Barnaby Conrad, Jr. (March 27, 1922 – February 12, 2013) was an American artist, author, nightclub proprietor, matador and boxer. Born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, to an affluent family, Conrad was raised in Hillsborough. He spent a year at the

Cate School Cate School is a highly selective university-preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12 located in Carpinteria, California, eleven miles from Santa Barbara. In 2012, the school had 270 students, who came from 31 states an ...

Carpinteria, California Carpinteria (; , meaning "Carpentry") is a small seaside city in southeastern Santa Barbara County, California. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, it had a population of 13,264 at the 2020 United States cens ...

, before being sent east and graduating from the

Taft School The Taft School is a private coeducational school located in Watertown, Connecticut, United States. It enrolls approximately 600 students in grades 9–12. Overview History The school was founded in 1890 as Mr. Taft's School (renamed t ...

Watertown, Connecticut Watertown is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Naugatuck Valley Planning Region. The population was 22,105 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb of Waterbury. The urban center of the town is the Wat ...

, in the class of 1940. He attended the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...

, where he was captain of the freshman boxing team. He also studied painting at the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public university, public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countri ...

, where he also became interested in

bullfighting Bullfighting is a physical contest that involves a bullfighter attempting to subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull, usually according to a set of rules, guidelines, or cultural expectations. There are several variations, including some forms wh ...

. After being injured in the bullring, he returned to college and graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1943. He wanted to join the Navy after Yale, but his bullfighting injury prevented that. Conrad was American Vice Consul to

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

, and

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

from 1943 to 1946. While in Spain, he studied

with

Juan Belmonte Juan Belmonte García (14 April 1892 – 8 April 1962) was a Spanish bullfighter. He fought in a record number of bull fights and was responsible for changing the art of bullfighting. He had minor deformities in his legs which forced him to de ...

Manolete Manuel Laureano Rodríguez Sánchez (4 July 1917 – 29 August 1947), known as Manolete, was a Spanish bullfighter. Career Manuel Laureano Rodríguez Sánchez was the son of a bullfighter (who also went by the name Manolete) and his wife An ...

, and

Carlos Arruza Carlos Arruza (February 17, 1920 – May 20, 1966), born Carlos Ruiz Camino, was one of the most prominent bullfighters of the 20th century. He was known as "El Ciclón" ("the cyclone"). Arruza was born in Mexico to Spanish parents. He bega ...

. In 1945 he appeared on the same program with Belmonte and was awarded the ears of the bull. He is the only American male to have fought in Spain, Mexico and Peru. After his stint in Spain, he moved for a time to

Lima, Peru Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

. He was known as "El Niño de California" ("The California Kid"). In 1947, he worked as secretary to famed novelist

Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930 Nobel Prize in Literature, 1930, he became the first author from the United States (and the first from the America ...

. Conrad published his first novel, ''The Innocent Villa'', in 1948. It largely went unnoticed, but his second novel, ''Matador'', sold 3,000,000 copies.Chawkins, Steve (February 16, 2013)
"Barnarby Conrad Jr. dies at 90; bullfighter, artist, saloonkeeper founded Santa Barbara Writers Conference"
nytimes.com; accessed September 13, 2015.

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck ( ; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social percep ...

selected Conrad's ''Matador'' as his favorite book of the year, and the novel has been translated into 28 languages. Royalties from ''Matador'' provided Conrad with the capital to open El Matador nightclub in San Francisco in 1953.

Herb Caen Herbert Eugene Caen (; April 3, 1916 February 1, 1997) was a San Francisco humorist and journalist whose daily columnist, column of local goings-on and insider gossip, social and political happenings, and offbeat puns and anecdotes—"A continuo ...

, noting that ''Matador'' was the publisher's suggested alternative to the original title Conrad had given his second novel, commented on Conrad naming his nightclub after his first best seller: "Who'd ever go eat at a restaurant called Day of Fear?" In 1997 Conrad wrote ''Name Dropping: Tales From My San Francisco Nightclub'', "a jaunty account" about the 10 years he ran El Matador. In 1958, Conrad was gored, almost fatally in a bullfight that was part of a charity event. After learning of the incident,

Eva Gabor Eva Gabor ( ; February 11, 1919 – July 4, 1995) was a Hungarian-American actress and socialite. Gabor voiced Duchess and Miss Bianca in the Disney animations ''The Aristocats'' (1970), ''The Rescuers'' (1977), and ''The Rescuers Down Under'' ...

is said to have run into

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...

Sardi's Sardi's is a continental restaurant located at 234 West 44th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, in the Theater District of Manhattan, New York City. Sardi's opened at its current location on March 5, 1927. It is known for the caric ...

in New York and asked him, "Did you hear about poor Barnaby? He was terribly gored in Spain." Coward replied, "Oh, thank heavens. I thought you said he was bored." Conrad served as a Golden Gate Awards juror at the 1959

San Francisco Film Festival The San Francisco International Film Festival (abbreviated as SFIFF), organized by SFFILM, is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries. The festival highlights current trends in international film and vi ...

. In 1965 he joined the Festival board and served for five years. Conrad started the Santa Barbara Writers Conference in 1973 at the

, inviting such well-known authors as

Eudora Welty Eudora Alice Welty (April 13, 1909 – July 23, 2001) was an American short-story writer, novelist and photographer who wrote about the American South. Her novel '' The Optimist's Daughter'' won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty received numerou ...

