The Bright Edges of the World: Willa Cather and Her Archbishop

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