A short life of the author
Lewis “Lew” Wallace (10 April 1827 – 15 February 1905) was an American Civil War general, diplomat, and author whose Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880) became the bestselling American novel of the nineteenth century — outselling Uncle Tom’s Cabin by the time of Wallace’s death — and remains one of the most culturally influential American books ever written, having inspired a Broadway play, multiple film adaptations (most famously the 1959 William Wyler epic starring Charlton Heston), and over a century of popular engagement with the story of ancient Rome and early Christianity.
Life
Wallace was born in Brookville, Indiana, the son of a future governor. He had little formal education, studied law, and was admitted to the Indiana bar. He served in the Mexican-American War and, more consequentially, in the Civil War, rising to the rank of major general. His performance at the Battle of Shiloh (1862) was controversial — he was accused of arriving late with his division — and the stain on his reputation haunted him for the rest of his life.
After the war, he served on the military tribunal that tried the conspirators in Lincoln’s assassination and later presided over the military commission that tried Henry Wirz, the commandant of Andersonville prison. He served as governor of New Mexico Territory (1878–1881), where he dealt with Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War, and as United States minister to the Ottoman Empire (1881–1885).
Ben-Hur (1880)
Wallace claimed that the novel was inspired by a conversation with the agnostic Robert Ingersoll on a train in 1876 — Ingersoll’s arguments against the existence of God prompted Wallace to investigate the evidence for Christ, and the research turned into a novel.
Ben-Hur tells the story of Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish prince in Roman-occupied Jerusalem who is betrayed by his childhood friend, the Roman Messala. Judah is condemned to the galleys, his mother and sister are imprisoned, and his property is confiscated. Through years of suffering, he rises — from galley slave to adopted son of a Roman consul, to chariot racer who defeats Messala in the great race at Antioch, to witness of the ministry and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
The chariot race — one of the most famous set pieces in world literature — occupies an entire chapter and is a masterwork of narrative pacing and physical description. It has been the centrepiece of every dramatic adaptation.
The novel’s genius is its combination of adventure narrative and religious quest. Wallace gives the reader exactly the kind of thrilling, violent, romantic story that would be at home in a secular adventure novel, then embeds it in a framework of spiritual transformation. Judah begins as a man seeking revenge and ends as a man seeking faith.
Ben-Hur sold an estimated two million copies before Wallace’s death and remained the bestselling American novel until Gone with the Wind (1936). It was endorsed by the Pope and by the White House, read in Sunday schools and saloons alike. The 1959 film — which won eleven Academy Awards — ensured that the story reached audiences who would never read the novel.
Other Work
The Fair God (1873) — Wallace’s first novel — is set during the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The Prince of India (1893) is an ambitious but unwieldy novel about the Wandering Jew and the fall of Constantinople.
Neither achieved the success of Ben-Hur, and both are essentially unread today.
Critical Standing
Wallace is remembered as a one-book author — and Ben-Hur itself is remembered more through its film adaptations than through the novel. The book is rarely taught or studied; its prose is ornate by modern standards, and its religious earnestness sits awkwardly with literary criticism. But its cultural impact — on the representation of ancient Rome, on the relationship between faith and popular entertainment, and on the American historical novel — is enormous.
Collecting Wallace
Ben-Hur (1880, Harper & Brothers) in first edition (first state, with the J on the title page set in a particular position) brings $500–$3,000. Later editions are common and inexpensive. Wallace’s other novels bring $20–$80 in first edition.