Pulitzer Prize History Winner

Lamy of Santa Fe

by Paul Horgan

Summary

Horgan tells the life of Jean Baptiste Lamy, the French born Catholic bishop who built the church in the New Mexico territory during the nineteenth century. He sets Lamy's mission against the rugged southwestern landscape, the clash of Hispanic, Native, and Anglo cultures, and the slow reach of American power. The biography blends history with literary craft to portray a quiet figure who shaped a region.

Historical Context & Significance

Paul Horgan won his second Pulitzer Prize for History with this biography in 1976, the same churchman who inspired Willa Cather's novel Death Comes for the Archbishop.