Digital Rare Book :
The Prince of India or Why Constantinople Fell
By Lew Wallace
Published by Harper & Brothers, London - 1893
In Two Volumes

This novel from Wallace, the writer of Ben-Hur, recounts events leading to the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453. The legendary wandering jew, in the guise of a Prince of India aids in bringing about the downfall of the city and its empire by aiding and advising the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II.

Lew Wallace was born in Brookville, Indiana on April 10, 1827, died in 1905. Lew Wallace attended Wabash College in Crawfordsville for eight weeks, later became a lawyer and came to Crawfordsville in 1853. Wallace wanted to marry Susan Elston. But since Wallace was not a very good student when he was younger, he had to prove himself to his future father-in-law. Wallace became a state senator in 1856.
Lew Wallace served in the Mexican and the Civil War. He organized a group in Crawfordsville called the Zouaves who were getting prepared and trained in case of a war. During the Civil War he was a major general. He stopped the Confederates from capturing Washington, D.C. And he was at the court of the people who shot Abraham Lincoln. He was governor of the New Mexico Territory, also the U.S. Minister to Turkey from 1881 to 1885.
He is remembered for his books, The Fair God and Ben-Hur. Ben-Hur was published in 1880 and still is being printed today.