The Sword & the Pen

The Sword & the Pen: A Life of Lew Wallace
By Ray E. Boomhower

This new biography for young readers tells of the ups and downs of Lew Wallace’s amazing days. The Sword & the Pen includes numerous photographs and illustrations of Wallace and the people he met and events he participated in during his lifetime. The son of an Indiana governor, Wallace became passionate about books and combat. He tried to win fame through service for the Union on the battlefield during the Civil War, but instead won honor and glory through a quieter pastime: writing. His novel Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ became one of the country’s best loved books. He was also a lawyer, an Indiana state senator, governor of New Mexico Territory, a diplomat, and more.

The Sword and the Pen Teacher Resource

Hardcover, 162 pages. IHS Press, 2005. ISBN 0871951851.


About the author
Ray E. Boomhower is senior editor with the Indiana Historical Society Press. His previous books include biographies on such Hoosier legends as Lew Wallace, Ernie Pyle and May Wright Sewall. In 1998 Boomhower received the IHS's Hoosier Historian honor.