My experience with Barnaby Conrad and his wife Mary is very similar to that of Roger Wilgus except that I have not been to his house. The Conrads frequent the same watering hole/restaurant that my wife and I do in Montecito--the Cafe el Sol. In the mens room is an original painting of Hemingway by Barnaby. The other night he presented me with a copy of " Name Dropping". He kindly signed it and drew an excellent sketch of a matador and bull. I read the book in one sitting. There are very few people that I envy but Barnaby Conrad is one of them.

In early 1989 I read Barnaby Conrad's "Time is All We Have," the account of his stay at the Betty Ford Center. I wrote him a note about it, and mentioned that my wife Peggy and I would be driving down the coast in April, following a conference in Monterrey. I received a nice letter scrawled in his typical red pen, thanking me for my comments and addressing a couple of points I'd raised.

When we reached Carpinteria on our trip, I decided to call him. His wife Mary immediately invited us to their beachfront home for coffee. I spent the next few hours listening to his tales while Mary showed Peggy her miniature dollhouse collection. At one point he sketched bullfight scenes in the front and back covers of my copy of "Matador" while he recounted his experiences. It remains a treasure of ours.

It was one of the most fascinating and entertaining mornings we've ever spent, and we went away highly impressed with their warmth and charm. I still have a snapshot of us in his lovely tropical-themed yard in my bedroom.

This topic came up tangentially on Tertulinet last week, and Jeff Pledge aptly described Conrad and Hemingway et al as "entry level," which is a fair estimation. As for Conrad's talent as a writer, he is pretty clunky, but he can tell a story. In other words, he is a great raconteuer and was probably a blast when he held court at his bar. As a painter, he is fairly clumsy and amateurish.

Barnaby Conrad is a fine painter and writer and any English speaking aficionado who has not read him is seriously deficient.

My wife and I had the great pleasure of meeting Barnaby Conrad and his wife in Tijuana last weekend. He is a great gentleman and a living legend, especially to those aficionados who didn't live anywhere near a bullring and yet were introduced to bullfighting through his writings.
Mike Stumer, Miguelito (Retired Novillero)

Franklin,

Barnaby Conrad is worth reading when he writes about his bar, if you are interested in the social history of San Francisco. His bullfight writing is also worth reading, but he comes from a rather annoying school of bullfight writing. Still, he has been in the ring, knows quite a bit about bulls, and that perspective is worth understanding.

As to the article about women in the bullring, I have mixed feelings. I have no problem with women rejoneadoras, as there is a tradition of women riding horses in exhibitions. As to women as toreros, well, they can be good, but there is something unaesthetic about it all. It is not a question of validity, but of propriety.

Thank you, Erik, I stand properly chastised. I guess I am lucky to have never heard of Barnaby.

And also a good thing you didn't refer to him by his christian name alone either. I might let some smack about Joseph Conrad pass, but we'd have to have really strong words if I thought you were dismissing that great investigator, Barnaby Jones. ;-)

A little off topic, but:

http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/22986/0/toros/novillada/mujeres/

Gerhard Richter too. And it's a round painting!

Franklin,

Sometime yesterday I was thinking that I should have used at least a first initial when I referred to Barnaby Conrad, for precisely this reason.

I absolutely agree with you on that other Conrad!

Barnaby Conrad, on the other hand, is a first rate raconteur, but not a very good writer. His book Namedropping is an essential part of any library of post War San Franciscana, along with the much better writer Herb Caen.

As to savory cheesecake, I have not had any smashing successes yet. I was going to do a smoked trout one, but had a bunch of spring vegetables. What I ended up with was good, but really more of a cheese tartlet than cheesecake. Thanks for the reminder, as I should really experiment with that.

Did you ever get your savory cheesecake successes? Had "Food Network's" Savory Trout Cheesecake at a Derby Day party yesterday and it was wonderful! Sour cream and cream cheese, so I think it honors the spirit of no-cheese-with-fish; besides, the smoked thing is really different...

Hey, be nice!

As a Pole who didn't begin to learn English until adolescense, Conrad demonstrated a remarkable talent for written English. Compared to most of what has been written since, the man is a GENIUS!!!