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( ; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his acerbic epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the Social norm, social and sexual ...

Joan Didion Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer and journalist. She is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism, along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Wolfe. Didio ...

, and

Ross Macdonald Ross Macdonald was the main pseudonym used by the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar (; December 13, 1915 – July 11, 1983). He is best known for his series of hardboiled novels set in Southern California and featur ...

. He and his wife Mary directed the literary gathering until Conrad sold the conference in 2004. His son,

Barnaby Conrad III Barnaby Conrad III (born 1952) is an American author, artist, and editor. Early years Conrad was born in San Francisco in 1952, the son of author Barnaby Conrad, Jr and architect Dale (Cowgill) Crichton. His father was an amateur bullfighter, an ...

, is also a San Francisco-based writer. Conrad's charcoal portraits of

Truman Capote Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics ...

James Michener James Albert Michener ( or ; February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American writer. He wrote more than 40 books, most of which were long, fictional family sagas covering the lives of many generations, set in particular geographic locales ...

, and

Alex Haley Alexander Murray Palmer Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer and the author of the 1976 book '' Roots: The Saga of an American Family.'' ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and ...

hang in the

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...

in Washington, D.C. In 2006, the Spanish writer Salvador Gutiérrez Solís published his biography, ''Barnaby Conrad: A Spanish Passion'' (Fundación José Manuel Lara), which tells the story of Conrad's life in Spain and his connection with the world of bullfighting.

Death

Conrad died on February 12, 2013, at his home in

. He had been in

hospice Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life b ...

care for three weeks. He was 90 years old.

Works by Barnaby Conrad

Fiction

* ''Matador'' (1952; with illustrations by the author); 2nd edition (1988)

Capra Press Capra Press is an independent publishing house that was founded in Santa Barbara, California, in 1969. The press relocated to San Francisco, California, in 2011. History Noel Young (1922–2002), a former commercial printer, founded the press i ...

;
''Zorro, a fox in the city'' (1971)
/ * ''Endangered'' (1978) with Niels Mortensen
OCLC 232653594 ''Condor'' (1978) with Niels Mortensen
* ''Keepers of the Secret'' (1983) with Nico Mastorakis; * ''The Last Boat to Cadiz'' (2003); * ''The Second Life of John Wilkes Booth'' (2010);

Nonfiction

''La Fiesta Brava : The Art of the Bull Ring'' (1953)
worldcat.org; * ''The Death of Manolete'' (1958);
''Gates of Fear'' (1958)
Library of Congress Catalog #57-10110 https://www.amazon.com/GATES-OF-FEAR-exploits-bullrings/dp/B000HG830G
''Barnaby Conrad's Encyclopedia of Bullfighting''
(1961);

* ''Fun While it Lasted'' (1969); * ''A Revolting Transaction'' (1983); * ''Time Is All We Have: Four Weeks at the Betty Ford Center'' (1986); * ''Hemingway's Spain'' (1989); * ''Advice from the Masters: A Compendium for Writers'' (1991); * ''Name Dropping: Tales from my Barbary Coast Saloon'' (1994); * ''Learning to Write Fiction from the Masters'' (1996); * ''Name Dropping: Tales from my San Francisco Nightclub'' (1997); * ''Snoopy's Guide to the Writing Life'' (2002; with Monte Schulz);

(2006); * ''101 Best Beginnings Ever Written: A Romp Through Literary Openings for Writers and Readers'' (2009);

As editor, translator or contributor

OCLC 84219226 ''The Wounds of Hunger''
(1957 translation of ''Más Cornadas da el Hambre'' by Luis Spota)
OCLC 1576413 ''The second life of Captain Contreras'' (1960 translation of ''La Otra vida del Capitan Contreras'')

OCLC 1512811 ''My Life as a Matador'' The autobiography of Carlos Arruza (1956)
* ''The Complete Guide to Writing Fiction'' (1990) with the staff of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference; * "William Spratling" (1990) in ''Spratling Silver'' by Sandraline Cederwall and Hal Riney; * ''The World of

: San Francisco, 1938-1997'' (1997; with Carole Vernier); * ''The World's Shortest Stories: Murder. Love. Horror. Suspense. All this and much more in the most amazing short stories ever written—each one just 55 words long!'' (2006) Steve Moss;

Famous "sports" quote

The famous quote "Only bullfighting, mountain climbing and auto racing are sports, the rest are merely games" can be attributed to Conrad, however

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

is often mistaken as the source.

References

Barnaby Conrad, Una pasión española (Biografía), escrita por Salvador Gutiérrez Solís.

External links

After Sixty Years, A Promise Kept to Sinclair Lewis
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''; accessed January 26, 2011
Penguin First Editions (reference site of early first edition Penguin Books)Profile
IMDb.com * https://elpais.com/cultura/2007/03/22/actualidad/1174518002_850215.html * Barnaby Conrad Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Conrad, Barnaby 1922 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists Yale University alumni American expatriates in Spain American male novelists Artists from San Francisco University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Writers from San Francisco People from Carpinteria, California People from Hillsborough, California 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from California National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni American expatriates in Mexico