James Branch Cabell : An Illustrated Bibliography
THE CREAM OF THE JEST: A Comedy of Evasions
Hall Code |
Description |
CoJ-A4 (K) |
Fourth Printing 1921 |
COMPILATION
Full Title:
Title page recto: THE | CREAM | OF THE | JEST | [rule] | [in italic] A Comedy of Evasions | [rule] | BY | JAMES BRANCH CABELL | [in italic] " Le pays où je voulais aller, tu m'y as mené | en songe, celte nuit, et tu étais belle . . . | ah! que tu étais belle! . . . Mais, comme | je n'ai aimé que ton ombre, tu me dispen- | seras, chère tête, de remercier ta réalité." | NEW YORK | ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY | 1921 (see image above).
Title page verso: Copyright, 1917, by | ROBERT M. McBRIDE & CO. | [rule] | [in italic] Printed in the United States of America | Second Printing, January, 1920 | Third Printing, September, 1920 | Fourth Printing, September, 1921 | Published September, 1917 (see image above).
Publication:
New York: Robert M. McBride & Co., September, 1921
Collation:
xx
Binding:
Red brown cloth; top edge trimmed, otherwise untrimmed; gilt lettering and decorations on front and spine. Spine: THE | CREAM | OF THE | JEST | [device of a gilt square] | CABELL | McBRIDE (see image above). Front cover: [Kalki device in lower right] (see image above).
Frontispiece:
The Sigil of Scotia, a drawing by James Branch Cabell (see image above).
Also see the discussion of the Sigil of Scotia on the index page for The Cream of the Jest.
Dedication:
TO | LOUISA NELSON | [in italic] "At me ab amore tuo diducet | nulla senectus." (see image above).
Mrs. Louisa Nelson was Cabell's "mammy" as a child, and he remembered her fondly all of his life. He wrote an article about her, "Of Southern Ladies," which was published in the May, 1946, issue of The Atlantic Monthly. This article was later incorporated into Let Me Lie, LML-A1.
The quotation is from The Elegies of Propertius (Elegia XXV), and translates, more-or-less, as "but my love for you withdraws with age."
Dust jacket:
Not seen.
Notes:
For reasons we don't understand, in this printing McBride moved the frontispiece from its usual place opposite the title page verso to the verso of the preceding leaf, swapping its position with Books by Mr. Cabell. This placement persisted until the 9th Kalki printing, CoJ-A9 (K), where it was returned to its position opposite the verso of the title page.
