James Branch Cabell : An Illustrated Bibliography
THE FIRST GENTLEMAN OF AMERICA: A Comedy of Conquest
THE FIRST AMERICAN GENTLEMAN: A Comedy of Conquest
Hall Code |
Description |
FG-B1 (E) |
First English Printing 1942 |
COMPILATION
Full Title:
Title page recto: BRANCH CABELL | The First | American Gentleman | [in italic] A Comedy of Conquest | 'My country, 'tis of thee." | [in italic] London | John Lane The Bodley Head (see image above).
Title page verso: First published in England in 1942 | Copyright in U.S.A. under the title | [in italic] The First Gentleman of America | [within book device] BOOK | PRODUCTION WAR ECONOMY | STANDARD | [below device] THIS BOOK IS PRODUCED IN | COMPLETE CONFORMITY WITH THE | AUTHORIZED ECONOMY STANDARDS | Printed in Great Britain by | BUTLER AND TANNER, LTD., FROME, SOMERSET | for JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD, LTD., | 8 Bury Place, London W.C.1 (see image above).
Publication:
London: John Lane The Bodlet Head Ltd., 1942
Collation:
Duodecimo [18.7 cm. (7⅜ in.) x 13.2 cm. (5 3/16 in.)]; viii + 196 pp.; (i) half-title; (ii) by the same author (book list); (iii) title page; (iv) publication data; (v) dedication; (vi) Author's Note; (vii) Contents (verso blank); 1-196 text.
Binding:
Salmon cloth, black lettering on spine, front cover blank; all edges trimmed. Spine [in italic] The | First | American | Gentleman | Branch | Cabell | The | Bodley | Head (see image above).
Dedication:
[in italic] For | A. J. HANNA | [7-line acrostic verse, with one additional word interpolated between lines 3 and 4.] (see image above).
Dust jacket:
White paper, lettering in black, white and orange, spine and front panel over a painting by Elias (see image above).
Spine: [in white] THE | FIRST | AMERICAN | GENTLEMAN | [in orange] BRANCH | CABELL | [illustration] | [in white] THE | BODLEY | HEAD
Front panel: [in white] THE FIRST | AMERICAN | GENTLEMAN | [illustration] | BRANCH | CABELL
Rear panel: [all enclosed in a triple ruled black box] [in italic] also by BRANCH CABELL | [blurbs for The King Was in His Counting House and Hamlet Had an Uncle] | [below box] THE BODLEY HEAD
Front flap: [black lettering, initial in orange] [42-line blurb in four paragraphs] | [flush right, in orange italic] 7s. 6d. net
Rear flap: blank
Notes:
It was 1942: there was a war on, and paper was war matériel. Many publishers, even very large ones like The Bodley Head, had difficulties getting their paper requests approved by the War Office. Accordingly, this book was produced using the British government's Book Production War Economy Standards. In order to trim the amount of paper needed for this title, Lane eliminated blank pages and fly-title / quotation leaves, as well as the Editorial Note and Bibliography included in the American edition.
The title was changed too, allegedly because the publishers thought that the public would interpret the original title, The First Gentleman of America, as referring to President Roosevelt.
