Ben-Hur: The Original Blockbuster - Paperback

by Jon Solomon (Author)

Ben-Hur was the first literary blockbuster to generate multiple and hugely profitable adaptations, highlighted by the 1959 film that won a record-setting 11 Oscars. General Lew Wallace's book was spun off into dozens of popular publications and media productions, becoming a veritable commercial brand name that earned tens of millions of dollars.

Ben-Hur: The Original Blockbuster surveys the Ben-Hur phenomenon's unprecedented range and extraordinary endurance: various editions, spin-off publications, stage productions, movies, comic books, radio plays, and retail products were successfully marketed and sold from the 1880s and throughout the twentieth century. Today Ben-Hur Live is touring Europe and Asia, with a third MGM film in production in Italy.

Jon Solomon's new book offers an exciting and detailed study of the Ben-Hur brand, tracking its spectacular journey from Wallace's original novel through to twenty-first century adaptations, and encompassing a wealth of previously unexplored material along the way

Back Jacket

'Jon Solomon here sets a new standard for scholarship on the reception of antiquity in the media age. His book is an epic in its own right: a thorough treatment of an astonishing literary phenomenon that still pervades our popular arts and commercial culture, even legal history.' Martin Winkler, George Mason University The complete history of the Ben-Hur phenomenon More than a century before The Hunger Games and Harry Potter, and decades before Gone with the Wind and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, General Lew Wallace's Ben-Hur was spun off into multiple popular publications and theatrical productions that earned tens of millions of dollars and became a veritable commercial brand name that earned millions more. Ben-Hur: The Original Blockbuster surveys the Ben-Hur phenomenon's unprecedented range and extraordinary endurance: numerous editions, adaptations, stage productions, movies, comic books, radio plays, and Ben-Hur companies and products were successfully marketed and sold from the 1880s and throughout the twentieth century. Today Ben-Hur musical adaptations still tour in Europe and Asia, with a third MGM film in production in Italy. Jon Solomon's new book offers an exciting and detailed study of the Ben-Hur phenomenon, tracking its spectacular journey from the writing of Wallace's novel to twenty-first-century adaptations by unearthing and copiously documenting a wealth of previously unexplored source material. Jon Solomon is the Robert D. Novak Professor of Western Civilization and Culture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. Cover image: Ben-Hur, 1959, William Wyler (c) MGM/The Kobal Collection Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN [PPC] 978-1-4744-0794-6 [Pb] 978-1-4744-0795-3 Barcode

Author Biography

Jon Solomon is Robert D. Novak Professor of Western Civilization and Culture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of Giovanni Boccaccio: The Genealogy of the Pagan Gods (Harvard University Press, 2011), The Ancient World in the Cinema: Revised and Expanded Edition (Yale University Press, 2001), Ptolemy's Harmonics: Translation and Commentary (Brill, 1999), The Ancient World in the Cinema (A. S. Barnes & Co, 1978), Ancient Roman Feasts and Recipes (E. A. Seemann, 1977), The Complete Three Stooges (C3 Entertainment, 2001). He is editor of Accessing Antiquity: The Computerization of Classics Studies (University of Arizona Press, 1993), Apollo: Origins and Influences (University of Arizona Press, 1994) and Ancient Worlds in Film and Television: Gender and Politics (Brill, 2013).