People must have a wonderful feeling while walking into the historic Café Iruña (founded in 1888) in the Plaza del Castillo of the Spanish city of Pamplona. They may feel the presence of one of the undisputed personalities of 20th Century world literature… Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 - July 2, 1961)… the great American traveller, a legendary alcoholic, an ardent lover and also a warrior! His literary works are full of brilliant views on life. Hemingway, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954, will always be remembered for some of his unforgettable works, such as 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', 'A Farewell to Arms' and 'The Old Man and the Sea'. He published seven novels, six short-story collections and two nonfiction works. It may be noted that three of his novels, four short-story collections, and three nonfiction works were published posthumously.
The global community marked the 125th birth anniversary of Hemingway on July 21, 2024. It is felt that in order to understand the American novelist, short-story writer and journalist; one should visit Pamplona as there is an inseparable bond between Hemingway and the capital city of Navarre Province in northern Spain. One can explore Spanish society, as well as the way of life, in this city from quite close. The name Pamplona has a historical significance. Roman General Pompey the Great (September 29, BCE 106 - September 28, BCE 48) had come on this route on a campaign in 75 BC. He established a military settlement that gave rise to the Roman city of Pompeii! Although original habitation in this Spanish settlement traces back to the late Bronze to early Iron Age, the traditional inception date refers to the foundation of Pompaelo by General Pompey during the Sertorian Wars circa 75 BC.
Even today, the presence of Hemingway can be felt in each and every corner of Pamplona… there is no way to forget him. In particular, the Café Iruña is quite unique. Hemingway, the then journalist of the Toronto Star, first visited this café at the age of 24 in 1923. He was accompanied by his first wife Elizabeth Hadley Richardson. Since then, he had been closely associated with his favourite café. He used to spend long hours with his near and dear ones at Café Iruña. He used to visit the café whenever he came to Pamplona. In fact, Hemingway immortalised this café through his first novel, The Sun Also Rises. He penned the novel in 1925 on his third visit to Pamplona and it was published in 1926. Later, the novel was published in Britain and Germany as Fiesta (Party in Spanish).
In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway tells the tale of some American and British tourists who arrive in Pamplona from Paris. In the Spanish city, they enjoy the summer by watching the traditional bull run and experiencing a lazy lifestyle. The characters in this novel actually portray Hemingway's own friends! For example, British socialite Mary Duff Stirling Smurthwaite (or Lady Twysden; (May 22, 1891 - June 27, 1938) is depicted as Lady Brett Ashley in The Sun Also Rises. Lady Ashley's ex-boyfriend Robert Cohn is basically Hemingway's old boxing partner Harold Albert Loeb (October 18, 1891 - January 20, 1974). Juan Quintana Urra (1891-1974) was a Spanish hotelier, bullfight businessman, activist in the Spanish Republic and a friend of Hemingway. He was the basis for the fictional character Juanito Montoya in The Sun Also Rises.
Jake Barnes, the fictional character, is the narrator of the novel. In one place, Barnes says: "We had coffee at the Iruña, sitting in comfortable wicker chairs looking out from the cool of the arcade at the big square." The atmosphere of this café has not changed much in the last 100 years! During most of his visits to Pamplona, Hemingway used to stay at the Gran Hotel La Perla on the northeast corner of the Plaza del Castillo. The hotel has balconies facing Estafeta Street, the main route of the bull run. A room of the Gran Hotel La Perla, where Hemingway spent so many days, has been named after him. Hemingway also stayed in the Hotel Quintana several times in the 1920s and the hotel was situated in the opposite corner of Café Iruña. This hotel exists no longer! In The Sun Also Rises, Barnes stresses: "It was good to get out of the sun and under the shade of the arcade that runs all the way around the square." The square still has those arcades!
The festival of San Fermín (running of the bulls) is a week-long, traditional celebration held annually in Pamplona from July 6 to July 14 every year. The main attraction of this festival lies in a 930-yard street, from Santo Domingo Street to the Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas (known simply as Las Ventas, the largest bullfighting ring in Spain). One can notice exuberance among the people who voluntarily run with the bulls. Over the course of time, San Fermín has become a unique Fiesta that attracts tourists from different parts of the globe.
