the helm belonged to a body with a slip between the legs rather than a tiller. Now she studied the vehicles on deck. All the drivers were women. A workboat passed by slowly with a woman at the helm. It seemed today the river was ruled by sooks and hens.
- Eleanor O’Mara, Oxford
The Paragraph About Nothing
Frank C. and Cosmo K. (From Kramerica Industries of GEORGE-town) had developed a jiggle-reducing-frontal-torso support-device for men. Business was slow so they hired a well-endowed front-office gal to attract attention. Right off the bat Elaine B. had to endure the argument about what their JERRY-rigged contraption should be called “The Mansiere” or “The Bro.”
Elaine stuck out her chest by asking: “Do you two boobs even know about cup size?”
Frank and Cosmo retorted in unison: “What do you know about these things?!?...You’re a girl!”
Elaine replied: “Look! I’ve been dealing with these things since before either of you had hair on yours! Now listen up before this business goes bust!”
- Steve Baker, Waldorf
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