Why lew wallace wrote ben hur

President Johnson called on his legal skills to oversee the trial of the Lincoln conspirators, including Booth. He found all eight suspects guilty. After that, he convened the war crimes tribunal of Henry Wirz, the commander of a notorious Confederate prisoner of war camp. Lew returned home having witnessed the worst man could inflict on man. The Shiloh issue remained unsettled, and many still blamed him for the carnage.

He no doubt suffered from some form of PTSD. In the months that followed, Lew did the only thing his wounded psyche would allow—resume painting. He completed portraits of his father-in-law and Henry Lane. He made famous depictions of the trials he oversaw. He also painted a pair of celestial cupids. But now he could finally follow his passion. But then his country called. President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him 11th governor of the New Mexico Territory.

Wallace made a deal to pardon the Kid in return for his testimony regarding one of the Lincoln County murders, but the district attorney refused to uphold it. Susan shuttered the windows of the Palace of Governors every night, terrified The Kid would spy Lew writing by candlelight and keep his promise. Before leaving Indiana, Lew had finished a short story about the Magi that ended with the birth of Jesus.

A chance meeting with a fellow veteran named Robert Ingersoll also influenced his new direction. I am trying to do four things: First, manage a legislature of most jealous elements; second, take care of an Indian war; third, finish a book; fourth, sell some mines. Can you fancy a greater diversity of occupation?

Ever the romantic, Lew had made his fair copy in ecclesiastical purple ink. A bold experiment to make Christ a hero that has been often tried and always failed. Lew Wallace was years-old. But only 2, copies sold in the first seven months, so Lew took his next assignment. The position gave him a chance to test his meticulous research for Ben-Hur. At the time, Jerusalem belonged to the Ottoman Empire, so Lew received special permission to travel there.

He proudly noted,. His post ended with the election of President Grover Cleveland. Lew and Susan returned to Crawfordsville in Finally, at age 58, five years after Ben-Hur was published, Lew Wallace could forego his day jobs. Lew Wallace lived for another twenty years, long enough to see Ben-Hur become an American phenomenon. Acclaimed from the pulpits, buoyed by a celebrity following including President Garfield , Ben-Hur became the bestselling U.

In , Lew saw the theatrical version open on Broadway and sell 25, tickets per week. He passed away in at age 77, a rich and very famous man. Susan followed him two years later, after completing his page Autobiography. Ben-Hur enjoyed a twenty-year theatrical run. In , the Goldwyn Company purchased its film rights. The version starring Charlton Heston became one of the most successful movies ever made, winning eleven Academy Awards. By , renewed interest made Ben-Hur the bestselling novel of all time in the United States.

He wrote about the greatest story of romance and adventure ever told. It brought him full circle to his true calling as an artist in the broadest sense.

As entrepreneur Seth Godin puts it:. Art is a human act, a generous contribution, something that might not work, and it is intended to change the recipient for the better, often causing a connection to happen…You can enjoy the status quo, or you can make art. Ben-Hur also challenged the religious status quo. When Joseph Harper received the manuscript, he not only commented on its beauty as a piece of art but its success as a piece of transformative literature.

We forget that the man Jesus, called the Christ, was a hero. He appears only six times in Ben-Hur , yet his presence permeates the book and changes everyone with whom he connects. Writing Ben-Hur also changed Lew Wallace. In the end, the imaginative boy who chased romance and adventure became the artist of his story—on his own terms. Later Bloomer. Lew Wallace was the 19th century's real-life Forrest Gump: Savior of a president, advisor to a sultan, scourge of an outlaw named Billy the Kid.

And at age 53, he wrote Ben-Hur. Fred Niblo directed the film. William Wyler, who would re-make the story in , was an assistant director.

Ben-Hur was a breakout role for year-old Ramon Novarro who, only three years earlier, had his first starring role. Francis X. Bushman played Messala. For some, the chariot race might be better than the version. Stunt men participated in an actual race, with a monetary reward to the winner. In this way, the race provides more excitement and realism than the later, largely choreographed, version. It opened on December 30, , at the George M.

