SOURCE: “Death Comes for the Archbishop: A Novel Way of Making History,” in Willa Cather: Family, Community, and History, edited by John J. Murphy with Linda Hunter Adams and Paul Rawlins, Brigham Young University, 1990, pp. 265-74.

In the following essay, Warner discusses the artistic liberties Cather took in telling the story of the two historical New Mexican bishops in Death Comes for the Archbishop, finding that, while Cather's novel is a great work of art, it leads to the wrong impression of the men.

A skillful writer and wonderful teller of tales, Willa Cather produced a work in 1927 that is eminently readable, fascinating, alive with detail and description of people and places. Death Comes for the Archbishop is a classic example of the novel accepted as history. It is prominently displayed in bookstores in Santa Fe, inviting tourists and the general public alike to read what is advertised...