![]() ![]() She was fully recognized by him as an intellectual and literary equal. Susan, without a doubt, was Lew’s collaborator and co-researcher. Lew was a prolific writer and a man of great personal accomplishment, who, among other distinctions, was a Civil War general, Governor of New Mexico Territory (1878-1881), and an ambassador to Turkey. Later in life, she was exempted from ordinary critique as a “female writer” because she was the wife of General Lew Wallace, author of Ben-Hur, the best-selling book of the 19th century. ![]() One of those poems was anthologized and widely circulated in a children’s textbook. Initially, as a young woman she had more or less lived the stereotype by publishing poetry on domestic subjects. ![]() When fine work by women disappeared and men’s work became classics, an unknown cost fell upon our culture and our vision of ourselves as a nation.Īs a writer, Susan Wallace (1830-1907) possessed certain attributes that partially set her apart her from the “female writer” stereotype. These female authors practiced their craft seriously and sold well, yet were never regarded as important as male writers whose subjects were presumed to be nobler, of higher value. Susan Wallace, courtesy of the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum.Īlong with many of her fellow 19th-Century sisters of the pen, Susan Elston Wallace and her work are little known to us today. ![]()
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