Ben-Hur's Unexpected Roots in the American West

Hollywood’s Golden Age epics feel unlike modern filmmaking, and Ben-Hur stands as one of their loftiest examples. The film was adapted from Lew Wallace’s novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, first published in 1880; for decades it ranked second only to the Bible in sales until Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind supplanted it.

Wallace wrote much of the novel while serving as governor of the New Mexico Territory. A veteran of the Mexican–American War and the Civil War who had served on the commission probing Lincoln’s assassination, he arrived in Santa Fe after the worst of the Lincoln County War and completed crucial chapters, including those about the crucifixion, during his governorship.

His time on the frontier intersected directly with the conflict over Billy the Kid: Wallace secured the outlaw’s testimony on the condition of a pardon, only to have the local district attorney refuse to honor the deal, leading to Billy’s escape and, ultimately, to Wallace signing the death warrant as one of his last acts in office.

United States, Santa Fe

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