James Branch Cabell : An Illustrated Bibliography
THE MUSIC FROM BEHIND THE MOON:
An Epitome with Eight Wood Engravings by Leon Underwood
Hall Code |
Description |
MBM-A1a |
First Printing, Trial Binding 1926 |
COMPILATION
Full Title:
Title page recto: [in italic] THE MUSIC | FROM BEHIND THE MOON | An Epitome | by | JAMES BRANCH CABELL | [in italic] With Eight Wood Engravings by | LEON UNDERWOOD | Judge thou the lips of those that rose up | against me, and their devices against | me all the day. Behold their sit- | ting down, and their rising | up: I am their music | [row of three devices | New York | THE JOHN DAY COMPANY | 1926 (see image above).
Title page verso: COPYRIGHT, 1926, BY JAMES BRANCH CABELL | PUBLISHED, SEPTEMBER, 1926 | PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (see image above).
Publication:
New York: The John Day Company, September, 1926.
Collation:
Folio [28 cm. (11 in.) x 19.4 cm. (7⅝ in.)]; viii + 56pp.; (i) blank; (ii) frontispiece; (iii) title page; (iv) publication data; (v) dedication; (vi) note on the text; (vii) Contents (verso blank; (1) fly-title PART ONE; (2)quotation; 3-54 text; (55) blank; (56) colophon. Pages (1), (13), (27), and (41) are fly-titles. Pages (ii), (11), (17), (24), (31), (35), (45), and (52) are illustrations. Pages (viii), (12), (18), (23), (32), (36), (40), (46), (51), and (55) are blank.
Binding:
Black paper boards, white paper label on spine. All edges untrimmed. Spine: [lettered down in black italic] The Music from Behind the Moon [device] James Branch Cabell (see image above).
Frontispiece:
Wood engraving by Leon Underwood: "I am their music." (see image above).
Dedication:
[in italic] For | CARL VAN VECHTEN | [in italic] whatever hereinafter | he may like (see image above).
Colophon:
THIS, THE FIRST BOOK PUBLISHED BY THE | JOHN DAY COMPANY, INCORPORATED, | IS ISSUED IN AN EDITION LIMITED TO | THREE THOUSAND COPIES, PRINTED BY | WILLIAM EDWIN RUDGE ON VIDALON | VÉLIN PAPER, FROM HANDSET GARAMOND | TYPE, AND THE TYPE DISTRIBUTED | TYPOGRAPHY BY BYRON J. MUSSER (see image above).
Insert:
Illustrated single page insert, 21.3 cm. (8⅜ in.) x 11 cm. (5 7/16 in.), printed on verso only: [illustration of Pan, piping. Presumably by Underwood, but unsigned and not used in the book] | 8-line advertisement for an edition of numbered and signed sets of the engravings for this book, limited to 25 copies (see image above).
Dust jacket / Slipcase:
Issued in an unmarked tissue dust jacket and an unmarked cardboard slipcase covered in black paper (not shown).
Notes:
There don't seem to be any surviving records indicating ow many copies of the trial binding were made, but certainly there were very few. This binding is narrower across the spine than the regular binding (10 mm. vs. 14 mm. for the regular one), and therein lay the problem. Even though the spine label was also narrower (9 mm. vs. 12), the label was soon damaged by one's hand grasping the spine to pull it off the shelf. This is clearly visible in the comparison scan of the two spines shown above. The binding scans courtesy of Silver Stallion contributor Mike Berro, from a copy in his collection.
In his 1932 Revised Bibliography (Hall F3 / A21) , I. R. Brussel erroneously states that the trial binding was ⅛ in. wider than the normal one, rather than narrower. Hall corrects this error.
