Thrilling Whodunit Kicks Off Brown Bag Book Club

CRAWFORDSVILLE, IN, May 29, 2010— A mysterious, holy grail–like object containing a document with the potential to bring about peace between the different peoples of the world is at the center of the exciting novel The Abyssinian Proof by Jenny White, the first selection for the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum’s annual Brown Bag Book Club. The discussion for this book will take place on Tuesday, June 8, 2010 from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m., and participants are invited to bring their lunches for an interesting afternoon dialogue.

Set in late-nineteenth-century Istanbul, this gripping story features city magistrate Kamil Pasha, the protagonist of White’s earlier novel The Sultan’s Seal, who must expose a smuggling ring and recover a stolen reliquary, a box that contains a secret message known as the “Proof of God.”

“Our book club selections are meant to illustrate times and places in history that Lew Wallace would have been familiar with,” said Amanda Wesselmann, Associate Director of the Museum and leader of this month’s discussion. “The Abyssinian Proof is fiction, but since Lew Wallace was U.S. minister to the Ottoman Empire during the early 1880s, the descriptions of the area and the historical events of that time were in line with what he experienced.”

The Abyssinian Proof and future Brown Bag Book Club selections can be purchased at the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum Gift Shop for 10% off the cover price. For questions about the Museum’s exciting summer of events, contact the Museum at 765-362-5769 or visit www.ben-hur.com.

INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM DAY TO BE HELD MAY 16, 2010

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Indiana, May 8, 2010—The General Lew Wallace Study and Museum in Crawfordsville announced today that it will join museums around the world in observing International Museum Day on Sunday, May 16. The International Council of Museums (ICOM) has announced this year’s theme for International Museum Day: “Museums for Social Harmony”.

ICOM created International Museum Day in 1977 to encourage awareness about the role of museums in the development of society. Momentum has been rising unabated ever since. In 2009, more than 20,000 museums in 90 countries from Australia to Zimbabwe participated.

The General Lew Wallace Study and Museum will be celebrating International Museum Day from 1:00 – 4:30 p.m. with free tours of its facilities and light refreshments. The public will also have the chance to see the Museum’s newest exhibit, “Sanctuary: Preserving the Legacy of Lew Wallace.” Visitor Services & Marketing Coordinator Kara Edie believes this year’s Museum Day theme is an apt one: “Montgomery County is overflowing with riches of cultural heritage. On days like this, we get a lot of local visitors, and it’s wonderful to watch their appreciation of this area grow as they learn about the amazing things that have happened here in the past.”

For further information about ICOM and International Museum Day, visit their website at http://icom.museum/imd.html. More information about the event at the General Lew Wallace Study and Museum can be found by calling 765-362-5769 or by visiting our website at http://www.ben-hur.com.

Mark Twain Said What?

According to a recent article in the New York Times, celebrated author Mark Twain was “often savage in his commentary” on other literary works. Writing in the margins, as was common among voracious readers of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Twain edited already-published volumes by renowned authors Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, and our own Lew Wallace.

So what did he think of Wallace’s writing style? Twain’s handwriting on one of the endpages of his copy of Wallace’s 1906 Autobiography is pictured here, and the transcription below spells it out clearly:





“The English of this book is incorrect & slovenly & its diction, as a rule, barren of distinction. I wonder what ‘Ben-Hur’ is like.”

This may be professional jealousy on Twain’s part. After all, Wallace’s epic – which Twain had apparently not read – outsold Twain’s work handily.

On the other hand, he’s kind of right. I mean, a two-volume autobiography? I’m not sure if he learned to be long-winded or if it was just his personality, but Lew could go on a bit. Modern readers in particular can get lost in the flowery, descriptive sentences that fill Lew’s writings. But, if it was “slovenly”, as Twain puts it, then why was Ben-Hur so popular? Was Mark Twain’s grammatical knowledge that far above the masses, or was he nitpicking other authors of popular works?

Frankly, even as a self-proclaimed “grammar Nazi”, I find Twain’s comments unnecessarily abrasive. True, some of his better-known works – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, for instance – contain diction that is quite distinctive, enough to prompt some school districts to ban some of them from the required reading list. But, is his work “correct” enough to qualify him to criticize so harshly? Wallace was not the only recipient of his reproach. Perhaps the question for the ages is not so much, “did Lew Wallace’s writings measure up?” as, “can Mark Twain make these claims?”

Ben-Hur vs. Twilight

“So Ben-Hur was the Twilight of the 1800s.”

Out of the mouths of babes – an eighth-grader on a recent school visit made a striking connection between the popularity of Lew Wallace’s masterwork and the rise of new novels made into films. One aspect of the Ben-Hur legacy is merchandising in a variety of franchises and media – books, films, comics, you name it. Just as Mel Brooks immortalized in the film Spaceballs, after Ben-Hur rose to great fame they came out with Ben-Hur the children’s books, Ben-Hur the action figures, Ben-Hur the hairpins, Ben-Hur the freezer...and on and on. Merchants figured they could sell just about everything imaginable by attaching the name of a popular novel to the products. The concept has continued into modern literature and films as merchants continue to market lunchboxes, posters, and clothing by attaching images of popular media. It all comes back to Ben-Hur.

Lew Wallace's 183rd Birthday Party

Lew Wallace's 183rd Birthday Party, originally uploaded by WallaceStudy.

Kids compete at tug-of-war at Lew Wallace's 183rd Birthday Celebration on the grounds of the General Lew Wallace Study and Museum on Saturday, April 10, 2010.

Lew Wallace's 183rd Birthday Party

Lew Wallace's 183rd Birthday Party, originally uploaded by WallaceStudy.

Young visitors color stained glass designs at Lew Wallace's 183rd Birthday Celebration on the grounds of the General Lew Wallace Study and Museum on Saturday, April 10, 2010.

Lew Wallace's 183rd Birthday Party

Lew Wallace's 183rd Birthday Party, originally uploaded by WallaceStudy.

Visitors try walking with old-fashioned stilts at Lew Wallace's 183rd Birthday Celebration on the grounds of the General Lew Wallace Study and Museum on Saturday, April 10, 2010.