E. R. McClintock Dix

Life
1857-1936 [Ernest Reginald]; author of Printing in Dublin Prior to 1601 (1932) and other bibliographical works; m. Elizabeth Rachel Leech [otherwise Úna Bean Uí Dhí0sca; pseud. “Brenda”]; made an important donation of books to Marsh’s Library to form the Dix Collection; his personal collection was bequeathed to the National Library of Ireland; his correspondence and papers relating to the Irish provincial press are held in the National Archives of Ireland; issued a Report on Books Printed in Ireland in the Royal Irish Academy; an obituary appeared in Irish Book Lover, Vol. 24.

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Works
E. R. McClintock Dix, Catalogue of Early Dublin-Printed Books 1601-1700 (1898-1912); Pt. 1 (1898); Pt. II (1899); Pt. III (1902); Pt. IV (1905); Supplement (1912); 2pp. Appendix to Pt. I printed at end of Pt. II; Pts. III bound as Vol. I in some copies, with Pt. IV and Suppl. in another; List of books and pamphlets printed in Armagh in the eighteenth century [2nd edn. (Dundrum Cuala Press 1910) [Pamphlet No. 2 of Irish Bibliographical Society].

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Criticism
T. P. C. Kirpatrick, Ernest Reginald McClintock Dix 1857-1936 (1937). See also Russell Alspach, Irish Poetry From the English Invasion to 1798 (Penn. UP 1959), p.46.

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References
Bradshaw Catalogue (1916) cites as authorities, E. R. McClintock, Catalogue of Early Dublin-printed books, 1601-1700, with hist. Intro. and Bibl. notes by C Winston Dugan, 4 pts and Suppl. (Dublin 1898-1912); The Earliest Journals Published in Dublin, rep. of PRIA, 3rd ser. Vol VI., no. 1 (Dublin 1900); The Earliest Dublin Printing, with List of Books etc. printed in Dublin prior to 1601 (Dublin 1901) [also listed as Printing in Dublin Prior to 1601, 1932]. Also ‘Humfrey Powell: the First Irish Printer’, PRIA, XXXVII (Aug. 1908), sect. C, 7, pp.213-16; with J. Cassedy, List of Books, Pamphlets, etc. printed wholly, or partly, in Irish, from the earliest period to 1820 [compiled Dix and Seamus ua Casaidhe] (Dublin 1905; enl. Dublin 1913), sect. 1; Dix writes on Printing in Ireland Down to 1800, in Irish Year Book [Sinn Féin; c.1919], pp.285-89; ‘Plays Printed in Ireland by 1701,’ in Irish Book Lover 17 (1929), 36-37. See also issues of Irish Book Lover 1909-34.

National Library of Ireland, Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) contains most items in the rare book, Dix and Joly collections were added in February 2001 with the exception of pre-1801 books [online].

National Archives of Ireland holds papers and corr. on provincial book-printing in Ireland [online].

Ulster Libraries: BELFAST CENTRAL LIBRARY (Biog.), E. R. McD. Dix, McCullagh [CHECK] (1937). UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER LIBRARY (Morris Collection) holds List of Books &c. printed in Drogheda ... in the 18th c. (1904); ... Monaghan (1906); Irish Printers, Booksellers and Stationers 1726-1775 (1932). BELFAST LINEN HALL LIBRARY lists other bibliographical works.

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Notes
Brenda” was the nom-de-plume of Úna McClintock Dix [née Elizabeth Rachel Leech; 1880-1958), one of the few Irish language women authors of the Free State era and author of Cailín na Gruaige Duinne [The Brown Haired Girl] (1932) published by An Gúm; was educated in Neuchatal, Switzerland and Alexandra College, Dublin and emig. to Canada, where she taught German and English immigrants, and met and married Ernest Reginald McClintock Dix, an expert on Irish printing, on her return to Ireland. (See Art of the Free State: A Burns Library Exhibition, Boston College; online.)

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Peter Dix: Following the death of his mother Joyce in 1935, Dix (b. Reginald Peter Vignoles, in Torquay, Devonshire) was adopted by E. R. MacClintock Dix at the request of his father John, an actor-manager; Dix was a fluent Irish speaker, having studied in the Connemara Gaeltacht; ed. Newbridge College and TCD (non-grad.) and Abbey School of Acting under Lennox Robinson; the companies with which he worked incl. Louis Dalton’s, Anew McMaster’s, Ronald Ibbs’s; acted in John Littlewood’s; played with the Gate and Olympia Cos.; premiered in The Heart’s a Wonder (musical of The Playboy of the Western World) and worked with Edwards/MacLiammoir, playing Inspector Lestrade in Hugh Leonard’s The Mask of Moriarty; also films for John Huston and others.

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J. S. Crone speaks of ‘most accomplished Irish bibliographer of the present day, Mr. E. R. Mc. C. Dix’ in “Our Forerunner”, an article on John Power in the first issue of The Irish Book Lover (Aug. 1909).

Spec. contents: Esther K. Sheldon, Thomas Sheridan, 1967, p. 321 refers to a copy of Charles Johnson’s The Sultaness (1717) in the Dix Collection in the National Library of Ireland.

Cuala Edns: Two of Dix’s bibliographical studies (e.g., Printing in Armagh) were printed in limited editions by Cuala Press. [acc. Colin Smythe].

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