The Pulitzer-winning biography of a pioneer hero of the frontier Southwest.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History (1976).

With a new introduction by George Weigel.

Originally published in 1975, Paul Horgan's beautifully crafted biography, a classic of the genre, chronicles the life of Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy (1814?88), New Mexico's first resident bishop and the real-life inspiration for Willa Cather's masterpiece, Death Comes for the Archbishop.

In these pages, Horgan?who, besides his work as a historian, was also a novelist and artist?paints an unforgettable portrait of an indefatigable, charitable, and faithful missionary and churchman. He tells the story of Lamy's many accomplishments, including the creation of hospitals, orphanages, schools, and colleges, and the story of the archbishop's many conflicts?often with his own priests. More broadly, Horgan gives readers a vivid picture of that pivotal period in the history of the American Southwest when Spanish and Mexican rule slipped away.

Lamy of Santa Fe is filled with hardy, often extraordinary adventure. It is sustained both by its author's captivating style and its subject's magnificent strength of character.