Tom Lea

For four rears TOM LEA, the artist and author of El Paso, has been absorbed in writing and illustrating his incomparable two-volume history of the King Ranch, to be published by Little Brown. His hero is Richard King, son of an Irish immigrant, who made his reputation as a steamboater on the Rio Grande and who came ashore in his late twenties to become a cattle baron of Texas. He was early befriended by Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee, and when the Civil War broke out, the King Ranch, “the back door of the Confederacy,”shipped beef to the armies and cotton across the border. But after the war the Mexicans moved in to help themselves.

For four years TOM LEA, the artist and author of El Paso, has been absorbed in writing and illustrating his incomparable two-volume history of the King Ranch. His hero is Richard King, son of an Irish immigrant, who shipped south as a stowaway in his twelfth year; who made his reputation as a steamboater on the Rio Grande, and who came ashore in his late twenties to become a cattle baron oj Texas. Two friends figured significantly in his early careen Mifflin Kenedy, his Quaker partner, and Lt. Got. Robert E. Gee, Second Cavalry, USA. then serving on the Mexican border. This is the first of two installments.

Artist and novelist, TOM LEA is a native Texan who studied mural painting under John Norton of Chicago.He has been supporting himself by his painting ever since he was nineteen. In his assignments as a war artist and correspondent for Life (1941 to 1945). he covered more than 100.000 miles outside the United States,and at Peleliu he became the first combat artist to go in with the initial assault of an invasion. His first novel, The Brave Bulls, has been high on the best-seller lists ever since its publication last April.

Luis Bello, the Mexican matador known as “the Swordsman of Guerreros,” is a tired man though still in his early thirties. For years he has supported a large, lazy dan of relatives, paying for their fat with his own flesh. In the plane to the Capital where he will fight in the Plaza Mexico, his thoughts are on Linda de Calderon who he believes will comfort him. He is right.

Luis Bello, the Mexican matador known an “the Swordsman of Guerreras.” is a tired man though still in his early thirties. For years he has supported a large, lazy clan of relatives, paying for their fat with Ins own flesh. In the plane to the Capital where he will fight in the Plaza Mexico, his thoughts are on Undo de Calderon who he believes will comfort him. He is right.

Luis Bello, a Mexican matador, known at the height of his fame as “the Swordsman of Guerreras,”is a tired man; he is still in his early thirties; he has won the reputation of great courage in the kill; now he feels the premonition of the young veteran. For years he has supported a large lazy clan of relatives, paying for their fat with his own flesh; he can find no rest at home and not enough reassurance in his adoring young brother, Pepe, who wishes to fight with him in the ring. Then comes a long-distance call from Raul de Fuentes, his manager, offering him the chance to fight in the Plaza Mexico on Sunday; despite the old wound in his thigh which still frets him, Luis leaves at once. In the plane to the Capital his thoughts are on Linda de Calderon who he believes will comfort him before the fight. He is right.

Artist and writer, TOM LEA was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1901, teas educated in the LI Paso public schools, and then moved on to Chicago, where he studied at the Art Institute and later became an assistant in muralist John Norton’s studio. In his assignments from 1941 to 1945 as a war artist and correspondent for Life, he covered more than 100,000 miles outside the United States, and at Peleliu he became the first combat artist to go in with the initial assault of an invasion. Tom has earned his living as a painter since he was nineteen years old. and West Texas and its border country have always been his base. His long veneration for the brave bulls and for the men who stand up to them came into sharp focus in 1946 and 1947 when he was painting and writing in Mexico. This abridgment of his forthcoming novel will appear in four installments.