Ben-Hur, A Tale of the Christ (Forgotten Books)

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ is a novel by Lew Wallace published on November 12, 1880 by Harper & Brothers. Wallace's work is part of an important sub-genre of historical fiction set among the characters of the New Testament. The novel was a phenomenal best-seller; it soon surpassed Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) as the best-selling American novel and retained this distinction until the 1936 publication of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. In 1912, Sears Roebuck published one million copies to sell for 39 cents apiece: the largest single-year print edition in American history. The book was also the first work of fiction to be blessed by a pope. (Quote from wikipedia.org)

About the Author

Lewis Wallace (1827 - 1905)
Lewis "Lew" Wallace (April 10, 1827 - February 15, 1905) was a lawyer, governor, Union general in the American Civil War, American statesman, and author, best remembered for his historical novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.

Wallace was born in Brookville, Indiana, to David and Esther French Test Wallace. His father served as lieutenant governor and Indiana Governor; his stepmother, Zerelda Gray Sanders Wallace, was a prominent temperance advocate and suffragist.

In 1836, at the age of nine, he joined his brother in Crawfordsville, Indiana where he briefly attended Wabash Preparatory School. Afterwards he joined his father in Indianapolis.

Wallace served in the Mexican War in 1846 as a first lieutenant with the 1st Indiana Infantry regiment. He was admitted to the bar in 1849. In 1851 he was elected prosecuting attorney of the First Congressional District.

On May 6, 1852, Wallace married Susan Arnold Elston by whom he had one son, Henry Lane Wallace (born February 17, 1