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Alexander Irvine Papers: Finding Aid
mssIrvine papers
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Title: Alexander Irvine Papers
Dates (inclusive): 1863-1986
Bulk dates: 1906-1941
Collection Number: mssIrvine papers
Creator:
Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941.
Extent: 290 items in 4 boxes and 4 oversize folders
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2129
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection contains the papers of Irish-American author, lecturer, and Congregationalist minister Alexander Irvine (1863-1941),
and consists mostly of Irvine’s manuscripts, chiefly dating from 1906-1941.
Language: English.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services
Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to
quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such
activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is
one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Alexander Irvine Papers, The Huntington Library, San
Marino, California.
Gift of Anna Giarretto, Alexander Irvine, Northbrook, Ill, and Robert Irvine,
Glenview, Ill. January 20, 1997.
Author, lecturer, and Congregationalist minister Alexander Irvine (1863-1941) was
born in Antrim, Ireland, in 1863, the son of Anna (née Gilmore) and Jamie Irvine,
she a Roman Catholic and he an illiterate Protestant shoemaker. He grew up working
in his father’s cobbling business which Jamie Irvine ran out of his small home. The
ninth out of twelve children, Irvine’s mother gave him little formal education as he
had to supplement his father’s income by selling newspapers instead of attending
school. The young Irvine had a religious awakening while working as a scarecrow in a
potato field, where he became overawed by the beauty of a sunset and became
convinced of a personal connection with a higher power.
Lured by their promises of an education which had for so long eluded him, Irvine
entered the British Navy and served in the Mediterranean Sea. Irvine’s acumen for
learning and his time serving in the navy had garnered him education enough to
matriculate at Oxford during a furlough. Also while on leave, Irvine wed Ellen Mary
Skeets in 1886. After two years at Oxford, Irvine determined to pursue missionary
work on the other side of the Atlantic shortly, however, and he deserted his post
for the United States with his wife and two new sons, William and Gordon, in tow.
Shortly after he had landed in New York and proselytized among the poor and homeless
in Manhattan’s Bowery district, Irvine’s first wife left him and returned to the
United Kingdom where she gave birth to their third child in 1891.
After four years preaching on the Lower East Side, Irvine suffered a nervous
breakdown and moved his family to Omaha, Nebraska. There he married Clara Maude
Hazen, the daughter of a prominent Iowa politician. His wife gave birth to an
additional four children: Robert, Anna, Maurice (known as “Swanee”), and Jack.
Irvine felt constrained in Omaha, however, and he took a position as the religious
director for the New Haven YMCA in 1898 hoping to delve back into missionary work
with the poor. He enrolled at the Yale Divinity School while preaching at the Second
Congregation Church of nearby Fair Haven and was ordained at Yale University in
tandem with his work with local labor movements and the Socialist Party. His
published writings about his life made him famous. By 1906, he had become friends
with other well-known Socialists (such as the writer Jack London) and departed New
Haven to see for himself the conditions of working people across America. The
following year Irvine relocated back to New York City where he began preaching his
brand of socialist Christianity at the Church of the Ascension in Manhattan.
By 1910, Irvine’s political entanglements had made him controversial, and he left
the Church of the Ascension to pursue a speaking and writing career from a farm in
Peekskill. The success of his autobiography
From the Bottom
Up: The Life Story of Alexander Irvine
the same year made such a move
tenable. Irvine moved to Los Angeles in 1911 to manage the mayoral campaign of
Socialist candidate Job Harriman. In California, Irvine produced his most famous
book,
My Lady of the Chimney Corner (1913), a story
based on his Irish peasant roots. Irvine adapted his literary themes to the
vaudeville stage the same year with “The Rector of St. Jude’s.” He spent the balance
of his life writing freelance for publications on either side of the Atlantic.
Irvine was found dead in his bed at his home in Hollywood, California, on March 15,
1941.
The collection consists mostly of Irvine’s manuscripts, arranged alphabetically by
title. The entirety of the first and the beginning of the second box consist of
manuscript drafts - both typescript and autograph - of chapters from the author’s
larger works. The rest of the second box consists of manuscript drafts of sermons
which Irvine gave after the turn of the century, most of them from his 1909-1910
tenure at the Church of the Ascension in New York City. The third upright box
consists entirely of Irvine’s manuscript essays, many of which appeared in
publication. Most of these manuscripts are undated but it appears the bulk of these
papers come the Irvine’s final thirty years. The collection’s final upright box
contains the rest of Irvine’s manuscripts. It also contains twenty-four folders of
Irvine’s correspondence, three folders of news clippings, six folders of ephemera,
and one folder of photos.
There are several items in oversize. Two large scrapbooks, each housed individually,
contain a great deal of ephemera, photographs, and correspondence which Irvine
himself organized. Other items in oversize include a small scrapbook containing
mainly photos and news clippings from 1922 to 1938, and a large, thin packet
containing four editions of
The Psychological Review of
Reviews
from the early 1920s. There are also two oversize manuscripts:
one a fragment from the draft of a script, and the other an undated essay titled
“The Cost of Something for Nothing.”
Subjects in the collection include: John Brown; California; Eugene Debs; Carter
Glass; Grand Army of the Republic; Hitler Youth; John L. Lewis; Abraham Lincoln;
Jack London; Mexican Revolution; New York City; Franklin Delano Roosevelt; Upton
Sinclair; socialism; tuberculosis; Mark Twain; World War I; World War II;
vaudeville; vigilantes; and Yale University.
Brown, John, 1800-1859
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “John Brown’s Chapter:” [typescript sermon] [ca. 1909-1910]. 1 item. Box 2 (22).
