[1] His father was an amateur bullfighter, and published the bestselling book Matador the same year that Conrad III was born.

It is said that Conrad III barely escaped being named after his father's friend Juan Belmonte.

[2] Conrad graduated from the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, then studied painting and illustration at Yale University, under Lester Johnson and Maurice Sendak.

His first published story was about his experiences running with the bulls in Pamplona, which he sold to the San Francisco Examiner for $100.

He wrote articles about riding trains across India, skiing in the Alps, and hot air ballooning over Germany, for magazines such as Condé Nast Traveler, and Forbes Life, for which he served as editor-at-large.