James Branch Cabell : An Illustrated Bibliography
THE NIGHTMARE HAS TRIPLETS
L'INCUBO
Hall Code |
Description |
NHT-Ital-1 |
Italian Edition of the Trilogy 1949 |
COMPILATION
Full Title:
Title page recto: [all enclosed in a decorative black single ruled box] BRANCH CABELL | [in red] L'INCUBO | [in italic] con sedici illustrazioni | di | FABRIZIO CLERICI | [decoration in red] | ARNOLDO MONDADORI | EDITORE (see image above).
Title page verso: PROPRIETÀ LETTERARIA RISERVATA | [rule] | UNICA TRADUZIONE AUTORIZZATA DALL'AMERICANO DI | OLGA CERETTI BORSINI | [small five pointed star as decoration] | [in italic] Titoli dell'opera originale: | SMIRT - SMITH - SMIRE | I EDIZIONE: APRILE 1949 | STAMPATO IN ITALIA - PRINTED IN ITALY - IV - MCMXLIX (see image above).
Publication:
Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori, SPA, 1949
Collation:
Crown octavo [21 cm. (8¼ in.) x 15.2 cm. (6 in.)]; pp. 608 + 14 illustrations, versos blank, not numbered or included in pagination. P. (1) title page; (2) publication data; (3) fly-title PREFAZIONE (verso blank); (4)-24 preface; (25) half-title L'INCUBO (verso blank); (27) half-title SMIRT (verso blank); (29) fly-title PARTE PRIMA; (30) 6-line quotation; (31) dedication (verso blank); (33) fly-title NOTA DELL'AUTORE (verso blank); (35)-40 Author's Note; (41)-217 text of Smirt (verso blank); (219) half-title SMITH (verso blank); (221) fly-title PARTE PRIMA; (222) 6-line quotation; (223) dedication (verso blank); (225)-412 text of Smith; (413) half-title SMIRE (verso blank); (415) fly-title PARTE PRIMA; (416) 11-line quotation; (417) dedication (verso blank); (419) fly-title NOTA DELL'AUTORE (verso blank); (421) Author's Note (verso blank); (423)-600 text of Smire; (601) fly-title INDICE (verso blank); (602)-607 Index; (608) colophon; (609) list of titles in Collection "Il Ponte"; list of titles in Collection "Arianna." Illustrations face pp: 80, 112, 142, 184, 208, 240, 272, 304, 344, 376, 400, 432, 464, 568.
Binding:
Tan cloth: brown lettering and decorations on front cover and spine, all edges trimmed. Spine: [enclosed in a single ruled box] [in italic] Branch Cabell | L'INCUBO | [at base of spine, enclosed in a single ruled box] [Modadori device] | MONDADORI (see image above).
Illustrations:
Although the book has no frontispiece, it does include fourteen fantastical illustrations by Fabrizio Clerici. A representative example is shown (see image above).
Dedication:
The three deications for the novels are all present, translated into Italian:
p. (30): SMIRT | [in italic] Per George Jean Nathan | 16 line poem in four unequal stanzas
p. (223): SMITH | [in italic] Per John Lottier Cabell | 17 line poem in three unequal stanzas
p. (417): SMIRE| [in italic] Per Hunter Stagg | 11 line poem in two unequal stanzas
Endpapers:
White paper, illustration in black and red by Fabrizio Clerici centered on each page (see image above).
At the base of the rear fixed endpaper there is a small stamp, 68 mm. x 29 mm.: [all enclosed in a decorative black single ruled box] | [left side] [Mondadori device] | right side: Prezzo in brossura L. 1300 | Prezzo rilegatura " 500 | [rule] | [in italic] in tutta Italia | [below decorative box] Cabell - L'Incubo. It's not clear if this inserted by the publisher or if this was added by a bookseller.
Dust jacket:
White paper, black lettering, color illustration by Fabrizio Clerici on front panel (see image above).
Spine: [enclosed in a single ruled box] [in italic] Branch Cabell | L'INCUBO | [at base of spine, enclosed in a single ruled box] [Modadori device] | MONDADORI
Front panel: [in italic] James B. Cabell | [color illustration] | Arnoldo Mondadori Editore
Rear panel: [enclosed in a triple ruled box] [in italic] LA MEDUSA DEGLI ITALIANI | [A single paragraph of 31 lines advertising "La Medusa Degli Italiani," a literary series produced by Mondadori that highlighted Irtalian literature.]
Front flap: [all enclosed in a double ruled box] | [enclosed in a single ruled box] MONDADORI | PUBLICA NELLA | SUA COLLEZIONE | IL PONTE | I PIÚ GRANDE NARRATORI | ITALIANI E STRANIERI | [in italic] James Branch Cabell | L'INCUBO | 37 line blurb for the trilogy | [device of two fishes]
Rear flap: [all enclosed in a double ruled box] | [enclosed in a single ruled box] MONDADORI | PUBLICA NELLA | SUA COLLEZIONE | IL PONTE | I PIÚ GRANDE NARRATORI | ITALIANI E STRANIERI | [in italic] James Branch Cabell | 27 line biography of Mr. Cabell |BIBLIOGRAPHIA | [in italic] 9 line list of Mr. Cabell's works | [device of reclining man]
Notes:
L'Incubo (The Nightmare) prints Italian translations of The Nightmare Has Triplets trilogy (Smirt, Smith, and Smire) in a single volume, with a new preface by Fernanda Pivano. Edmund Wilson made a translation of this preface for Cabell's benefit, a copy of which is held with Wilson's papers at Yale. He also criticized Pivano's preface as being 'full of blunders about American literature and go[ing] rather wide of the mark in attempting to connect Cabell to Surrealism...' (from "The James Branch Cabell Case Reopened" in The Bit Between My Teeth: A Literary Chronicle Of 1950-1965, p. 318).
Hall (p. 87) states that this edition includes 16 illustrations. A close collation of the copy examined by The Silver Stallion shows only 14, as noted above. We have no explanation of this discrepancy, except to suggest that perhaps Hall included the decorated endpapers in his count.