California
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “A California Pilgrim’s Progress:” [2 typescript drafts] [undated]. 2 items. Box 3 (5).
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “I Cover the Vigilantes of California:” [typescript essay] [ca. 1934]. 1 item. Box 3 (16).
- Subject in [Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941]. “My Home in Hollywood:” [autograph draft] [undated]. 1 item. Box 3 (35).
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “Terrorism in California:” [typescript essay] [ca. 1934]. 1 item. Box 3 (33).
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “Violence and Lawlessness in Imperial Valley, California:” [typescript essay] (1934, May 8) 1 item. Box 3 (35).
Debs, Eugene V. (Eugene Victor), 1855-1926
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “Lincoln and Debs:” [typescript sermon] [ca. 1909-1910]. 1 item. Box 2 (23).
Glass, Carter, 1858-1946
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. 1 letter [undated] to Carter Glass, 1858-1946.1 item. Box 4 (23).
Grand Army of the Republic
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “Solidarity: A Word to the Grand Army Men. Decoration Day, 1910:” [typescript sermon] (1910). 1 item. Box 2 (35).
Hitler Youth
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “The German Youth Movement:” [1 typescript and 1 autograph draft] (ca. 1920s). 2 items. Box 3 (11).
Lewis, John Llewellyn, 1880-1969
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. 1 autograph letter [undated] to John Llewellyn Lewis, 1880-1969. 1 item. Box 4 (26).
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “Lincoln and Debs:” [typescript sermon] [ca. 1909-1910]. 1 item. Box 2 (23).
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “Lincoln and Labor:” [typescript sermon] [ca. 1909-1910]. 1 item. Box 2 (24).
London, Jack, 1876-1916
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. 1 letter [undated] to Jack London, 1876-1916. Two copies. 2 items. Box 4 (27)
Mexico--History--Revolution, 1910-1920
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “Are We in League with Tyranny in Mexico?:” [typescript sermon ] [ca. 1909-1910]. 1 item. Box 2 (9).
New York (N.Y.)
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “New York: A Holy City:” [typescript sermon] [ca. 1909-1910]. 1 item. Box 2 (30).
Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “Mr. Roosevelt’s Attack on Socialism:” [typescript sermon] [ca. 1909-1910]. 1 item. Box 2 (26).
Sinclair, Upton, 1878-1968
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. 1 letter [undated] to Upton Sinclair, 1878-1968. 1 item. Box 4 (29).
Socialism
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “Changing the Social Order:” [typescript sermon] [ca. 1909-1910]. 1 item. Box 2 (11).
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “Equal Pay for Equal Work:” [typescript sermon] [ca. 1909-1910]. 1 item. Box 3 (14).
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “Mr. Roosevelt’s Attack on Socialism:” [typescript sermon] [ca. 1909-1910]. 1 item. Box 2 (26).
Tuberculosis
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “Instructional Tuberculosis Exhibit:” [typescript sermon] [ca. 1909-1910]. 1 item. Box 2 (17).
Twain, Mark, 1835-1910
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “Mark Twain on Turtles:” [typescript essay] [undated]. 1item. Box 3 (21).
Vaudeville
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. The Rector of St. Jude’s. [one-act play] (1913). 1 item. Box 1 (23).
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. The Rector of St. Jude’s . [untitled draft of a three-act play: parts typescript and autograph] [undated]. Meant to be an expansion of the original play. 1 item. Box 1 (24).
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “The Vaudeville Audience:” [typescript essay] [undated]. 1item. Box 3 (37).
Vigilantes--California
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “I Cover the Vigilantes of California:” [typescript essay] [ca. 1934]. 1 item. Box 3 (16).
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “Terrorism in California:” [typescript essay] [ca. 1934]. 1 item. Box 3 (33).
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “Violence and Lawlessness in Imperial Valley, California:” [typescript essay] (1934, May 8) 1 item. Box 3 (35).
World War, 1914-1918
- Subject in Scrapbook (1919-1929). In Oversize.
World War, 1939-1945
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “Armageddon 1941:” [incomplete autograph essay] [ca.1941]. 1 item. Box 3 (2).
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “The Crisis of 1941: A Meditation:” [autograph essay] [ca. 1941]. 1 item. Box 3 (10).
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941. “God’s Stake in this War: [2 autograph essays] [1941, Jan. 19]. 2 items. Box 3 (13).
Yale University
- Subject in Irvine, Alexander, 1863-1941.1 letter (1937, July 17) to the Corporation of Yale University, New Haven, CT. 1item. Box 4 (22).
Arranged by document type and then alphabetically author and by
title, followed by oversize.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Brown, John,
1800-1859.
Debs, Eugene V.
(Eugene Victor), 1855-1926.
Glass, Carter,
1858-1946.
Irvine, Alexander,
1863-1941 -- Archives.
Lewis, John L. (John
Llewellyn), 1880-1969.
Lincoln, Abraham,
1809-1865.
London, Jack,
1876-1916.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
(Franklin Delano), 1882-1945.
Sinclair, Upton,
1878-1968.
Twain, Mark,
1835-1910.
Grand Army of the
Republic.
Hitler-Jugend.
Yale
University.
Clergy -- California.
Clergy -- New York (State)
Congregationalists -- United
States.
Socialism -- History -- 20th century --
Sources.
Tuberculosis.
Vaudeville -- History -- 20th century
-- Sources.
Vigilantes -- California.
World War, 1914-1918.
World War, 1939-1945.
California -- History
-- 20th century -- Sources.
Mexico -- History --
Revolution, 1910-1920.
Letters (correspondence) -- United
States -- 20th century.
Manuscripts -- United States -- 20th
century.
Scrapbooks -- United States -- 20th
century.
Sermons -- United States -- 20th
century.