Full Title:

Title page recto: THE CREAM OF THE JEST: | THE LINEAGE OF LICHFIELD | [in italic] Two Comedies of Evasion | James Branch Cabell | [in italic] Introduction by | Lin Carter | [Kalki device] | BALLANTINE BOOKS • New York and London | An Intext Publisher (see image above).

Title page verso: Copyright © 1917, 1922, 1930 by James Branch Cabell, | renewed 1948 by James Branch Cabell | Introduction copyright © 1971 by Lin Carter | SBN 345-02364-1-095 | All rights reservd. | This edition published by arrangement with Margaret Freeman Cabell. | First printing: September 1971 | Cover art by Brian Froud | Printed in the United States of America| BALLANTINE BOOKS, INC. | 101 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10003 (see image above).

Publication:

New York: Ballantines Books, First Printing: September, 1971.

Collation:

Trade paperback [178 cm. (7 in.) x 105 cm. (4⅛ in.)]; pp. x + 278; (i) about Cabell and Poictesme; (ii) frontispiece; (iii) title page; (iv) publication data); (v) dedication (verso blank); (vii-ix) Contents (verso blank); pp. 1-6 introduction by Lin Carter: The Dream Talisman; 7-224, text of The Cream of the Jest; (225) half-title for The Lineage of Lichfield (verso blank); (227) Contents (verso blank); (229) fly-title: The Epistle Dedicatory; (230) 3-line quotation based on the Revelation of St. John, 7:9*; 231-239 text of The Epistle Dedicatory (verso blank); (241) fly-title; 242-264 text; 265-266 V. Bibliographic Summary; (267) fly-title; 268-275 text; (276) unicorn logo; (277-278) advertising material.

*The quotation as given does not match exactly any version of the Bible that we have seen.

Wraps:

Wraps printed over a cover painting by Brian Froude (see image above).

Spine: Ballantine logo | [printed down the spine in white] THE CREAM | OF THE JEST | JAMES BRANCH CABELL 345•02364•1•125.

Front cover: [upper left corner in white] Ballantine logo | [lettered up] Ballantine Books 02364•1•125; [upper right corner in white] $1.25 unicorn logo; [centered, in white] JAMES BRANCH CABELL |THE CREAM | OF THE JEST | [rule] | "A book of dreams it is, | and of very wonderful dreams." | -Sinclair Lewis- | [lower right, in white] Introduction by Lin Carter

Rear cover: [in white] "A curious, singular | and enchanting book. | I have read it with | admiration and delight." | -Arthur Machen-

Frontispiece:

The Sigil of Scotia, a drawing by James Branch Cabell. | [in italic] "It shall come to pass that instead of sweet | smell there shall be stink; and instead of well | set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher | a girding of sackcloth, and burning instead of | beauty."(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 |"AT ME AB AMORE TUO DIDUCET NULLA SENECTUS."

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."

Notes:

The quotation below the frontispiece is from Isaiah 3:24, as written in the King James Version of the Bible.