Bronson included one song from Niles, Lady Ishbel and the Elfin-Knight (I, 4.96, p. 78), but no other. There may well have been copyright issues involved, but in such cases the details are usually given even where the material is not quoted. I think Bronson alluded to Niles' material elsewhere (and maybe commented upon it), but don't recall the location.

I shall look forward to seeing the detailed study of Niles and his work. It's hard to know what to make of him sometimes, and how much trust to place in the material he published. It will be particularly good to have more information from the notebooks. Of course, he is by no means the only collector of his time whose methods and editorial policy have been called seriously into question, and there are others -on both sides of the Atlantic- whose work, and the assumptions based on it, would benefit from serious re-assessment; but we have to start somewhere, after all.

The identity of the Director of the Niles Center is no mystery, incidentally, and many people who post here prefer not to use their full names. It might sometimes be simpler if we could drop these rather outdated "internet handles", though I daresay it would make life harder for the John Smiths and so on.

The John Jacob Niles Center for American Music, University of Kentucky.

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Updated link to Niles Center: John Jacob Niles Gallery ---mudelf