Full Title:

Title page recto: THE | CERTAIN HOUR | [in italic] (Dizain des Poëtes) | By | JAMES BRANCH CABELL | "Criticism, whatever may be its pretensions, never | does more than to define the impression which | is made upon it at a certain moment by a work | wherein the writer himself noted the impression | of the world which he received at a certain hour." | NEW YORK | ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY | 1916 (see image above).

Title page verso: Copyright, 1916, by Robert M. McBride & Co. | Copyright, 1915, by McBride, Nast & Co. | Copyright 1914, by the Sewanee Review Quarterly | Copyright, 1913, by John Adams Thayer Corporation | Copyright, 1912, by Argonaut Publishing Company | Copyright, 1911, by Red Book Corporation | Copyright, 1909, by Harper and Brothers (see image above).

Publication:

New York: Robert M. McBride & Co., 1916 (1920?)

Collation:

Crown octavo [20 cm. (7 ⅞ in.) x 12.7 cm. (5 in.)]; pp. 256 (first 8 un-numbered); (1) half title, (2) Books by Mr. Cabell; (3) title page; (4) copyright data; (5) Dedication (verso blank); (7) Contents (verso blank); pp. 9-253 text. Pages (11), (35), (61), (85), (105), (125), (147), (169), (189), (209), and (233) are fly titles. Pages (254-256) are blank.

Binding:

Kalki binding: red-brown cloth; gilt lettering and decorations; all edges trimmed. Spine: THE | CERTAIN | HOUR | [rule] | CABELL | M^cBRIDE. Front cover: [Kalki device at lower right] (see image above).

Dedication:

TO | ROBERT GAMBLE CABELL II | [in italic] In Dedication of The Certain Hour | sixteen line dedicatory verse in four quatrains (see image above).

Notes:

The quotation on the title page is by Jules Lemaître, quoted in French Maxims of Letters, translated and edited by Henri Pène du Bois, published by Bretanos, New York, 1894.

Copies in this binding were bound c. 1920 (after the rise in Cabell's popularity following the release of Jurgen) from remaining sheets of the 1150 copy first printing of 1916. They still carry the 1916 date on the title page.