There’s a copy of Irish Folk Music, An Interesting Hobby by Chief O’Neill (3rd reprint, 1977) on eBay. Buy-it-now price is $600:
Is the book really that rare? 
Says it all. Wow!
No, it’s not that rare. If you pay more than $100 you are being taken for a long ride. And do you really need the book in your hands? Billh has it available on-line: http://billhaneman.ie/history.html
djm
It is also available electronically in NPUs online library.
Actually IMO it is that rare. It can be found for under $200 US but you have to look diligently (and possibly not online - I don’t believe the online book search engines have any copies advertised for under $600 at the moment).
The NPU archive version isn’t very searchable (I and others have not found the search to be very good, it isn’t, apparently, a full-text search). I can’t view it via NPU at all on my non-Windows systems.
But as djm says you can read the Introduction, chapters 1 through 7, 9, and the appendices here (and google indexes them):
http://billhaneman.ie/history.html
http://billhaneman.ie/AFH/AFH-intro.html
(note that more chapters are available for viewing via the top link above than are hyperlinked in the “intro” document). That’s about half the book, so far…
I’m slowly working my way towards scan converting the whole text (as I’ve already done with O’Neill’s “Irish Minstrels and Musicians”, links on the same page).
Enjoy,
Bill
I could imagine a 1st edition being quite valuable, but this is a 3rd reprint - 1977. $600 still seems a little excessive to me.
Supply and demand, man. There weren’t that many copies of the republication printed either… Amazon had a reprint edition listed for $750 for years (one copy only). I guess somebody finally bought it…
There’s a copy at http://www.abebooks listed at $US500, and another at $619.29. I don’t know if this is accessible outside the US or not.
Time for a new reprint edition? I wonder what it would take to get a publisher interested. For one thing, a copy of the 1910 edition (for which the copyright has expired). That might be difficult to lay hands on.
The copyright is long expired on the text and photos. Only the vague notion of “typographical copyright” could be applied to the reprint editions, which were printed after the copyright on the originals was expired in the first place.
As you point out, a photographic reproduction of the first edition would be free from any copyright restriction, as would a re-typeset version of any later edition, as long as the prefaces added on republication were omitted.
In republishing the book online, NPU chose the first option (digital scans of an early edition - and keeping them private) wheres I chose the second (converting to text/HTML format).
Abebooks - isn’t that one of the online search/catalog portals that collates the inventories of many small booksellers? If Abebooks’ best price is $500 then I don’t expect you’ll find it cheaper except by doing your own “research”, i.e. contacting old bookshops yourself who haven’t cataloged their inventory with the e-portal guys. (That’s how I found my copy.)
regards
Bill
I use addall.com’s book search to find used stuff. It checks Amazon, Abebooks, Biblio, Alibris (what’s with all these A named book stores?), Powell’s (who?), etc.
Used books can cost a mint, it’s not necessarily logical. Cheapest copy I’ve seen of the 1972 Dover reprint of E Riley’s Flute Melodies (1814) was ca. $1000, for instance.
I picked up a hard-cover version of the 1973 printing from abebooks.com, and I sure didn’t pay $600, either. It’s just a matter of constantly looking and waiting. Like anything else, you don’t have to take the bait at the first opportunity.
djm
If anybody needs the original book “Irish Minstrels and Musicians” to refer to, or take copies from, then they can have access to my own copy.
It’s the original first edition hardback Irish Minstrels and Musicians, printed in Chicago by The Regan Printing House, in 1913. I don’t know in what way it differs from the original 1910 book listed on Ebay and mentioned above, but the two would appear to be different works by O’Neill.
It’s in excellent condition and is complete and would stand being copied against the glass screen of a photocopier, though I hate doing this to any book and would only want to offer it if somebody’s original was missing the odd page or so. I wouldn’t fancy the entire 497 pages being spread against a copier, as this could do untold damage to the binding in the long term. But for the sake of posterity and keeping up the tradition, given that this is more or less a “bible,” if anyone’s original hardback copy is missing the odd page, then get in touch and I’ll get it back up to speed for you.
The book really is an incredible testimony to O’Neill and it really makes one wonder whether even a modern historian could assemble such a work today, never mind the limitations in place at the time, such as lack of resources, accurate written records and O’Neill’s proximity to Ireland itself. It’s easy to forget that he lived in the USA, latterly Chicago and didn’t have access to internet or even 7 hour flights from O’Hare International Airport.
Works like this should never be lost to history.
Has anybody read both works and, if so, is there a great deal of difference between them?
Yes; they’re totally different works. “Irish Folk Music: A Fascinating Hobby” tells, in large part, the story of O’Neill’s own involvement in the Chicago Irish music scene, and the creation of “O’Neill’s Music of Ireland: 1,850 selections” and “Dance Music of Ireland” (aka “1001”). On the other hand, “Irish Minstrels and Musicians” aims to tell the story of Irish Traditional Music, both historical and contemporary, with an emphasis on individual instruments, musicians, and collectors of note.
“AFH” is more anecdotal, sort of a memoir; “IMM” was intended as a “work of record”. As such, the portrayal of some musicians who feature in both can be rather different (for instance, in AFH, stories of John Cash in his later years are told which are amusing but not particularly flattering, whereas in IMM John Cash’s importance and statute as a piper during his prime is emphasized.) There is strong emphasis on wire-strung harp and pipes, which O’Neill seems to have regarded as the seminal instruments of the tradition.
Of the two books, I think IMM is the one that should be first on everyone’s list of “must reads”, at least for those serious about Irish traditional music. Lots of the information in that book is recorded nowhere else (except for works that derive their content from IMM itself). It’s great that you have it in hardbound form. I’d be interested to see if the “Celtic Music” reprint that I have is actually a photographic reproduction of the original edition, other than the added preface and such…
Bill
Bill,
I think the photographs are reproduced in the later versions (from what limited bits I have seen and heard), but you’d have to hold the two up side by side to compare. You’re more than welcome to drop in any time you’re over in England. I do get to Ireland, but it’s never for more than a few hours at a time nowadays and probably wouldn’t have chance to meet up.
Drop me a line in private any time you’re anticipating coming over and I’ll let you know how to get here. We’re easier to reach than most folk over here.
Thanks mulosse.
By “photographic reproduction” I meant not so much the photo plates (which clearly were taken from the original), but the textual pages themselves. If the reprint edition was made by copying the 1910 edition page-by-page (using ‘photographic’/facsimile techniques to make the new plates), then copyright issues on those “images” would be nil (except for newly added material).
Nicholas Carolan received a never-opened copy of IMM to use for the photos in A Harvest Saved, if you want an incunabulum.
I’ve been looking for a chance to use that word for about 20 years…