Was Ernest Hemingway ever a matador?

looney_tunes

"'Death in the Afternoon', a book about bullfighting, was published in 1932. Hemingway had become an aficionado of the sport after seeing the Pamplona fiesta of 1925, fictionalized in 'The Sun Also Rises'. In 'Death in the Afternoon', Hemingway extensively discussed the metaphysics of bullfighting: the ritualized, almost religious practice. Hemingway considered becoming a bullfighter himself and showed middling aptitude in several novieros before deciding that writing was his true and only suitable professional metier." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway Noviero is a Spanish adjective meaning 'always falling in love'. http://www.wordmagicsoft.com/dictionary/es-en/noviero.php The intended reference may have been to a novillada, which is a beginners' bullfight. http://www.idealspain.com/pages/information/bullfighting.htm A matador is a high-level bullfighter, according to the previous link. Thus, Hemingway was not a matador, but he did act as a bullfighter in some events. Dec 12 08, 3:44 PM

author

Yes, according to this site he was only an "amateur" bullfighter. But here you can see a picture of him from 1925 doing some bullfighting. http://www.pbs.org/hemingwayadventure/spain.html Dec 12 08, 6:07 PM