Life
1887-1964; [J. H. Hackett; invariable pseud. “An Philibin”]; b. Dublin; ed. CBS; Catholic University School (Marist Fathers) and UCD (Royal and National); MD and pathologist in Richmond St.; briefly entered monastery; resumed work for Dublin hospitals, Cork St. Fever Hosp. and Mercer’s, and reappointed to Richmond St.; fnd. member Gate; all works published under pseudonym [as above]; his plays include The Fourth Wise Man (n.d.); Poetry, Athens Aflame (n.d.); The Secret Altar (n.d.); Tristram and Iseult; Grass of Parnassus; also Lost Nightingale (1951), a novel about John Dowland in Ireland; other novels include The Valley of the Wild Swans (1932); Peter and Paul (1933); The Moth and the Star (1937) - about Shelley and Amelia Curran; Mount Kestrel (1945), a fantasy with interwoven stories of Phillip II and the Armada; also William Butler Yeats (1935); d. Dublin. DIW DIB IF2
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Works
Poetry, Hills of Dublin (Talbot Press 1917); The Secret Altar (Dublin: Martin Lester 1920), 24pp. [ltd.edn. 500]; Athens Aflame (Dubllin: Martin Lester [1923]; Tristram and Iseult: A Dramatic Poem (Dublin: Talbot Press 1924), 47pp.; The Sun-child: A Poem (Dublin: Talbot Press 1925), 67pp.; The Desire of the World [The Wisdom of the World] (dublin: Three Candles 1932), xl[40]pp., ill.; Grass of Parnassus (Dublin 1936).
Short stories, A Tale of Thule, together with some poems (Dublin: Talbot [192]) 56pp.; Irish Ironies: A Collection of Short Stories (Dublin & Cork: Talbot Press 1930); The Desire of the World [Tales] (Dublin 1932), ill. by Sean MacManus.
Novels, Smoking Flax (Dublin: Martin Lester [1923]), 59pp.; The Valley of the Wild Swans: A Romance (Dublin: Talbot Press 1932 [rep. 1939]), 174pp.; Peter and Paul (Dublin: Talbot Press 1933); The Moth and the Star: A Surmise (Dublin: Talbot Press 1937), 337pp.; Mount Kestrel (Dublin: Gill 1945), 129pp.; The Last Nightingale (Belfast: H. R. Carter 1952). Miscellaneous, William Butler Yeats [Famous Irish Lives Ser.] (Dublin: Talbot Press 1935).
[ See Copac for fuller listing under Pollack/An Philibin - online; accessed 1709.2023. ]
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References
Desmond Clarke, Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels, Tales, Romances and Folklore [Pt. 2] (Cork: Royal Carbery 1985), lists A Tale of Thules (Dublin: Talbot n.d.) [wild tale of Scandanavian Scotland] The Valley of Star. Clarke lists Smoking Flax (London: Martin Lester 1922), four stories [one set in Ireland, concerns boy who finds island with ancient church and fort; dies in storm under influence of pagan fort]; Irish Ironies (Talbot 1930), eight short stories [set in Dublin, melancholy and ironic]; The Desire of the World (Three Candles 1932), formerly printed as The Wisdom of the World (1919), brief mystic tales [poetic language, with St Columcille in ‘The Crane’, another in Glendalough, another based on Children of Lir]; The Valley of the Wild Swans (Talbot 1932), novel [about Hugh Tobin, of mixed parents, raised St. Stephen’s Green and Killiney, TB, travels to W. Donegal, meets Maeve dg. Belfast painter, blighted by Great War and Rising]; Peter and Paul (Talbot 1933), novel [twins, ed. respectively at TCD and UCD; Paul has doubts about the nationalism of his friend Dermot O’Byrne; brothers’ lives tragically disrupted by war and Easter Rising]; The Moth and the Star (Talbot 1937), novel [the story of Amelia Curran, dg., John Philipot and Shelley, respectively the m. and s. of the title]; Mount Kestrel (Gill 1945), novel [set on Kerry coast; narrator, having nervous breakdown, tells stories of Armada; visits monastery and mansion of Pearse ?Ferriter; features Casement landing; encounter with gipsy, and mysterious dagger]; The Last Nightingale (Belfast: H R Carter 1951), novel [days of Elizabeth I, colonist Buckley and his wife, who dislikes Ireland but finds some relief in company of John Downland, of Colesmore, Dalkey Sound; chars. incl. Raleigh, Spenser, Wingfield, et al.].
Hyland Books (Cat. 224) lists The Wisdom of the World [1st edn.] (Three Candles: 1919), ills.; Athens Aflame (1st edn. n.d.) [ltd. edn. 350]
Belfast Central Library holds An P[h]ilibin [J. H. Pollock], Athens Aflame (n.d.); Irish Ironies (1930); Mount Kestrel (1945); Sun-child (1925); Tale of Thule, together with some poems (n.d.); Tristram and Iseult (1924); also under Pollock, J. H., Hills of Dublin (1917); Books in the House (1907); The Lost Nightingale (n.d.); The Valley of the Wild Swans (n.d.); William Butler Yeats (1935).
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Notes
Namesake: Poss. relation to the author of Address to the Dublin Literary and Historical Society, 5 June 1832, by J. Pollock, Pres. of the Society (Dublin: P. Dixon Hardy, Cecilia St. 1832), 16pp. (Library of Herbert Bell).
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