The architect had not stopped to bother about columns and porticos, proportions or interiors, or any limitation upon the epic he sought to materialize; he had simply made a servant of Nature - art can go no further.

Lew Wallace rejoined his father in Indianapolis. His father was a graduate of the United States Military Academy in West Point New York and served as lieutenant governor and governor of Indiana.  .

Wallace served as governor of the New Mexico Territory at the time of the Lincoln County War and worked to bring an end to the fighting. Of his novels and biographies he is best known for his historical novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880) a bestselling book since its publication and called "the most influential Christian book of the nineteenth century. Lewis "Lew" Wallace (April 10 1827 – February 15 1905) was an American lawyer Union general in the American Civil War territorial governor and statesman politician and author.