Book description
Originally published in 1975, this Pulitzer Prize for History-winning
biography chronicles the life of Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy
(1814-1888), New Mexico's first resident bishop and the most
influential, reform-minded Catholic official in the region during the
late 1800s. Lamy's accomplishments, including the endowing of hospitals,
orphanages, and English-language schools and colleges, formed the
foundation of modern-day Santa Fe and often brought him into conflict
with corrupt local priests. His life story, also the subject of Willa
Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop, describes a pivotal period in
the American Southwest, as Spanish and Mexican rule gave way to much
greater influence from the U. S. and Europe. Historian and consummate
stylist Paul Horgan has given us a chronicle filled with hardy, often
extraordinary adventure, and sustained by Lamy's magnificent strength of
character. "Historians, and general readers as well, seeking
vivid portrayal of the Southwest's political, social and cultural
traditions will find [this book] rewarding. ... the historical and
literary heritage of Americans in general will be the richer for Mr.
Horgan's painstaking effort."--Southwestern Historical Quarterly
PAUL HORGAN (1904-1995) was a novelist, historian and biographer--and
one of the 20th century's most gifted authors. He twice won the Pulitzer
Prize for History in a literary career spanning seven decades, and
taught at Yale University, University of Iowa and Wesleyan University.
His many other books include The Great River: The Rio Grande in North
American History (Wesleyan, 1991).
