The method of cataloguing an anonymous book may be shown here. The title-page of that chosen reads
The failure of Lord Curzon: a study in "imperialism": an open letter to the Earl of Rosebery, by "Twenty-eight years in India." 1903
The preface opens with a statement that the writer has adopted anonymity though quite aware that it is the thinnest of screens if there is any wish to pierce behind it, and he goes on to say that a twenty-eight years' acquaintance with India, etc., suggests some knowledge of the matter he discusses, thus showing that "Twenty-eight years in India" is not the title of another book, but a species of pseudonym. If this "thinnest of screens" cannot be penetrated, and the mere suggestion that it can should serve to put the cataloguer on his mettle, then there are two ways of entering the book regarding it as strictly anonymous. One is to enter uniformly by the first word of the title not an article as
Failure, The, of Lord Curzon: a study in "imperialism," by "Twenty-eight years in India." 1903
The better way to enter anonymous books when concerned with particular persons or places is under the names of such persons or places, provided they are named on the title-pages, as
Curzon of Kedleston, Lord. The failure of Lord Curzon: a study in "imperialism," by "Twenty-eight years in India." 1903
This is a sufficient entry, as any person wanting the book could not fail to remember that it related to Lord Curzon unless he thought of Indian administration, which would be the subject-entry for it. Another method, much the same in principle, is to enter under the first substantive in the title.
If the name of the author is ascertained later and with certainty, as this was, the entry must be altered accordingly
O'DONNELL, C. J. The failure of Lord Curzon: a study in "imperialism," by "Twenty-eight years in India." 1903 354.54
When literal exactness is the custom of the library the author's name as above would be enclosed in brackets to show that it is an addition made by the cataloguer under the rule previously alluded to. If that is the method decided upon for entering anonymous books, the first-word entry is still retained, with the author's name added.
Failure, The, of Lord Curzon: a study in "imperialism," by "Twenty-eight years in India" [C. J. O'Donnell.] 1903 354.54