Full Title:

Title page recto type "G": [All enclosed in a double rule] THE CREAM OF | THE JEST | [rule] | BY | JAMES BRANCH CABELL | [rule] | INTRODUCTION | BY | HAROLD WARD | [rule] | Bernhard Torchbearer device | [rule} | THE MODERN LIBRARY | PUBLISHERS : NEW YORK (see image above).

Title page verso: [in italic] Copyright, 1917, by | JAMES BRANCH CABELL | [double rule] [in italic]Manufactured in the United | States of America | [in italic] Bound for The Modern Library, Inc., by H. Wolff (see image above).

Publication:

New York; no date. Catalog at rear, printed contiguously with the text, can be dated to Spring 1930 (catalog includes The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, but not Faust, by Goethe).

Collation:

Sextodecimo [16.8 cm. (6 5/8-inches) x 10.8 cm. (4 1/4-inches)]. [i] half-title; [ii] advt; [iii] title; [iv] copyright; [v] line drawing; [vi] blank; [vii] dedication; [viii] blank; ix-xii INTRODUCTION; [xiii - xv] Contents; [xvi] blank; [1] The | Cream | of | the Jest; [2] [rule] | BOOK FIRST | [8 line poem] | [rule]; 3-250 text; [251-254] catalog; [255] blank leaf.

Binding:

Toledano/Kamins binding Style 5₂. Balloon cloth in brown/mauve. This binding has been reported in red, brown, green, and blue for other titles, so other colors are possible. Spine all in gilt: THE | CREAM | OF THE | JEST| [Rule] | CABELL | Grapevine device | MODERN | LIBRARY. Front in blind: Kent Torchbearer device. (see image above).

A Style 5₁ binding has the Kent Torchbearer device on the front cover in gilt, while on a Style 5₂ binding the front device is blind stamped.

Frontispiece:

Line drawing by James Branch Cabell: The Sigil of Scotia (see image above).

Dedication:

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

Endpapers:

Kent design endpapers as used on Modern Library titles 1929-1967 (see image above).

Notes:

For an explanation of the terms used on this page that are specific to The Modern Library, see the Cabell in The Modern Library page.