He described the experience as both “delightful and disappointing,” noting the clunky stagecraft and stilted acting. One reverend from San Francisco, who had never attended a play, was finally tempted into seeing the much-hyped production. More than twenty million people saw Ben-Hur on stage between 18, complete with live horses running on hidden treadmills to recreate the chariot race. For those who considered theater sinful, the spectacle of the Broadway version lured them in for twenty-one years, not to mention the touring show that required four entire trains to transport all the scenery and livestock. It became required reading in grade schools across the United States. Victorians who swore off novels because of their immoral influence eagerly picked up Ben-Hur-were even encouraged to by their pastors.

It has the appeal of a rollicking historical adventure combined with a sincere Christian message of redemption. The novel intertwines the life of Jesus with that of a fictional protagonist, the young Jewish prince named Judah Ben-Hur, who suffers betrayal, injustice, and brutality, and longs for a Jewish king to vanquish Rome. By 1900 it had been printed in thirty-six English-language editions and translated into twenty others, including Indonesian and Braille. It outsold every book except the Bible until Gone With the Wind came out in 1936, and resurged to the top of the list again in the 1960s. Since its first publication, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ has never been out of print.

First edition from the collections of the General Lew Wallace Study and Museum, Crawfordsville, IN.

Ben hur hardcover book