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Ernest Hemingway Owned and Used Spanish Bullfighting Ticket from Zaragoza, Spain
Ernest Hemingway Owned and Used Spanish Bullfighting Ticket from Zaragoza, Spain
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Description:

Hemingway Ernest

Ernest Hemingway owned and used Spanish bullfighting ticket from Zaragoza, Spain

 

A cancelled bullfighting ticket belonging to American writer Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961). The colorful printed paper ticket granted entry to a "Corrida de Beneficencia" (or Charity Run) held in Zaragoza in northeastern Spain on June 13, 1959. The ticket has been punched at left and center and stamped at right. The right edge is partly torn. There is a light vertical fold at center, and isolated discoloration verso, else near fine, measuring 6" x 3".

 

Hemingway's ticket was for seat No. 37 of the "Preferred" section, located slightly behind the front row but not in the general stands. The Plaza de Toros in Zaragoza has been hosting bullfighting events since the eighteenth century; it seats over 10,000 spectators.

 

The ticket dates from Hemingway's last visit to Spain, when he was doing research for a series of bullfighting articles for Life Magazine. Hemingway wrote what would become The Dangerous Summer between October 1959-May 1960. This non-fiction account of a rivalry between two contemporary Spanish matadors, Luis Miguel Dominguin (1926-1996) and Antonio Ordonez (1932-1998), champions a correct, or artistic way, of bullfighting that tests the matador's grace and courage. Hemingway's redacted version appeared in Life in September 1960. The unabridged version, running approximately 75,000 words, was published posthumously in 1985.

 

In the introduction to The Dangerous Summer, James A. Michener writes: “This is a book about death written by a lusty sixty-year-old man who had reason to fear that his own death was imminent. It is also a loving account of his return to those heroic days when he was young and learning about life in the bull rings of Spain… ”

 

Ernest Hemingway had attended his first bullfight in Pamplona, Spain in 1923, and quickly became a devoted aficionado. He viewed bullfighting more as an art form than as a sport, and wrote about the philosophical implications of life vs. death and man vs. beast in the ring. Hemingway first wrote about bullfighting in his novel The Sun Also Rises (1926), in which the female protagonist falls in love with a matador. An early non-fiction work that anticipated The Dangerous Summer was Death in the Afternoon (1929). In it, Hemingway examined bullfighting as a ritual, cultural event, and public demonstration of physical courage.

 

This item is from the personal property of Roberto Herrera Sotolongo, Hemingway's personal secretary and friend. Herrera and Hemingway had first met in 1942, when Herrera became a crewmember aboard Hemingway’s boat the Pilar, which patrolled the Gulf Stream at the height of World War II.

 

Herrera and Hemingway became good friends while sharing their mutual interests in hunting, fishing, and drinking at their favorite bar, La Floridita, in Havana. On occasion, Hemingway would buy tickets and bring Roberto to bullfights. Herrera, an avid photographer, captured many photos and movies of all these activities. Hemingway called Herrera “El Monstruo” (the Monster), and signed much of his correspondence to Herrera as “Mr. Papa”. By the mid-1940s, Hemingway was travelling extensively and for long periods of time, leaving his Cuban home, Finca La Vigia (Lookout Farm), in the hands of Herrera.

 

After Hemingway’s 1961 suicide, Herrera was appointed to represent Hemingway’s affairs in Cuba, including the deeding of his home and its contents to the Cuban people “as a place of opportunity for wider education and research, to be maintained in his memory.” The property became a museum, and Herrera acted as Conservator until his death in 1970.

 



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