"A complicated but very romantic picture of New Mexico"—The New York TImes
Death Comes for the Archbishop is a 1927 novel by American author Willa Cather about the attempts of a Catholic bishop and a priest to establish a diocese in the New Mexico Territory. The story is based on two historical figures, Jean-Baptiste Lamy and Joseph Projectus Machebeuf and rather than any one singular plot, is the stylized re-telling of their lives serving as Roman Catholic clergy in New Mexico.
The novel has been listed in Life Magazine’s list of the 100 outstanding books of 1924-1944; Time’s 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005; Modern Library’s list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century; and Western Writers of America 7th-best “Western Novel” of the 20th century.
