Bona, Jack I.

Hemingway's interest in bullfighting pervaded his entire literary career. Taurine topics--in fiction and non-fiction--in his early writings such as In Our Time and articles for the Toronto Star Weekly parallel his developing style. The peak of his knowledge of tauromachy is reached in "The Undefeated," The Sun Also Rises, and Death in the Afternoon. The decline of his writing style is exemplified in "The Dangerous Summer" when his physical and mental health also declined. These taurine-related works contain themes that reflect some of Hemingway's personal anxieties about not being readily published and about rivalries with other writers.