New Mexico Historical Review Volume 60 Number 2 Article 2 4-1-1985 Lew Wallace: Hoosier Governor of Territorial New Mexico, 1878–81 Oakah L. Jones Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmhr Recommended Citation Jones, Oakah L.. "Lew Wallace: Hoosier Governor of Territorial New Mexico, 1878–81." New Mexico Historical Review 60, 2 (1985). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmhr/vol60/iss2/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in New Mexico Historical Review by an authorized editor of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected]. LEW WALLACE: HOOSIER GOVERNOR OF TERRITORIAL NEW MEXICO, 1878-81* OAKAH L. JONES Touching your inquiry whether Ben-Hur was written in- the Old Palace of Santa Fe, I beg to say it was finished there. That is, the MS was completed at the time of the appointment to the gover norship of New Mexico (1877) [sic] down to the Sixth book of the volume and I carried it with me.... When in the city, my habit was to shut myselfafter night in the bedroom back of the executive office proper, and write 'till after 12 o'clock. The sixth, seventh, and eighth books were the results, and the room has ever since been associated in my mind with the Crucifixion. The retirement, im penetrable to incoming sound, was as profound as a cavern's. I SO WROTE ex-territorial governor ofNew Mexico Lew Wallace nine years after his resignation and departure from Santa Fe for his new appointment as United States Minister to Turkey.