Material Bibliography

Title Page with title, author and publisher. Significantly the author did not use a pseudonym. 

The reverse side of the title page has handwritten details made by Harvard Library.

The binding of the book with the Harvard Library name at the base. 

At the end of the book there is a page for each of the authors other works, notice that for creator "by the same writer" is used rather than his name. 

The Fireside Stories of Ireland is a collection of folklore from Ireland collected and written by Patrick Kennedy, a nineteenth century Irish Folklorist. The book was published in 1870, in one of the last years of the author’s life by McGlashan and Gill; and Patrick Kennedy in Dublin. The title page also indicates London and Edinburgh publishers, different from the Dublin publisher, perhaps indicating a network of publishers. The other significant element of the title page is the listing of other works by the author. This is particularly interesting in Patrick Kennedy’s case, because at least two of the works listed were written under a pseudonym. On the reverse of the title page are a number of marks made by the Harvard Library as well as an indication as to where the book was printed. This last element is interesting as there is a difference between the publisher and where the book was printed, which was done by R.D. Webb and Son on Abbey Street. Dublin is not listed in the address although it indicates a Dublin street. This may point to the indication that the publisher was in Dublin. This library include an acquisition stamp dating September 1900, and penciled writing indicating that the copy was purchased to replace a lost copy. There are also a few numbers at the bottom of the page, which according to a Houghton Librarian indicate year of rebinding. Harvard redid the binding. Whether Harvard initially bought the book unbound is unclear, however today it has been rebound and bears the Harvard Library imprint on the spine. The rest of the peritext comes at the end of the book. The last filled pages of the book are made up of single page blurbs pulled from newspapers about other books by the author. This again adds to the question of pseudonym and authorship. The books Patrick Kennedy published under a name other than his own are listed as being “by the same writer” rather than by Patrick Kennedy.  This section deserves further investigation as to the questions of authorship and publisher and how that might be dealt with in the context of promotion.