James Branch Cabell : An Illustrated Bibliography
JURGEN: A Comedy of Justice
McBride Printings in the Kalki Binding
Hall Code |
Description |
*Jur-A3a (K) |
Third Printing, Variant Binding 1919 |
COMPILATION
Full Title:
Title page recto: Jurgen | [rule broken by the lower portion of the "g"] | [in italic] A Comedy of Justice | [rule] | By | James Branch Cabell | [in italic]"Of JURGEN eke they maken mencioun | That of an old wyf gat his youthe agoon, | And gat himselfe a shirte as bright as fyre | Wherein to jape, yet gat not his desire | In any countrie ne condicioun." | NEW YORK | ROBERT M. McBRIDE & CO. | 1919 (see image above).
Title page verso: Copyright, 1919, by | Robert M. McBride & Co. | [rule] | [in italic] Printed in | The United States of America | Second Edition, November 1919 | Third Edition, December 1919 | [rule] | Published 1919 (see image above).
Publication:
New York: Robert M. Mc Bride & Co., December, 1919
Collation:
Crown octavo [20 cm. (7⅞ in.) x 14 cm. (5½ in.)]; pp. (viii) + 368; P. (i) half-title; (ii) [all enclosed in single rule box] Books by Mr. Cabell ; (iii) title-page; (iv) publication data; (v) dedication; (vi) three quotations attributed to Philip Borsdale, E. Noel Codman, and John Frederick Lewistam); (vii-viii) Contents; (1) Fly-title (verso blank); (3-5) text of A Foreword;(6) blank; (7) fly-title (verso blank); followed by text pp. 9-368.
Binding:
Kalki binding: Red-brown cloth; top edge trimmed, otherwise uncut; gilt lettering and decorations on front cover and spine. Spine: JURGEN | [rule] | CABELL | McBRIDE. Front cover: [Kalki device of a stallion rampant in every member] (see image above).
This third printing of Jurgen was the first of Cabell's books to be issued in the Kalki binding.
The two scans on the bottom row of pictures above show the difference in texture between Jur-A3 (K) and *Jur-A3a (K). *Jur-A3a (K) is on the left in both pictures.
Dedication:
TO | BURTON RASCOE; followed by dedication in acrostic verse of three quatrains (see image above).
Dust jacket:
Not seen, but it would be identical to the jacket for Jur-A3 (K).
The cloth used on this copy is the type McBride normally used on works in the Kalki binding (Blanck Type B). Hall does not mention binding variants of this printing. However, Matthew Bruccoli states, in his James Branch Cabell - A Bibliography, Part II: Notes on the Cabell Collections at the University of Virginia, Hall F5 (& A31), page 34, that:
The copy examined is bound in the same cloth as the Massey copy of the 1st impression.
The "Massey copy" he mentions is one of several copies of the 1st impression Bruccoli examined. He describes it on page 33:
(4) Massey copy. This is a binding variant, as it is bound in FL cloth, whereas the other copies are bound in B cloth.
We describe a copy of the 1st impression in the BL cloth binding. We have designated that variant as *Jur-A1b.We have designated this binding variant of the third printing in B cloth as *Jur-A3a because it does not match Bruccoli's description. This should not be take to indicate any precedence: the chronological priority, if any, is unknown, but copies in the FL cloth do exist, and we have designated that variant as Jur-A3 (K).
The "FL" and "B" cloth types refer to the binding cloth designation system developed by Jacob Blanck for his monumental Bibliography of American Literature, Yale University Press, nine volumes, issued variously between 1955 and 1973 (commonly referred to as the BAL). This system is nothing if not non-intuitive, but it does have a logical basis, as it stems from commercial cloth pattern codes used by American producers of binding cloth in the 19th century (and still in limited use today). The Blanck system has never garnered wide recognition or usage, but it is not surprising that Bruccoli used it - he was a contributor and editor of the BAL.
The illustrations of Cloth Grains and Designations (4 pages total, see the B and FL types excerpted above left) are shown as the first illustration, preceding page 1, in each of the nine volumes of the BAL. The system is discussed in detail on pp. xxx - xxxiii of the preface to Volume I.
