Charles James Lever Papers mssLever
Gayle Richardson
The Huntington Library
June 2020
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
reference@huntington.org
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Charles James Lever papers
Creator:
Lever, Charles,
1806-1872
Identifier/Call Number: mssLever
Physical Description:
7 Linear Feet
(7 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1835-1918
Date (bulk): 1844-1872
Abstract: A collection of personal and business
correspondence, notebooks, and ephemera for the author and editor Charles James
Lever.
Language of Material: Materials are in
English.
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at
the Huntington Library for more information.
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]. Charles James Lever papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino,
California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was acquired from various sales and sources. Acquired in the Anderson
Galleries Huntington-Bixby-Church sale (lots 684-685, 688, 690-692, 694, 696-697), March
29-31, 1916. Acquired in the Anderson Galleries Huntington-Bixby sale (lots 876-878),
February 26-Mar. 1, 1917.
Two letters were transferred from the Rare Books Department: Charles James Lever to
Alexander Spencer, 1835-1856, Accession Number 138381, February 23, 1933.
Charles James Lever (1806-1872) was born in Dublin, Ireland. He graduated from Trinity
College with a B. A. in 1827 and, in 1831, obtained the degree of Bachelor's of medicine; he
did not practice medicine for many years before embarking on a fulltime literary career in
1842. He left Ireland in 1845 to live on the Continent, settling first in Brussels and then
in Florence; he would never live in Ireland again and made only short visits to Dublin and
London until the end of his life. Lever married Katherine Baker in 1832, and together they
had three daughters and one son. Besides his literary career, Lever sought additional income
as a member of the civil service and served as the vice-consul in Spezia, Italy; he later
took up the consulship at Trieste, Austria. Lever died of heart failure on June 1, 1872, and
was buried in the British cemetery at Trieste. Over the span of his literary career Lever
was the editor of the Dublin University Magazine, as well as the author of 24 extremely
popular novels, many articles and short pieces for various journals.
The collection consists of 332 items covering 1835 to 1918; it includes one manuscript by
Lever, an untitled political essay, a small number of Lever family letters, as well as a few
letters dealing with Lever's political and civil service careers. The majority of the
letters are from Lever to his wife, Kate Lever, and his oldest daughter, Julia Lever Nevill.
Of these, Lever's letters written during his visits to London and Dublin are of the most
interest as he tells of meeting Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Anthony
Trollope, and Wilkie Collins; he also discusses his latest literary work and his dealings
with his publishers. The family letters are principally concerned with the ill-health of
Kate Lever, the state of the family's finances (usually bad) and living arrangements. Also,
before the death of his son Charles in 1863, the family letters deal with the debts incurred
by "Charley," his disreputable living and Lever's search for some sort of gainful employment
for Charley. There is also one folder of ephemera containing clipped signatures,
miscellaneous envelopes, clipped catalogue descriptions, cancelled checks, and a printed
death notice; and one box containing five small notebooks and one post book, which include
some personal information, literary notes, newspaper clippings of book reviews, and lists of
letters sent.
Processed by Huntington Library staff, circa 1920, and Gayle Richardson, 2013. In 2020,
Gayle Richardson created the finding aid derived from a legacy in-house summary report.
Arranged alphabetically.
Individual call numbers included in the collection: mssHM 240-241, mssHM 269-272, and mssHM
78400-78725. The Lever letters and notebooks were among the earliest purchases of Henry E.
Huntington; at that time, only selected items were cataloged, including the notebooks (mssHM
240-241, 269-272). The remainder of the Lever material remained partially cataloged until it
was decided to bring all this material together in one collection as the Charles James Lever
papers.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Business letters -- 19th century
Ephemera -- 19th century
Letters (correspondence) -- 19th century
Notebooks -- 19th century
Dickens, Charles,
1812-1870
Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart),
1809-1898
Lever, Charles, 1837-1863
Lever, Katherine Baker, -1870
McGlashan, James,
-1858
Nevill, Julia Lever, 1833-1897
O'Sullivan, Mortimer, 1792
or 1793-1859
Thackeray, William Makepeace,
1811-1863
Trollope, Anthony,
1815-1882
Box 1, Folder 1-57
Box 5, Folder 1-50
Box 6, Folder 1-46