100+ years since Ernest Hemingway first visited Pamplona: The writer’s connection to the running of the bulls

Ernest Hemingway, one of America’s most influential writers, penned his first novel in 1926 based upon his experience in Pamplona for the running of the bulls.

VINCENT WEST

Oliver Povey Maite Knorr-Evans

Update: Jul 5th, 2025 09:52 EDT

Ernest Hemingway, the beloved twentieth centuary writer, is well known for his love of Spain. He, alongside George Orwell, lived through the Spanish Civil War of the mid-to-late 1930s and, through their work, reflected their memories to the world.

Several of the writer’s works focus on the warm, hardy peninsular, including perhaps his most famous novel, ‘The Sun Also Rises.’ This book focuses on his time in France and Spain in the 1920s through his fictionalized portrayals inspired by real characters, including Jake Barnes, who fills in as Hemingway.

A section of the book focuses on the Spanish tradition of bullfighting and the Navarrese tradition of Sanfermines, or the running of the bulls. In this uniquely Basque tradition, members of the public attempt to run from six bulls down a half-mile stretch of street in Iruña, or Pamplona in Spanish. Through his novel and other writings, Hemingway played a huge role in bringing the tradition to the English-speaking world.

Bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter’s honor.

Ernest Hemingway, The Sun also Rises (1926)

Hemingway himself took part in amateur bullfighting in the Plaza de Toros in Pamplona. The festival still takes place annually, though it was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It returned last year in 2022.

The days of The Sun Also Rises. Lady on left i of the group photo is Duff Twyden, prototype for Lady Brett Ashely in the sun also rises. The photo on the left is of course Hadley with Baby Jack (Bumby)

Among other books about Spain, perhaps his most famous of these was the novel ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls,’ based upon his experience in the Spanish Civil War. This was a conflict from 1936 to 1939 in which a failed coup by fascists and the military devolved into a grueling four-year conflict. Thousands of international volunteers supported the legitimate Republican government, which eventually lost to the Nationalist forces, leading dictator Fransisco Franco to lead the country under his iron fist until 1975.