SOURCE: “The Bishop's Face: Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop,” in Spirit of Place: The Making of an American Literary Landscape, Sierra Club Books, 1989, pp. 139-64.

In the following essay, Turner recounts his attempts to discover the personal background to Death Comes for the Archbishop, including his interviews with New Mexican writers of the 1920s and his travels to sites visited by Cather.

I

You could get an argument about this from residents of other parts of the state, but it would still be reasonable to claim that the hub of New Mexico's thriving tourist industry is the lobby of Santa Fe's La Fonda hotel. There in a cool, high-ceilinged dimness you may see the smart-looking strangers—silver concha belts, scarves, broad-brimmed hats—whisking in and out on errands of pleasure. Occasionally, but not often, they rest in the deep-cushioned lobby chairs above which are the framed...