Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Biography
Scope and Content
Organization and Arrangement
Indexing Terms
Items Removed from the Collection
Related Material
Descriptive Summary
Title: Bentley Family papers
Date (inclusive): 1849-1970
Collection number: 1474
Creator:
Bentley family.
Extent:
2 document boxes and 1 half document box (1.25 linear ft.)
Abstract: The Bentley family was prominent in the nineteenth-century publishing industry. Richard Bentley (1794-1871), after joining
his brother Samuel in a successful printing business (1819), partnered with Henry Colburn (1829) to begin the long-running
Standard Novels series. After dissolving the partnership with Colburn (1832), Richard began
Bentley's Miscellany (1837), which boasted Charles Dickens then W.H. Ainsworth as editors. Richard's son George Bentley (1828-1895) then grandson
Richard Bentley (1854-1936) ran Richard Bentley & Son until 1898, when it was sold to Macmillans. The collection consists
of diaries, business- and farm-related records, texts written or published by the Bentley family, and works on Bentley family
history.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library Special
Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Administrative Information
Restrictions on Access
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library Special
Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Justin G. Schiller, purchase, 1977.
Processing Note
Processed by Whitney Braun in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Kelley Wolfe Bachli,
2009.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Bentley Family papers (Collection 1474). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library.
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biography
The Bentley family was a prominent nineteenth-century British publishing family. Richard Bentley (1794-1871) joined his brother
Samuel Bentley in a successful printing business in 1819. From 1829 to 1832, Richard partnered with publisher Henry Colburn
to form Colburn & Bentley. The pair began the series Standard Novels, the successful monthly reprints that ended in 1854 with
126 volumes (and included authors such as William Godwin, Jane Austen, Victor Hugo, Washington Irving, Leigh Hunt, Letitia
Landon, and Harriet Beecher Stowe). After the split with Colburn, Richard continued to publish, and in 1837 he created the
successful
Bentley's Miscellany. Both Charles Dickens and W.H. Ainsworth edited the periodical at various points (with Dickens's Oliver Twist first appearing
in its pages), and George Cruikshank contributed illustrations. In 1866, Richard merged
Bentley's Miscellany with
Temple Bar, and his son George Bentley (1828-1895) became editor the following year, also taking on the leadership of Richard Bentley
& Son. George's son, Richard Bentley (1854-1936) then ran the business from the mid-1880s until selling it to Macmillans in
1898.
Scope and Content
Collection consists of manuscript and printed material relating to Richard Bentley (1794-1871), George Bentley (1828-1895),
and Richard Bentley (1854-1936), as well as Richard Bentley publishing and Richard Bentley & Son publishing. Manuscript materials
include diaries, farm and garden records, collected quotations from literary works, literary essays and humorous journals,
lists of works published by Richard Bentley and other firms, stock certificates, and correspondence. Published works in the
collection (often with inscriptions) include texts written or published by the Bentley family, various works related to Bentley
family history and current family circumstances (as well as works on Upton and Slough, England), works given to the Bentleys,
and printing catalogues.
Organization and Arrangement
The collection is organized into two series:
- Manuscript Material (Boxes 1, 3)
- Printed Works (Boxes 2, 3)
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
Bentley family --Archives.
Bentley, Richard, 1794-1871.
Bentley, George, 1828-1895.
Bentley, R. (Richard), 1854-1936.
Publishers and publishing --England --Archival resources.
Items Removed from the Collection
Two books were removed from the collection and individually cataloged.
- Lindsay, Lady.
Caroline. London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1888. UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library.
- Lord, Walter Frewen.
The Lost Empires of the Modern World: Essays in Imperial History. London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1897. UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library.
Related Material