It is extremely improbable that bullfights ever have been or ever will be staged in or near Cambridge. It is equally improbable that Ernest Hemingway, the celebrated recorder of bullfights and larger wars, would write about them even if they were.

But a new Hemingway novel would gain admittance to the Widener Library stacks only if it were about the University or Cambridge, or presented as a gift "We," said Keyes De Witt Metcalf, University librarian, in an interview yesterday, "are not interested in buying new fiction, except novels that deal with Harvard. Cambridge, or Boston--novels that would be different if they dealt with other cities."

Gifts Make Up Balance

While this may leave the author of "Forever Amber," and other writers who sell sex by the ream, out in the cold, the complete works of Mr. Hemingway and other novelists are shelved in Widener, Metealf explained why.

"The new popular fiction," he said, "like Books-of-the-Month, sell in enormous quantities. Copies become scattered in thousands of private libraries. Since Harvard always receives a large percent of its books in gifts, they come to us automatically."

Mctecalf, who bears the title of Librarian of the College Library, Director of the University Library, and professor of bibliography, said Widener's primary function is as a research library. "Money is given to us to spend on research material, and we buy for research purposes. Our interest in books is to have them 10 or 15 years from now for research."

"It is perfectly true," he added, "that American fiction may be of value for research purposes later on." Widener, chance are, will be prepared to offer many of today's current best sellers, which will have been purchased in "job lots" or received as gifts.

Metcalf's guess is that the library buys on an average one new novel a week.