This collection contains correspondence, manuscript books, newspaper clippings, and printed material pertaining to the French dramatist Eugène Marin Labiche (1815-1888) and Alphonse Leveaux (1810-1893). A manuscript book titled Ville de Compiègne, Sociètè Saint-Francois-Xavier, Confèrences faites par Alphonse Leveaux, 1859-1878 includes Leveaux’s notes about meetings of the St. Francis Xavier Society, which met in Compiègne on the third Sunday of the month. Founded in 1853, the society was composed of 150 members. Highlights from this volume include visiting Naples and seeing Vesuvius and Pompeii (June 1860; p. 15); California and San Francisco (May 1861; p. 28); people met in the theatre (September 1862, p. 43); Don Quixote (November 1864; p. 61); ideas for a comedy, with text of the play included (February 1868; p. 77); Australia and Captain Cook (May 1870, p. 106); a travel narrative of Siam (May 1870; p. 106); and reading about scientific topics (February 1878; p. 138).

Lettres d’ Eugène Labiche a Alphonse Leveaux mises en ordre en accompagnies de preface, notes en lettres par Alp. Leveaux is a bound volume containing handwritten copies of correspondence from Labiche to Leveaux between 1835 and 1887, annotated by Leveaux. The volume concludes with the last letter Leveaux received before Labiche’s death. Another bound volume features a manuscript account of Leveaux’s voyage to Switzerland in June 1830.

“Les Quarante-Neuf Représentations donnèes par les Théatres de Paris au Palais de Compiégne Pendant le Règne de Napoléon III, 1852-1869, par Alphonse Leveaux” is a bound volume of Leveaux’s notes about 49 plays given by Paris theatres during the reign of Napoleon III. Playbills for the plays are also included.

The collection includes a printed copy of Labiche’s speech on the occasion of his acceptance into L’Acadèmie Francaise on November 25, 1880. The pre-eminent body on matters pertaining to the French language, the Academy was established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu. Its 40 members are elected for life. Its primary task is publishing an official dictionary of the French language. A printed copy of Eugène Labiche et L’Acadèmie, written by Leveaux, is included in the volume.

A scrapbook of newspaper clippings titled Echo de l’Oise, 1850-1880 and Progrés de L’Oise, 1853-1880 includes printed accounts of meetings of the Sociètè Saint-Francois-Xavier; speeches and prize distributions given at ceremonies held at the end of the school year; meetings of historical societies and other organizations; banquet toasts; poems about Joan of Arc; amateur theatrical plays, charades and concerts; memoirs of a trip to Palermo; and other topics.

The collection concludes with four folders containing typescripts of letters of Labiche to Leveaux. Before donating the original letters to the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, Irvin arranged them in chronological order and prepared these typescripts of them. Some of the letters bore no date, but, by studying the contents of the letters and the dates of the first performances of the plays of the author, Irvin was able to determine the month and year when they were written. Irvin noted that several letters which were in the collection when he first read them in the library of Madame de Liniers were missing when he received them.

All materials in the collection are written in French.