Death Comes for the Archbishop
Price: $1,750.00
Von Schmidt, Harold. Hard Cover. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927. Second Edition. Near Fine.
With drawings and designs by Harold Von Schmidt (10 full-page black-on-white illustrations, 48 black-on-white vignette illustrations throughout the text, and half-title vignette). Second edition, first printing, limited issue. One of 170 numbered copies (160 of which were for sale) signed by Cather on the limitation page, this being number 126. Publisher's full cream vellum paper over limp boards, with front board and spine stamped in silver foil, beveled fore edges, and heavy cream wove paper; lacking the original dust jacket and publisher's slipcase. Near fine, with light soiling and fading to spine, nick to right edge of front board, and light spotting to pages. Overall, an attractive and imposing copy. Crane A16.b.i. Originally published serially in Forum from January to June 1927, Death Comes for the Archbishop is a novel about the restructuring and re-invigoration of the Catholic Church in the American Southwest in the wake of the Mexican-American War. The plot follows French-American bishop Jean Marie Latour, based on the real-life Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy, as he undertakes a decades-long project to rebuild and reform the corrupted dioceses while also cultivating a new sense of identity in a region dominated by Native American and Mexican traditions. The book was included on Time's list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005. Item #WC040
