{"id":190,"date":"2016-05-05T21:57:20","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T21:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/elstoncollection\/?page_id=190"},"modified":"2016-05-05T21:57:20","modified_gmt":"2016-05-05T21:57:20","slug":"ben-hur-and-lew-wallaces-writing-career","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/elstoncollection\/art-collection\/lew-wallace-portrait-of-major-elston\/ben-hur-and-lew-wallaces-writing-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Hur and Lew Wallace&#8217;s writing career"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lew Wallace wrote several books throughout his life, but he is <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">best known for his fame-establishing story, <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ben-Hur: A Tale of the<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em> Christ,<\/em> published in 1880. Wallace began writing his first novel, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Fair God<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, in 1843, but did not publish it until 1873. The book was based on the conquest of Mexico by Hern\u00e1n Cort\u00e9s. During Wallace\u2019s time in Crawfordsville, he wrote the manuscript for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ben-Hur<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, later publishing the book while he was the\u00a0governor of New Mexico. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em>Ben-Hur<\/em>\u00a0eventually became the best-selling novel of the 19th Century, providing Wallace with sound financial security and fame throughout the country. The book also was adapted for several motion pictures, the most notable of which was an MGM sound film starring Charlton Heston, which premiered in New York City on November 18, 1959. Some historians insist that <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ben-Hur<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> directly drew from Wallace&#8217;s personal experiences, particularly his time at the Battle of Shiloh, and his tarnished reputation as \u00a0a man accused of\u00a0failing to follow orders. Wallace did indeed write two subsequent novels, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Why Constantinople Fell<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Prince of India<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, but neither was as popular\u00a0as <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ben-Hur<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/elstoncollection\/art-collection\/lew-wallace-portrait-of-major-elston\/\">Back to the main page on\u00a0Lew Wallace, Portrait of Major Elston\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/elstoncollection\/art-collection\/lew-wallace-portrait-of-major-elston\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-25\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/elstoncollection\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2016\/05\/Isaac-Elston-by-Wallace-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Isaac Elston by Wallace\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lew Wallace wrote several books throughout his life, but he is best known for his fame-establishing story, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, published in 1880. Wallace began writing his first novel, The Fair God, in 1843, but did not &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/elstoncollection\/art-collection\/lew-wallace-portrait-of-major-elston\/ben-hur-and-lew-wallaces-writing-career\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"parent":181,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-190","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/elstoncollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/elstoncollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/elstoncollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/elstoncollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/elstoncollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/elstoncollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/elstoncollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/190\/revisions\/191"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/elstoncollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/elstoncollection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}