Q. When a printed work misspells an author’s name, how should that name be represented in notes and bibliography entries for that work? Should the misspelled name be used, silently corrected, or somehow pointed out? If the author on the title page is “Ezra Fisk” but the correct spelling is “Ezra Fiske,” might we use “Fisk[e], Ezra” as the bibliography entry? I suppose that similar questions could also be asked of typos in other bibliographic information.
A. Your solution is a good one. But not all readers can be expected to understand the nuances of bracketed insertions, so you could instead do something more explicit than a bracketed e:
Fiske, Ezra [spelled “Ezra Fisk” on the title page]. Title of Work. Publisher, date.
Readers will then be more likely to know what to expect when tracking down the cited source. (If the variant spelling occurs on more than the title page, adjust the bracketed comment accordingly.) For additional considerations, start with CMOS 13.82; see also 12.70.