UNHEARD OF FIRST EDITION OF ‘DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON’ INSCRIBED BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY TO FELLOW BULLFIGHTING “AFICIONADO’, PETER BUCKLEY
Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Jonathan Cape. London. 1956. 358 pages. First UK Edition, eighth impression stated. Signed and inscribed , “To Pete Buckley, with affection from his friend and fellow aficionado Ernest Hemingway”. Contained within a beautiful brown leather bespoke book case. Book is near fine; bright, tight and clean. Binding and hinges are strong and sound. Red topstain. Red cloth with gilt titles on backstrip. Original DJ with 30s.net price intact on flap. DJ shows minor light soiling, otherwise near fine. A very attractive, clean copy. Near fine/VG+
In 1951 Peter Buckley went to Spain and became interested in making movies about bullfights. He befriended many of the matadors and also reconnected and became close with Ernest Hemingway, who was also active in the bullfight scene. Buckley’s mother had met Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley, during their time in Paris in the 1920s, and their son, Jack, was a childhood friend of Buckley’s. Buckley’s last major project was Ernest (1978), a photo biography of his friend Ernest Hemingway. He was given unprecedented access to family photographs by Hemingway’s widow, Mary, which he combined with his own photographs and text. “Ernest” turned out to be Buckley’s last book.
Death in the Afternoon is a non-fiction book written by Ernest Hemingway about the history, ceremony and traditions of Spanish bullfighting, published in 1932. It also contains a deeper contemplation on the nature of fear and courage.
