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Pease (Lute) Papers
mssPease
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Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Lute Pease papers
Identifier/Call Number: mssPease
Physical Description:
11.17 Linear Feet
(8 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1856-1965
Date (inclusive): bulk
1865-1939
Language of Material: Materials are in
English.
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responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining
permission rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item], Lute Pease papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino,
California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Virginia Hayward, June 1965.
Lucius Curtis Pease (March 27, 1869-August 16, 1963), born in Winnemucca, Nevada and raised
by grandparents in Charlotte, Vermont from the age of five after the death of his parents,
made his mark on the world in many fields. Reporter, prospector, editor and Pulitzer
Prize-winning cartoonist, his many careers spanned much of the century and took him from the
frontier of territorial Alaska to the editorial rooms of the Newark (N. J.)
Evening News. Known by the nickname Lute (this nickname is used
throughout the collection to distinguish him from his father, with whom he shared first and
middle names), Pease had come back to the West from Vermont after graduating from high
school. Although he never fulfilled his aspiration to study art in Paris, his artistic and
literary bent found many outlets for expression. Beginning as a reporter and artist for the
Portland
Oregonian in the 1890s, he was deeply involved with
literature and journalism for the rest of his life. Even during the five years he spent
hunting gold and adventure in the Yukon and Alaska, he enlivened the letters and diaries he
sent home to relatives with his quick wit and his sketches of people and places. Upon his
return from the North, he joined the staff of
The Pacific Monthly,
a literary magazine in Portland, eventually rising to the post of editor. Before the
magazine's absorption by
Sunset Magazine in 1912, Pease's
intelligent and independent editing made it a journal of progressive reform and literary
excellence. Following several years at loose ends, he joined the
Evening News of Newark, New Jersey, in 1914. For the next forty years, he remained
at the paper, capping a distinguished career with the receipt of a Pulitzer Prise in 1949.
From his retirement in 1954 until his death in 1963, he devoted himself to fostering his
skills as a painter of portraits and landscapes.
The collection consists of letters written by Lute's parents to each other during their
courtship and during his father's pioneering in Nevada, letters between Lute and various
members of his family including his sisters throughout his life, Pease's diaries during his
sojourn in Alaska, literary manuscripts authored by Pease, Charles Warren Stoddard, Charles
Erskine Scott Wood, and others, some correspondence about literary magazines in the West,
and various biographical materials about the Pease family. At the end of the collection are
a number of clippings, printed versions of editorial cartoons, Pease's scrapbook and other
printed items and ephemera.
Mining and settlement in 1860s Nevada, prospecting and settlement in the Yukon Territory
and Alaska 1897-1901, West Coast literary magazines in the early twentieth century, Pease
family history.
Letter from James B. Pond to Lute Pease about Mark Twain's meeting with Pease, written Sep.
12, 1895 (HM 51785), a diary kept by Lute Pease in Alaska from Apr. 15 through June 24, 1899
(HM 51734), Lute Pease's letter to Helen (Hutton) Webster and others from Noatak River,
Alaska, Dec. 3, 1901, describing life in Alaska and his tasks as a U. S. Commissioner (HM
51759), a 55-page diary-letter to Virginia (Pease) Hunt from Noatak River, Alaska Feb. 28,
1902 (HM 51746), a typewritten manuscript of To the Meadow Lark a poem by C. E. S. Wood with
corrections in the author's hand, Feb. 1907 (HM 51828), In Old Bohemia. II. The `Overland'
and the Overlanders, an essay by charles Warren Stoddard about
The
Overland Monthly
(HM 51797), a letter from William Simon U'Ren to Pease, Mar. 9,
1908, commenting upon Oregon politics (HM 51805), a letter from Maynard Dixon to Pease, c.
1913, with an ink sketch on recto (HM 51583), a letter from C. E. S. Wood to Pease, May 17,
1917, commenting upon the moral dimension of the European war (HM 51833), a letter from C.
E. S. Wood to Pease, Feb. 22, 1928, describing his Alaska experiences (HM 51835), a letter
from the Huntington Library to Pease, Apr. 22, 1936, asking if he would donate copies of one
or two published cartoons to a budding collection of political cartoons (HM 51637), and Lute
Pease's notes about Mark Twain, Jack London, and other prominent figures, c. 1947 (HM
51732).
Persons represented by three or more items
- Hunt, Virginia (Pease) - 17 letters
- Hutton, Lydia (Furness) - 12 letters
- Pease, Lucius Curtis - 59 letters
- Pease, Lute - 19 letters
- Pease, Mary Isabel (Hutton) - 13 letters
- Pilcher, George M. - 17 letters
- Webster, Helen (Hutton) - 7 letters
- Wood, Charles Erskine Scott - 7 letters
- Wood, Sara Bard (Field) - 6 letters
- Five of the C. E. S. Wood letters are photostatic copies of originals housed in the C. E. S. Wood Collection
- Lute Pease photograph collection, PhotCL 360
Processed by Huntington staff in 1986. In 2000, Xiuzhi Zhou created the finding aid.
Correspondence and manuscripts are interfiled chronologically in Boxes 1 through 4 with
clippings, printed cartoons, sketches and other printed items and ephemera are stored in
Boxes 5-8.