When Charles Lever died (in 1872), his daughters were anxious that
his biography should be written by Major Frank Dwyer, but Dwyer was
unwilling to undertake the task, and Dr W. J. Fitzpatrick volunteered
his services.
In 1896 I asked Mrs Nevill, the novelist’s eldest daughter, if she would
be willing to furnish a new biography of her father. In replying to
me, Mrs Nevill said that although she felt “most intensely the utter
inefficiency of Mr Fitzpatrick’s ‘Life,’” she feared her health would
not permit her to undertake a task so serious as the one I proposed,
but she would willingly give me any help in her power either for a new
biography or for a revised edition of the existing ‘Life.’
Mrs Nevill died, somewhat suddenly, in 1897, and, so far as I could
ascertain, she left no material for a new or for a revised biography of
her father. Shortly after her death I obtained from Mr Crafton Smith--a
son-in-law of Charles Lever--a collection of letters written by
the novelist. Amongst this collection was a series (addressed to Mr
Alexander Spencer, a lifelong friend of the author of ‘Harry Lorrequer,’
residing in Dublin) covering, practically, the whole period of the
novelist’s literary career. Other letters written by Lever to his
friends also came into my hands; and last year Mr William Blackwood
was good enough to place at my disposal Lever’s correspondence with the
House of Blackwood during the years 1863-1872.
After due consideration, it seemed to me that a Life of Lever wrought
out of his letters and other autobiographical material would present the
man and the story-writer in a more intimate and pleasing light than the
picture which is furnished by Dr Fitzpatrick. In the present work I
have endeavoured to let Charles Lever speak for himself whenever it is
possible to find authentic utterances. Incidentally many errors into
which Dr Fitzpatrick had fallen are corrected, but I am not making
any attempt to supersede his painstaking, voluminous, and interesting
biography. Dr Fitzpatrick declares that his book “largely embraces the
earlier period of Lever’s life”; the present work deals mainly with his
literary life, and contains, especially in the second volume, fresh
and illuminating material which was not disclosed to Lever’s previous
biographer, and which affords an intimate view of the novelist as he saw
himself and his work.
I am indebted to Mr Crafton Smith for the series of letters addressed
to Alexander Spencer, and for other letters and documents; to Mr T.
W. Spencer for his permission to use certain letters in his possession
addressed to Dr Burbidge; to Mr James Holt for letters written by
Charles Lever’s father; and to Mrs Blackwood Porter and Mr William
Blackwood for the letters written to Mr John Blackwood. Also I have to
thank Messrs T. and A. Constable for their permission to avail myself of
the autobiographical prefaces which Lever wrote during the last year of
his life.