Ferdinand the Cultural Icon (September 26, 2015)

The beloved children’s book The Story of Ferdinand, about a bull who would rather smell flowers than fight matadors, is among the most widely read and translated children’s books of the 20th Century. Sharon McQueen (Old Dominion University) says Ferdinand became highly controversial, and has been called a pacifist, “the first hippie hero,” an “antisocial layabout,” and a “confirmed schizoid with a strong flower fetish.” Ernest Hemingway even wrote a fable, “The Faithful Bull,” rebutting its message. Also: Thousands of old library books bear fascinating traces of the past. Readers wrote in their books, and left pictures, letters, flowers, locks of hair, and other things between their pages. Andy Stauffer (University of Virginia) says libraries are discarding these old books as they go digital. Books printed between 1820 and 1923 are at particular risk.

Later in the show: Murder, mystery, and poetry come together in medieval scholar Bruce Holsinger’s (University of Virginia) novel set in Chaucer’s London. Plus, Faulkner Fox (Virginia Foundation for the Humanities) has a new novel that explores the complexity of race relations for southerners in the 1980s. And, Michael O’Donnell (University of Virginia’s College at Wise) has been teaching for nearly five decades and has no plans of stopping