Bright Edges of the World: Willa Cather and Her Archbishop
Bright Edges of the World: Willa Cather and Her Archbishop
Bright Edges of the World: Willa Cather and Her Archbishop
Description
Description
Author and historian Garrett Peck traces Willa Cather's adventures in the Southwest and how they influenced her best book. Six months before she died, Willa Cather called her 1927 novel Death Comes for the Archbishop her "best book." The Atlantic magazine concurred, including Archbishop on its Great American Novels list in 2024. A perennial favorite for people who love New Mexico, the novel tells an unusual story of two French priests and best friends serving on the American frontier before the arrival of the railroad. This Western work of fiction is loosely based on two historical figures, Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy and Bishop Joseph Machebeuf. In The Bright Edges of the World, Garrett Peck explores how Cather's travels to the Southwest inspired her writing. She visited the Southwest six times between 1912 and 1926, and from these journeys came three novels, the last of which was Death Comes for the Archbishop. Through Cather's letters, postcards, articles, and interviews, Peck traces how integral travel was to Cather's imagination while highlighting the vital contribution that Cather's longtime partner, Edith Lewis, made to the story. The Bright Edges of the World is richly illustrated to highlight Cather and Lewis's extensive Southwestern adventures. Though Archbishop is a work of fiction, Peck explores how Cather wove some of the most legendary people in New Mexican history into her novel, such as Archbishop Lamy, Kit Carson, and Padre Antonio José Martínez, while subtly hinting toward the complexity of Pueblo Indian and Navajo (Diné) faith. Archbishop is a multicultural novel that reflects the diversity of New Mexico's people. Death Comes for the Archbishop remains a timeless book of friendship on the American frontier and an inspiration for people who, as Cather wrote, "have gone a-journeying in New Mexico on the trail of the Archbishop."
About the Author
About the Author
Garrett Peck is an author, historian, and tour guide in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is the author of nine books focusing on American history. He leads the Willa Cather's Santa Fe tour and many other excursions around New Mexico.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"An entertaining and informative popular history of New Mexico as well as a strong work of literary scholarship."--Gary Scharnhorst, author of Bret Harte: Opening the American Literary West
"In the valley between major biographies, we often get more personal, soft-focus ones, which centre on smaller, more manageable aspects of the life and work... [Peck] delights in relating lesser-known details of Cather's six journeys to the Southwest: the dates, the itineraries, the discoveries; the historical figures and episodes on which she based characters and events; the fact that she liked to stay at Harvey Girls hotels." --Patricia Lockwood "London Review of Books"
"Author and historian Garrett Peck, who leads the Willa Cather Santa Fe tour, does a folksy, thorough job of taking us through the story of how her 'Archbishop, ' as she called this work -- based on the life of Jean-Baptiste Lamy (Jean Marie Latour in her novel) -- came to be." -- "Taos News"
"The Bright Edges of the World: Willa Cather and Her Archbishop is both a deep dive into one of Cather's most beloved classics and also an exhilarating guided trek through a rugged slice of Southwestern literary history."--Kali Fajardo-Anstine, author of Woman of Light: A Novel
"A well-researched and timely synopsis of the genesis of Cather's Archbishop. The contextualization of her 'best book' through historical analysis and biography is refreshing. Peck thoughtfully traverses the captivating landscape and diverse cultures of the Southwest alongside Willa Cather, her partner, and an assemblage of real and fictionalized characters."--Ashley Olson, executive director of the National Willa Cather Center
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Unm Press
Pub date:
2026-03-10
Length:
256 pages
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