Double-Edged Sword: The Many Lives of Hemingway's Friend, the American Matador Sidney Franklin

by Bart Paul

Sidney Franklin (1903–76) was the last person you’d expect to become a bullfighter. The streetwise son of a Russian Jewish cop, Sidney had an all-American boyhood in early twentieth-century Brooklyn—while hiding the fact that he was gay. A violent confrontation with his father sent him packing to Mexico City, where first he opened a business, then he opened his mouth—bragging that Americans had the courage to become bullfighters. Training with iconic matador Rodolfo Gaona, Sidney’s dare spawned a legend. Following years in small-town Mexican bullrings, he put his moxie where his mouth was, taking Spain by storm as the first American matador. Sidney’s 1929 rise coincided with that of his friend Ernest Hemingway’s, until a bull’s horn in a most inappropriate place almost ended his career—and his life.

 

Bart Paul illuminates the artistry and violence of the mysterious ritual of the bulls as he tells the story of this remarkable character, from Franklin’s life in revolutionary Mexico to his triumphs in Spain, from the pages of Death in the Afternoon to the destructive vortex of Hemingway’s affair with Martha Gellhorn during the bloody Spanish Civil War.

 

This is the story of an unlikely hero—a gay man in the most masculine of worlds who triumphed over prejudice and adversity as he achieved what no American had ever accomplished, teaching even Hemingway lessons in grace, machismo, and respect.

336 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2009

About the author

Bart Paul is the author of TV documentaries, short stories, the biography Double-Edged Sword: The Many Lives of Hemingway's Friend, the American Matador Sidney Franklin (University of Nebraska Press, 2009), Under Tower Peak (Arcade, 2013), and Cheatgrass (Arcade, 2016). Throughout his school years, he spent summers working on cattle ranches and pack outfits in California's Eastern Sierra. After graduating from U.C. Berkeley and years in southern California, he now divides his time between Bridgeport, California, near Yosemite, and Smith Valley, Nevada - the ranching country of his novels.

Reviews

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little clumsy in the narrative department and the author inserts himself a little too much sometimes in annoying jokey ways -- but overall worth the read. How could it not be, when it's about a gay Jewish boy from Brooklyn who goes on to become a famous matador? Franklin became a bullfighter in Mexico City more or less on a dare, and went on to be the first American to become a full-fledged matador with his status confirmed in Spain. Lots of pain and tragedy in there as well.

My favorite anecdote opens the book -- someone talking to him notices that he's wearing a crucifix and asks why he, a non-observant Jewish American, would be wearing a cross. He replies "The bulls are Catholic." That's just a hint at what a complicated, chameleonic, and funny character he is.

[Maggie Sullivan]

Fascinating! Gossipy! Literary! Tells the story of a Jewish kid from Brooklyn in the early 20th century, who only-somewhat hid his gayness to become the first American matador de toros in Spain. From cosmopolitan post-revolutionary Mexico in the 1920s, to the bar rooms and bull rings of Spain in the ‘30s, where Franklin and close pal, Ernest Hemingway, that most homophobic of writers, were eyewitnesses to the siege of Madrid during the Spanish Civil War in 1937.

[Mel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to learn more about Sidney Franklin, whose TV show in the '60s taught me about bullfighting. The book served that purpose. But it could have used a better editor, and there are far too many gossipy, snide frills.

[Ruthie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this biography. Sometimes I wasn't sure if I was reading a book about Franklin or Hemmingway, but it was such fun to read about bull-fighting in the 30s and interesting to get a different perspective on the civil war.