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Show INDIANA AS LITERARY STATE Beginning of Its Eminent Place In Lit. erature May Be Traced to Gen. Lew Wallace. It may be surmised what made Indiana In-diana a literary state: "Ben Hur" and the fortune it built Imaginative and book-minded youth of that commonwealth com-monwealth today truly no more gifted, gift-ed, In all probability, than that of any other looked upon Gen. Lew Wal- . lace's monumental work and pro- nounced It good (as the world did) and also worth while, and Imaginative youth did not bury Its talents in a napkin. It forthwith began to write and brought forth fruit, some six-fold and some ten fold honoring the example of General Wallace and establishing what Is now one of the most famed schools of literature In the world. Headed by Booth Tarklngton, Indians In-dians continues to Interpret the life of the great central American valley, aided by new colonies of writers all over the West who have followed Indiana's In-diana's lead. They, for the most part, stem from Gen. Lew Wallace and his "Ben Hur," though they have traveled far from that ancient, romantic ideal. St. Louis Globe-Democrat. |
