Leaf received a master's degree in English Literature from Harvard University in 1931. His best known book,
The Story Of Ferdinand, is a children's classic that was published in 1936. Leaf wrote The Story of Ferdinand on a yellow legal-length pad in less than an hour. The book, about a bull who would rather smell flowers than fight, stirred controversy when it was published, being banned in Spain and burned by the Nazi's, but has remained popular and in print ever since it's publication.
Leaf died December 21, 1976.