Full Title:

Title page recto: The Cream of the Jest | [in italic] A Comedy of Evasion | by JAMES BRANCH CABELL | [in italic] Edited for the Modern Reader by | Joseph M. Flora | UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA | COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY PRESS • [in italic] Publishers | NEW HAVEN, CONN. (see image above).

Title page verso: [in italic] Copyright © 1975 by | College and University Press Services, Inc. | All Rights Reserved | Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74-78857 | New Material, Introduction and Notes | by JOSEPH M. FLORA | MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY | UNITED PRINTING SERVICES, INC. | NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT (see image above).

Publication:

New Haven, Conn.: College & University Press, 1975

Collation:

Large format paperback [20.3 cm. (8 in.) x 13.7 cm. (5⅜ in.)]. Pp. 207; (i) half-title (verso blank); (3) title page; (4) publication data; 5-12 Introduction; (13) fly-title; (14) quotation; 15-23 Author's Note (verso blank); (25)-(26) Contents; (27) fly-title; (28) dedication; (29) fly-title; (30) quotation; 31-185 text (verso blank); 187-205 Appendix (verso blank); (207)-(208) blank leaf. Pages (13), (27), (29), (49), (85), (105), (133), (163), and (181) are fly-titles. Pages (ii), (24), (84), (162), (186), and (206)-(208) are blank.

Wraps:

Pale blue paper wraps, black lettering, white, yellow, and black decorations on front panel (see image above).

Spine: [lettered down the spine] CABELL THE CREAM OF THE JEST | [College & University Press logo] | M-43

Front panel: [in italic] Masterworks of [Masterworks logo] Literature Series | [at right, illustration] [at left, enclosed on three sides by white border] [ in black, on orange ground] THE CREAM | OF THE | JEST [in white italic, on black ground] James Branch Cabell | [bottom of panel] [in italic] Edited for the Modern Reader by | Joseph M. Flora | [flush right] M-43 | $2.95

Rear panel: THE CREAM OF THE JEST | by James Branch Cabell | [in italic] Edited by Joseph M. Flora | [22-line blurb in three paragraphs] | [in italic] ABOUT THE EDITOR | [12-line biography in two paragraphs] | [at left] [College & University Press logo] [at right] COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY PRESS • Publishers | 283 Chapel Street New Haven, Conn. 06513

Dedication:

[in italic] To | LOUISA NELSON | "At me ab amore tuo diducet | nulla senectus." (see image above).

Notes:

It's not quite clear to us exactly what edits might have been necessary for this novel to be read and understood by the "Modern Reader" of 1975. This edition contains, though, a useful tool for the Cabell scholar: its Appendix lists the changes Mr. Cabell made between the 1917 first edition, the 1922 Kalki edition, and the final 1930 Storisende edition.