GOLDEN DAWN: JOSEPH FITZGERALD MOLLOY: PUBLICATIONS
Compiled: April-June 2023
A bibliography for Molloy does exist: Joseph Fitzgerald Molloy 1858-1908: A Bio-Bibliography by Evangeline Lee, 1969, as a Master’s thesis. However, Worldcat could find only the one copy, at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities; and it’s not online. So I think the list below is justified.
I haven’t included a profile of Molloy’s life in this file as he seems quite well covered by easily-available sources. There was a short obituary in the Times on Sat 28 March 1908 p12a. He’s in the DNB Supplement 1912; in ODNB volume 38 p548; and in the Dictionary of Irish Biography at www.dib.ie. Also, in 2022 I was contacted by someone intending to include new information on Molloy in a profile of one of his acquaintances. So here I’ll just say that Molloy was born into a Catholic family in county Wexford in 1858; moved to London to work in publishing in the late 1870s; and died in 1908. He was called Fitzgerald, or Fitz, rather than Joseph.
IN THE GD
Fitzgerald Molloy was initiated into the Order of the Golden Dawn on 13 May 1893; Elizabeth Mary Friend was initiated in the same ritual though the two had almost certainly not met before. Molloy chose the motto Pax vobiscum. Over the next year or so he made progress towards the level of knowledge at which members could join the GD’s 2nd, inner order, reaching the Philosophus 4=7 level; but then he resigned, on 30 July 1895.
It’s likely that Molloy was offered initiation as an acquaintance of GD founder Samuel Mathers. The two men had known each other since the mid-1880s. On 4 October 1887 Mathers was a guest at one of the ‘at homes’ Molloy regularly held; George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde were other guests that evening.
Sources:
R A Gilbert’s The GD Companion. Wellingborough Northants: the Aquarian Press 1986; p151, p93.
Bernard Shaw: The Diaries 1885-1897 in two volumes, annotated and edited by Stanley Weintraub. University Park Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press 1986: p303 entry for 4 October 1887.
Lucifer: A Theosophical Magazine volume 1 number 5 issue of 15 January 1888 pp397: review of A Modern Magician outlining an important plot device.
PUBLICATIONS
POETRY, published using the pseudonym Ernest Wilding
1881 Songs of Passion and Pain.
London: Newman and Co.
That Ernest Wilding was Joseph Fitzgerald Molloy is confirmed by (for example) Molloy’s entry in the Dictionary of Irish Biography – see www.dib.ie. It seems to be the only time he published anything using a pseudonym.
FICTION
1881 Merely Players. A Novel
London: Tinsley Brothers.
1882 It Is No Wonder. A Story of Bohemian Life
London: Hurst and Blackett.
1883 What Hast Thou Done? [A Novel.]
London: Hurst and Blackett but also London: Ward and Downey.
1886 That Villain, Romeo! [A Novel.]
London: Ward and Downey.
1887 A Modern Magician. A Romance
London: Ward and Downey. Three volumes. 1888 an American edition, New York: J W Lovell Co.
When GD founder Samuel Mathers was a guest at one of Molloy’s ‘at homes’, in October 1887, A Modern Magician had either just been published, or was just about to be. Although the front covers of the volumes have a six-pointed star on them, with a glyph in the middle, there’s less magic in the story than you would suppose; because its protagonist, Philip Amerton, refuses an offer made by the magician Benoni to teach him the magical arts. It’s hard to tell, therefore, whether Mathers gave Molloy any advice about how such a training would proceed, and what would be taught.
Molloy and George Bernard Shaw had been friends for several years when the novel was published. However, Shaw wrote a review of it that brought the friendship to an abrupt halt: after December 1887, Molloy’s name hardly appears in Shaw’s diary.
Sources:
Bernard Shaw: The Diaries 1885-1897 in two volumes, annotated and edited by Stanley Weintraub. University Park Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press 1986. For their friendship before the review: p417, p186, p194, p198, p294, p303; covering dates up to October 1887. On p317 the entry for 22-23 November 1887 indicates that Shaw was working on his review of A Modern Magician that night. A footnote on p186 says that Shaw’s review was published in the Pall Mall Gazette on 5 December 1887.
Shaw’s review of A Modern Magician called it pedantic, and the book didn’t fare any better in the Theosophical Society’s magazine Lucifer: A Theosophical Magazine volume 1 number 5 issue of 15 January 1888 pp397. The review was anonymous but could have been by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, who was editor at the time. However, I think someone else read the book to review it because the criticism focused on the book’s lack of literary style, rather than its occult content. It referred to stylistic and even syntactical errors in it, concluding that it could have been a lot better if Molloy had been as good at the actual writing of a novel as he had been at constructing the plot.
1890 How Came he Dead?
New York: J W Lovell Co
1890 Strange Shadow
A short story in The Woman’s World. London Paris Melbourne: Cassell and Co Ltd 1890 p586. Molloy’s friend Oscar Wilde was editor of this magazine from 1887 to 1889; perhaps he commissioned the story.
1890 In Shadow of Shame
A serial, published in Cassell’s Saturday Journal first episode 19 September 1890. London: Cassell and Co.