This tiny Spanish town in the Province of Navarre was the love at first sight for Hemingway. The romance continued throughout his life. Hemingway visited Pamplona for the ninth and one final time in 1959 mainly to pen a series of articles on bullfighting for Life Magazine. By that time, he became a legendary author who was honoured with the Pulitzer Prize (for fiction, 1953) and Nobel Prize (in Literature, 1954)! Hemingway was surprised to see 40,000 tourists during the fiesta in Pamplona that year! Those tourists basically followed in his footsteps, which he himself had set many years ago!
Hemingway's memoir The Dangerous Summer was published in 1985, 24 years after his demise. In this publication, the author mentioned that only 20 tourists had visited Pamplona in 1923 when he arrived in the city in a rare first! However, his trip to this city in 1959 was not a happy one as he was not fit physically, as well as mentally. This time, he saw a strikingly different Pamplona that he failed to not recognise! Hemingway noticed a stark contrast between the vibrant Spain of the 1920s and the country trapped in General Francisco Franco Bahamonde's (December 4, 1892 - November 20, 1975) fascist grip for two decades. General Franco's Spain also banned books authored by Hemingway. The author felt that he had created a monster after finding not a single foreign tourist in Pamplona in 1959! Incidentally, it was also the San Fermín week when Hemingway put a shotgun to his mouth and pulled the trigger at his Ketchum residence in Idaho on July 2, 1961.
It was Hemingway who introduced Pamplona and its bull-running fiesta to the world. His excitement about bullfighting inspired him to pen his 1932 novel Death in the Afternoon. Today, nearly 1.5 million tourists visit Pamplona during the San Fermín. Hemingway was perhaps more in love with Pamplona than Pamplona loved him. Statues of the American author can be found in the Plaza del Castillo, inside the Café Iruña and also in the Plaza de Toros de Pamplona (the bullring). His name continues to be used in various shops and pubs in the Spanish city.
Hemingway was a traveller. His footprints can be found in various parts of the globe. While his The Old Man and the Sea takes one to the Latin America as it was written in Cuba, To Have and Have Not brings his readers to Key West in Florida, True at First Light to Kenya (or Africa), The Garden of Eden to the French Riviera and A Movable Feast takes one to Paris! Still, Pamplona was his first love. The Spaniards are seen as one of the most zestful people in the world. It seems that this particular aspect of the Spanish lifestyle, along with the natural beauty of the country, its bright sunshine, bullfights, excellent coffee, wines, women, fishing, etc., create an intense chemistry that attracted Hemingway. From 1923 to 1927, he visited Pamplona every year during the San Fermín. In The Sun Also Rises, an excited Jake Barnes says: "The fiesta was really started. It kept up day and night for seven days. The dancing kept up, the drinking kept up, the noise went on. The things that happened could only have happened during a fiesta. Everything became quite unreal finally and it seemed as if nothing could have any consequences. It seemed out of place to think of consequences during the fiesta. All during the fiesta you had the feeling, even when it was quiet, that you had to shout any remark to make it heard. It was the same feeling about any action. It was a fiesta and it went on for seven days."
Hemingway was completely obsessed with adventure and death. Hence, he might have been fascinated by this lifestyle and culture experienced by him there! Pamplona may not have loved Hemingway as much as he did. However, the Spanish city has never ignored him. A century ago, Jake Barnes, while viewing Pamplona from a distance, said: "Then we crossed a wide plain, and there was a big river off on the right shining in the sun from between the line of trees, and away off you could see the plateau of Pamplona rising out of the plain, and the walls of the city, and the great brown cathedral, and the broken skyline of the other churches." (The Sun Also Rises)
The Sun Also Rises may be the beginning of Pamplona's troubled adolescence. However, it gets matured and becomes adult. This transition has been possible only because of a bohemian American author (who was more or less isolated) and his intense love for the city!
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