Cohan Theater in New York City and received rave reviews. With the advent of television into many American homes in the s, many theaters closed and movie studios suffered. MGM decided to return to Ben-Hur in an effort to emerge from their financial difficulties. British actors played Romans and American actors, for the most part, played the Jewish characters. Wyler chose to film in both Italy and California, following the example of the production. Curiously, the only category for which it was nominated but not awarded was Best Screenplay.

This faux pas was largely the result of confusion and controversy over who had written the script. Although Karl Tunberg received credit for the screenplay, other writers, including Gore Vidal, had also worked on the script.

Many attributed the initial screenplay to Christopher Fry, but due to a falling out he did not receive credit. Nevertheless, as Charlton Heston delivered his acceptance speech for Best Actor, he made certain to thank Fry for the screenplay.

The Ben-Hur is a cultural icon. It has become an American tradition to broadcast Ben-Hur over Easter weekend. On August 19, , yet another theatrical release of Ben-Hur hit the screens.

Timur Bekmambetov directed the movie and chose to film in Italy. Christian reviewers viewed the film more favorably, but it ultimately proved a disappointment. The value of an antique book depends on its availability and condition. A museum cannot ethically give an appraisal of a book. To determine the value of your book, take it to a reputable used or antique book dealer. The Lilly Library of rare books and manuscripts owns the Ben-Hur manuscript.

See what snopes. Lew Wallace answers this question in various articles, speeches, and other of his writings. There you have the genius of the true American in those four—art, literature, invention, music.

Not coincidentally, Lew Wallace himself excelled at all four. Besides being a Civil War hero, the governor of New Mexico, and later the ambassador to Turkey, the Indiana native made and played his own violins, sketched and painted with skill, and held eight patents for various inventions, including a retractable reel hidden inside a fishing rod handle.

But it was in literature that Wallace truly made his mark. He is the only novelist honored in the National Statuary Hall of the U. And it seemed to work. At nineteen, Wallace went to fight in the Mexican War. He returned a veteran, a respectable member of society, and as a young lawyer strove to win the favor of his future wife, Susan Elston, sister-in-law of U.

Senator Henry S. Susan would prove to be an invaluable partner to Wallace as a sounding board and editor. She was a writer in her own right, publishing six books two were illustrated by Wallace , including much poetry. As the Civil War commenced, Wallace was again called to duty. He rose through the ranks quickly and at thirty-four became the youngest man in the Union Army to achieve the rank of Major General. But he was scapegoated for the huge losses at Shiloh, where thirteen thousand Union soldiers died in , the largest toll then seen in the war.

Soon after, Wallace was relieved of his command. Later, he redeemed himself at the Battle of Monocacy, where he was able to hold off the Confederate army long enough to prevent the capture of Washington, D.

He had his first novel, The Fair God , published in Wallace often told the story of how in he met on a train the well-known agnostic Colonel Robert Ingersoll. After hours of conversation in which Ingersoll questioned the evidence for God, heaven, Christ, and other theological concepts, Wallace came away realizing how little he knew about his own religion. In true lawyer style, he hit the books: First the Bible, and then every reference book about the ancient Middle East he could find.

He suspected that a novel about Jesus Christ would be scrutinized by experts, so the plants, birds, clothes, food, buildings, names, places—everything had to be exact. I wrote with a chart always before my eyes—a German publication showing the towns and villages, all sacred places, the heights, the depressions, the passes, trails, and distances. He provided detail after detail on the design of Persian versus Greek versus Roman chariots. He did everything short of going to Jerusalem himself.

He broke with myth and opted toward accuracy. There is no manger in a barn in this nativity scene. He goes to great length describing the khan, an inn of sorts named for its Persian origins, which was mostly an enclosed area chosen for shade and water.

In another familiar Biblical scene, on the banks of the Jordan, where John the Baptist blesses Jesus, we see the scene through the eyes of Ben-Hur, who is suspicious of the unwashed, unkempt John and also of a supposed king dressed as a modest rabbi and covered in dust.

Wallace placed the chariot race in the circus in Antioch the film located the race in Jerusalem, a city that never actually held a stadium. Ben-Hur frantically catches bits of information and gossip, and not knowing how it will end or what to make of it. I have heard him speak. I was at the crucifixion. As far as it goes, this confession is broad and unqualified, and it ought and would be sufficient were it not that books of mine— Ben-Hur and The Prince of India —have led many persons to speculate concerning my creed.