Lot 168: Author of “Ben-Hur,” Lew Wallace, Negotiates Royalty Payments with his Publisher

WALLACE, LEW. (1827-1905). American soldier, lawyer, diplomat, and author; chiefly remembered for his immensely popular historical novel, Ben-Hur. ALS. (“Lew Wallace”). 1p. 8vo. Crawfordsville, April 25, 1903. To Mr. Brooks, a publisher.

“Replying to your last favor, I beg to say there is nothing now discernable to take me East. And in the matter of The Prince of India we seem so far apart respecting the royalty that the prospect of an arrangement looks discouraging. Did I take less than the percent proposed in my last note it would be lowering my standard – that is my feeling…”

Wallace, the son of a congressman and governor of Indiana, was a veteran of the Mexican-American War, after which he practiced law, ran a free-soil newspaper and was elected to political office before organizing the Crawfordsville Guards Independent Militia, later part of the 11th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. As commander of these troops, Wallace rose to the rank of major general during the Civil War, earning some disapprobation for orders given during the Battle of Shiloh. Nonetheless, following the assassination of President Lincoln, Wallace was appointed to the military commission that investigated the conspirators.

Wallace published The Fair God; or, The Last of the ‘Tzins in 1873 and Commodus: An Historical Play in 1876. He served as governor of the New Mexico Territory from 1878-1881 and during that time, in his hours of leisure, he penned Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ at his home in Crawfordsville and in Santa Fe. The novel tells the stories of a 1st-century enslaved Jewish prince turned charioteer, Judah Ben-Hur, concurrently with that of Jesus, a controversial subject for fiction at the time.

Although meticulously researched, Ben-Hur was panned by literary critics, yet it captured the popular imagination. By 1900, it had outsold Uncle Tom’s Cabin to become the 19th century’s most popular novel and made Wallace a wealthy man. It remained America’s best-selling novel until it was surpassed by Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind in 1936. Still a popular favorite, Ben-Hur inspired a play and two motion pictures.

Our letter, written from Wallace’s home in Crawfordsville, Indiana, concerns royalties for his 1893 book The Prince of India; or, Why Constantinople Fell, which he considered his best work.

Folded with some slight separation along the folds and related, but minor wear; in fine condition.

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