The Brave Bulls
First edition | |
| Author | Tom Lea |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Tom Lea |
| Subject | Raising fighting bulls Bullfighting Mexico |
| Genre | Western, Southwestern |
| Publisher | Little, Brown and Company (Boston) |
Publication date | April 20, 1949 |
| Pages | 270 |
| ISBN | 0-292-74733-0 (2002 reprint) |
| OCLC | 4622973 |
| 813/.54 21 | |
| LC Class | PS3523.E1142 B73 2002 |
| Followed by | The Wonderful Country |
The Brave Bulls (aka Toros Bravos and The Brave Bulls, A Novel) is a 1949 Western novel written by Tom Lea (his first) about the raising of bulls, on the ranch Las Astas, for bullfighting in Mexico.
Las Astas is based on the real "La Punta", a 15,000 hectare (about 37,000 acre) ranch in eastern Jalisco, near Lagos de Moreno, at one time the largest fighting-bull ranch in the world.
Lea, also an artist and muralist, did illustrations throughout the book and on the end papers and dust jacket. Prior to, during World War II, and after, Lea was an artist, and not an author. He went to Mexico to get a better idea about bullfighting, but forgot to take a sketchbook or paintbox, so he found himself using words to describe what he would have as a visual artist.