The Bullfight: A Photographic Narrative with Text by Norman Mailer
A photographic narrative of the corrida, built around Mailer's essay on the Mexican bullfighter Amado Ramirez (El Loco) and accompanied by 91 photographs and a 60-minute recording of Mailer reading from the text. Published mid-November 1967 by the CBS Legacy Collection.
The Bullfight: A Photographic Narrative with Text by Norman Mailer (New York: CBS Legacy Collection Book, distributed by Macmillan, mid-November 1967; 112 unnumbered pp., $7.95) pairs Mailer’s 23-page essay — titled “Footnote to ‘Death in the Afternoon,’” a portrait of the Mexican bullfighter Amado Ramirez (El Loco) — with a fragment from Federico García Lorca’s “Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías” and 91 photographs forming a complete depiction of a corrida de toros, drawn from several bullfighters (among them Luis Miguel Dominguín, Antonio Ordóñez, and El Cordobés).
The volume came with a 33⅓ rpm, 60-minute monaural record on which Mailer reads selections from his essay, Hugh Marlowe and Rosemary Tory read the Lorca “Lament” (translated by Mailer and his daughter Susan; see 67.22), and the Bullring Band of Madrid and flamenco performers play. The record was produced by Bernard “Buzz” Farbar.
The three versions of the El Loco essay
Mailer’s bullfighter portrait exists in three closely related forms: as “The Crazy One” (67.17, Playboy, October 1967); as “Footnote to ‘Death in the Afternoon’” here (67.20); and, later, as “Homage to El Loco” in Existential Errands (72.7) and The Essential Mailer (82.19). Lennon notes 67.20 was likely written before 67.17 although published after; the versions do not differ significantly.
Related pages
- 1967 | The Crazy One | Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías (translation)
- Amado Ramirez
- Tough Guys Don't Dance: An Exclusive Interview with Norman Mailer (84.2)
- The Bullfight: A Photographic Narrative with Text by Norman Mailer (67.20) | Existential Errands (72.7) | The Essential Mailer (82.19)