1891 Sweet is Revenge
New York: J A Taylor and Co. A UK edition but with a different title:
1893 as His Wife’s Soul. [A Novel.]
London: Hutchinson and Co. 3 volumes. 1895, another edition.
1891-92 An Excellent Knave
Cassell’s Saturday Journal in weekly instalments 26 September 1891 to 19 March 1892: details seen at Bassett, Troy J. "Periodical: Cassell's Saturday Journal." At the Circulating Library: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837-1901, 30 March 2023, http://www.victorianresearch.org/atcl/show_periodical.php?jid=85. Accessed 7 May 2023.
The serial was published in book form in 1893:
1893, 1894 An Excellent Knave. [A Novel.]
London: Hutchinson and Co. American edition 1901 as An Excellent Knave: A Jewel Mystery. New York: Street and Smith. A German translation? - 1905 as Der Diamanten – Raub, Gotha: Bartholomaeus. A reissue or a new translation, as Der Diamanten – Diebstahl, 1912 Berlin: Verl-Institut.
1897 A Justified Sinner. A Tale
London: Downey and Co.
Finally two works in translation, published after Molloy’s death and apparently from originals by him:
1909 Oriana: Román
Published V Praze; no translator’s name given.
1912 Die Bettelmaid oder
Reutlingen: Ensslin and Laiblin, translated by Berta Katscher.
HISTORY as author/compiler
1882 Court Life Below Stairs; or London Under the First Georges 1714-1760
London: Hurst and Blackett as volume 1 of a series. Reissued 1885 London: Ward and Downey.
1883 Court Life Below Stairs; or London Under the Last Georges 1760-1830
London: Hurst and Blackett as volume 2 of the series. Another edition 1897.
An abridged edition of the two volumes was published 1885 London: Ward and Downey as Court Life Below Stairs; or London Under the Four Georges. Another edition 1897.
1884, 1885 The Life and Adventures of Peg Woffington
London: Hurst and Blackett. A 3rd edition 1887. 4th edition 1894 still with Hurst and Blackett. Then a new, revised edition 1897 published London: Downey and Co. First American edition: 1892, New York: Dodd Mead. Of unknown date: an American edition New York: Athenaeum Press/The Grolier Society.
See her wikipedia page for more on Margaret Woffington (1720-60), dancer and actress in Ireland and London, lover of David Garrick and quite a few others. First woman to become a member of the Sublime Society of Beefsteaks.
Some letters have survived which were sent by Molloy to the American theatre critic, playwright and adapter of plays Augustin Daly during the period 1891-96. In 1888 Daly had published his own book on Woffington: Woffington: A Tribute to the Actress and Woman.
1885 Royalty Restored; Or, London Under Charles II
London: Ward and Downey. 2 volumes. Another edition 1887.
1886 Famous Plays, with a Discourse by Way of Prologue on the Playhouses of the Restoration
London: Ward and Downey.
1887 What Players are They? Garrick and Foote
New York: Macmillan and Co. As co-author with Nathaniel Paine. First UK edition 1888.
1888 John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera
London: Ward and Downey.
1888 The Life and Adventures of Edmund Kean, Tragedian 1787-1833
London: Ward and Downey. 1897 a new edition.
1892 The Faiths of the Peoples
London: Ward and Downey.
1896 The Most Gorgeous Lady Blessington
London: Downey and Co. 2 volumes. An American edition, apparently its 4th; unknown date, New York: Scribner’s. A UK edition with a slightly different title:
Unknown date Lady Blessington
London: The Grolier Society.
1897 The Romance of the Irish Stage
London: Downey and Co. 2 volumes. Also 1897, an American edition, New York: Dodd Mead and Co
1901 The Queen’s Comrade. Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough
London: Hutchinson and Co.
1901 Beaux and Belles of England
London: The Grolier Society. Molloy as one of several contributing authors.
1903 The Sailor King. William the Fourth, His Court and His Subjects
London: Hutchinson and Co. 2 volumes.
1904 The Romance of Royalty
London: Hutchinson and Co.
1905 The Russian Court in the Eighteenth Century
London: Hutchinson and Co. 2 volumes. 3rd edition 1906. An American edition 1905, New York: Charles Scribner’s.
1906 Sir Joshua [Reynolds] and His Circle
London: Hutchinson and Co. 2 volumes.
1908 Victoria Regina. Her Court and Her Subjects, from Her Accession to the Death of the Prince Consort
London: Hutchinson and Co. 2 volumes.
HISTORY as editor:
1894, 1895 Memoirs of Mary Robinson, “Perdita”. From the edition edited by her daughter M E Robinson
London: Gibbing and Co. Molloy also wrote the Introduction. An American edition 1895, Philadelphia: J B Lippincott Co.
1908
Memoirs of Mrs Mary Robinson, written by herself; with the lives of the duchesses of Gordon and Devonshire
De Luxe edition London: The Grolier Society. Molloy still as editor but there are several other contributors as well.
Copyright SALLY DAVIS
16 May 2023
Email me at
Find the web pages of Roger Wright and Sally Davis, including my list of people initiated into the Order of the Golden Dawn between 1888 and 1901, at:
www.wrightanddavis.co.uk
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