Lew Wallace

Born in Brookville, Indiana, on April 10, 1827, Lew Wallace grew into one of the more wide-ranging public figures of his era. He served in the Mexican-American War, became a lawyer and politician in Indiana, and then rose to national prominence as a Union general during the Civil War.

After the war, Wallace continued in public service as governor of the New Mexico Territory and later as U.S. minister to the Ottoman Empire. Alongside that work, he wrote fiction and memoir, drawing on his interest in history, religion, and dramatic storytelling.

He is most closely associated with Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, the 1880 novel that became an enormous success and kept his name alive long after his death in Crawfordsville, Indiana, on February 15, 1905. Wallace's life helps explain the energy of his books: he was not only a writer, but a soldier, traveler, and public servant who had seen a great deal of the world.