Cabell's Contributions to Books

JAMES BRANCH CABELL, by Carl Van Doren

Notes:

For a slight volume on a relatively straightforward subject, this book has an unusually complicated printing history. The first two McBride printings from 1925 differ only in the printing data on the verso of the title page.

Hall missed the 1926 first English printing from John Lane, but it is identical to the McBride issues, from imported sheets with a reprinted title page.

Hall also missed the 1928 third printing. This printing differs from the others, both before and after, in that it has a photo of Cabell as a frontispiece. There are some textual differences, too, from the other printings.

The "new and revised edition" of 1932, oddly, seems to follow directly from the 1925 printings, and does not even list the 1928 3rd printing on the title page verso. This is, of course, most likely why Hall never discovered the 1928 issue. The frontispiece has gone again, too. The revised edition appeared in two forms - as a stand-alone issue from McBride, and paired with These Restless Heads (TRH-A2a) in a boxed set from The Literary Guild. And as a final complication, the Literary Guild printing was released in two bindings - the boxed version in mottled boards, and a (later?) version in black cloth.