In the April 1914 sale catalogue No. XCVII, entitled somewhat deceptively Old English Literature: A Special Catalogue of Valuable Books from the Library of the late Professor Edward Dowden …, Author of various works on Shakespeare, Shelley, Studies in English Literature, and others,Frank Hollings (Holborn, London) offered some 904 titles in the main alphabetized body and addendum of the booklet, the largest extant inventory of Dowden's fabled library, frequented by generations of students and writers in Dublin, including Yeats, Rolleston, Gogarty, Joyce, and many others. In small print, the catalogue advertised “many valuable works of Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Authors; Books with coloured plates, by Cruikshank, Rowlandson, and a fine collection of Kate Greenaway's Coloured Illustrated Books; a Large and Important Folk-lore Collection, Sporting and Gaming, Works by Modern Essayists, First Editions of Sir Walter Scott, Richard Jeff eries, Rudyard Kipling, R. L. Stevenson, and others; Early Treatises on Medicine, Astrology, Mysticism, and other Occult Subjects”—hardly what we would now call “Old English Literature.” Even in 1914, the majority was nineteenth century and therefore relatively “modern.” Aimed at the English market, the catalogue's pitch avoided mentioning the Irish authors sprinkled in but of interest to collectors—for example, Wilde, Yeats, Gregory, and Hyde. Not surprisingly, it emphasized authors on which Dowden was expert (e.g., Browning, Shelley, Tennyson, Wordswoth) but lacked Shakespeare. It was a very small cross-section of the whole, as Mrs. Dowden estimated the library “latterly had grown to some twenty-four thousand volumes” (P1914 xiv). Undoubtedly, the vast majority did not make it beyond the precincts of Dublin's used booksellers in those days—Fred Hanna's, Greene's, and others around the City, particularly those close-by Trinity College. (But see Appendix B for exceptions.)

In her September 1913 Preface to Dowden's Poems, Mrs. Dowden (“E.D.D.”) made the connection between his verse-writing (as opposed to his prose-writing), the recitative style of his “College lecturering,” and the “spiritual converse he gained” collecting books.