Wallace, Lewis

Wallace, Lewis

▪ American author
born April 10, 1827, Brookville, Ind., U.S.
died Feb. 15, 1905, Crawfordsville, Ind.
 American soldier, lawyer, diplomat, and author who is principally remembered for his historical novel Ben-Hur.

      The son of an Indiana governor, Wallace left school at 16 and became a copyist in the county clerk's office, reading in his leisure time. He began his study of law in his father's office but left to recruit volunteers for the Mexican War, in which he served from 1846 to 1847. In 1849, already a practicing attorney in Indianapolis, he was admitted to the bar. In the American Civil War he served with the Union forces and attained the rank of major general of volunteers. At the Battle of Monocacy (Monocacy, Battle of) (July 9, 1864), he was defeated by the Confederate general Jubal A. Early but nevertheless prevented the latter from capturing the Federal capital, Washington, D.C. He served as president of the courts of inquiry that investigated the conduct of the Union general D.C. Buell and condemned the Confederate captain Henry Wirz, commander of the notorious Confederate prisoner-of-war camp at Andersonville, Ga. He was a member of the court that tried the persons charged with assassinating President Abraham Lincoln. In 1865 Wallace resigned from the army and returned to law practice. He held two diplomatic positions by presidential appointment. He was governor of New Mexico (1878–81), and then minister to Turkey (1881–85).

      Though Wallace also wrote poetry and a play, his literary reputation rests upon three historical novels: The Fair God (1873), a story of the Spanish conquest of Mexico; The Prince of India (1893), dealing with the Wandering Jew and the Byzantine Empire; and above all Ben-Hur (1880), a romantic tale set in the Roman Empire during the coming of Christ. Its main character, a young Jewish patrician named Judah Ben Hur, loses his family and freedom because of the injustice of a Roman officer but eventually triumphs through his own abilities and the intervention of Jesus. Ben-Hur was an enormous popular success and was made into a play and a motion picture (1925) and then remade on a spectacular scale in another motion-picture version (1959). Lew Wallace: An Autobiography was published in 1906.

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Wallace,Lewis — Wallace, Lewis. Known as “Lew.” 1827 1905. American general, diplomat, and writer known especially for his novel Ben Hur (1880). * * * …   Universalium

  • Wallace, Lewis — ► (1827 1905) Escritor estadounidense. Autor de la novela Ben Hur (1880), que ha sido llevada al cine …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Wallace, Lewis — (1827 1905)    Novelist, b. at Brookville, Indiana, served with distinction in the Mexican and Civil Wars, and rose to the rank of General. He was also a politician of some note, and was Governor of Utah and Minister to Turkey. His novel, Ben Hur …   Short biographical dictionary of English literature

  • wallace — (Alfred Russel) (1823 1913) naturaliste anglais. Explorateur de l Australie, il fonda la biogéographie. Wallace (Edgar) (1875 1932) auteur anglais de nombreux romans policiers: le Masque jaune. Wallace (Lewis, dit Lew) (1827 1905) romancier… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Wallace — Wallace, Alfred Russell Wallace, Edgar Wallace, George Corley Wallace, Henry Agard Wallace, Lewis * * * (as used in expressions) Carothers, W(allace) H(ume) Eckert, Wallace J(ohn) Ross, Harold W(allace) Stegner, Wallace (Earle) Stevens, Wallace …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Lewis Wallace — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Lewis et Wallace. Lewis Wallace Lewis « Lew » Wallace (10 avril  …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Wallace — /wol is, waw lis/, n. 1. Alfred Russel /rus euhl/, 1823 1913, English naturalist, explorer, and author. 2. George Corley /kawr lee/, born 1919, U.S. politician: governor of Alabama 1963 67, 1971 79, and 1983 87. 3. Henry (Agard) /ay gahrd/, 1888… …   Universalium

  • lewis — /looh is/, n. a device for lifting a dressed stone, consisting of a number of pieces fitting together to fill a dovetailed recess cut into the stone. [1730 40; perh. after the surname of the inventor] * * * (as used in expressions) Ferdinand… …   Universalium

  • Lewis — /looh is/, n. 1. C(ecil) Day, 1904 72, British poet: poet laureate after 1968. 2. C(live) S(taples) /stay peuhlz/, ( Clive Hamilton ), 1898 1963, English novelist and essayist. 3. Gilbert Newton, 1875 1946, U.S. chemist. 4. (Harry) Sinclair, 1885 …   Universalium

  • Lewis E. Parsons — Lewis Eliphalet Parsons (* 28. April 1817 im Broome County, New York; † 8. Juni 1894) war ein US amerikanischer Politiker (Demokratische Partei) und der 19. Gouverneur von Alabama …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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