Mortenson (Ouachita Baptist), has written an excellent biography of Lew Wallace (1827-1905), the ... Mortenson also gives us brief looks at Wallace’s literary career – Ben Hur was not his only book, ...

But before either version of the film existed, there was a 500+ page novel called Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ, published in 1880 by Lew Wallace ... all-time bestselling books in the U.S. until ...