The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-01-08
! HOW '.BEN HUR" WAS WRITTEN.
Gen. Wallace Tells How the hook
Was Originated and Finished.
New York Tribune

New 1ork tribune.
Gen. Lew Wallace, author of Ben Hur,
a Tale of the Christ THE Prince OF
India, and other works, Iectured in the
BROOKLYN Academy Of ri Musle sn last r evening
audience of a thousand persons listened
to him. The lecturer was greeted with APP
plause, and began by telling how in early
childhood he was interested and fascinated
by the story Of the visit of the Wise Men
to the babe of Bethlehem. Continuing. he
said: I'm 1875, when was getting over the
began to write out the story Of the Wise
Men. l thought it might prove interesting
as serial in a magazine. was not inf1u-
enced by religious sentiment in the least.
/ had no convictions of God or Christ.
neither believed nor dsbelieved. Preachers
had no influence upon me. l had perfect
indifference to what a French scientist
called The tomorrow of DEATH But the
work was begun reverently and was prose-
cuted at times with awe, but this was pure
ly natural. My characters became living
persons TO me, and they would arise, sit,
look. talk ( and behave. like living persons.
them by their features. They would answer
when l called, and some would become ia
miliar and call me and | would recognize
AT first I had thought of the COM
plete work ana wrote only TIE first part
sion of God, heaven, the hereafter. and
Christ. and as ! was trudging along home
these things and decided to study the
whole matter l made up ny mind to
give my attention to the tour gospels. How
to interest myself and make this pastme
was the question, and | thought Of the
and decided to complete 1t by gong to
His death. The subject was dramatic and
full of possibilities in the reVelat ton of God
in person. But there WIS n long zap be-
tween His boyhood and reaDpea-ance as
man with a mission.
After weeks of reflection I decided tn
show the social religious and political condi-
tons of the intervening period. There was
furnished the politics. / had to conceive
the religion, and SO created the Hur family
as types of the Jewish race. In the Chris
tian incidents / set forth the power of a
miracle. had never been to the Holy Land,
geography. but to study the customs and
costumes of the various peoples. 1 sent for
everything I could discover bearing upon
the land and peoples. and wrote
with maps and authorities at hand con-
stantly The greatest difficulty 1 found
was not the invention of incidents and the
choice of characters. i knew the Chris
tan world would not have novel with
Christ the hero, but | had to bring Him in,
and / had to avoid all sermonzing. To do
this held the temperance of the Savior
until the last hours. having Him always
cided not to have Him an actor in any
scene l invented. All His utterances were
to be in the words of the gospels In the
five years given to the work only a small
period was given to the writing, but the
greater part to the study and research
needed. / carried the subject with ME
railway journeys and wrote one chapter on
a delayed trip to indianapolis.
"r wrote most of the book at my home in
Charlottesville, Ind / have done much
der a great beech tree near the house.
wrote the last chapter of -'Ben-Rur'' at
Santa Fe, in the old adobe palace l chose
the name .Ben-Hur'' because it was bibli-
cal, euphonous and simple. became be-
lever in God and Christ long before
ended the work. had not visited the Holy
Land before | had written the work. But
afterward, when United States minister to
Turkey, paid official visit to the Holy
Land. / found | had made no mistakes,
and also that many things / had merely
imagined. were real. 1t seemed to that
I had written in the book of things l had
seen in some former period of existence
In conclusion General Wallace said that
he had frequently been asfsed what Fart Of
the book he thought the best. All he could
say was that the par. which gives him
the greatest satisfaction was that which
described the interview With 8en-IIrr and
the two friends to whom he described b. =
experiences in Following the Christ. Tire
writing of it convinced HIM of the divinity
of Christ and the authenticity II the record
of His life.