Full Title:

There is no title page in the usual sense. The first printed page after the limitation is the Table of Contents: The AMERICAN MERCURY | [all enclosed in a decorated box] VOLUME I January 1924 NUMBER 1 | TABLE OF CONTENTS | [Table of Contents in 31 lines] | [below decorated box, in two columns: solicitation, subscription, and publication data]. Verso blank (see image above).

Publication:

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Publishers, 1924

Collation:

Oversize royal quarto [34 cm. (13 7/16 in.) x 26 cm. (10¼ in.)]; iv+126; [i] blank; [ii] limitation; [iii] Table of Contents (verso blank), 1-(126) text of magazine. Cabell material pp. 123-125.

Binding:

Half-bound with vellum spine and corners over batik boards, spine lettered in gilt, front cover blank, all untrimmed. Spine: [lettered down] [device] THE AMERICAN MERCURY [device] [device] JANUARY 1924 [device] (see image above).

Limitation:

TWO HUNDRED LARGE-PAPER COPIES | OF THIS FIRST ISSUE OF | THE AMERICAN MERCURY | HAVE BEEN SPECIALLY PRINTED AND BOUND | FOR FRIENDS OF | THE EDITORS AND PUBLISHERS | THIS IS NUMBER | [hand written] 159 (see image above).

Notes:

Two hundred large paper copies of the first issue of The American Mercury were printed and specially bound for presentation. Brewer notes that this issue was actually a reprint after the initial printing. Mr. Cabell's contribution, "Once More the Immortals," is a review of Fantastica:Being the Smile of the Sphinx and Other Tales of the Imagination, by Robert Nichols.