1949; Little, Brown and Company publishers; Hardbound with red boards; some fading on spine.  This is stamped: "Loaned to the Crew by The American Seamen's Friend Society ... New York"
 
description -
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.