Recent JBC Reprints?

Is this a "print on demand" edition, and has there been recent interest in doing this? Didn't find a reference on the Stilver Stallion page for Devil's Own Dear Son.

http://www.abebooks.com/Devils-Own-Dear-Cabell-James-Branch/14596588062/bd?cm_ve...

>1 elenchus:

There are kajillions of pod/facsimile/reprints out there now, from Dodo, Kessinger, Bibliolife, Bibliobazaar, Forgotten Books, and probably a dozen other places. They have no particular bibliographical value, being essentially glorified xeroxes. We don't list them on the Silver Stallion because they are not 'real' publications, just cheap copies of previous printings, and furthermore, they would overwhelm the SS listings since there are so many of them.

The one you're looking at there is the Wildside reprint of DODS. Wildside is a pod-style reprinter but they are also a real publisher that issues original books. Unlike ALL the other pod houses which only prey on the titles that have strayed into public domain (almost without exception early versions of books Cabell later revised) Wildside has permission from the Cabell estate, and reprints more or less all his books early and late. Their earliest Cabell reprints used a dreadful generic clip-art cover, the same for all titles; then they went to a plain cover; and now they have some that display original (?) artwork, as we see on the DODS cover. We probably will end up listing the Wildside editions (though not the crap pods) on Silver Stallion once we get through many many other tasks that are higher priority for us

One of the things I don't understand about the tsunami of Cabell pods is that they're usually not cheap, where almost any Cabell title can be found used in a 'real' edition for less bucks. A genuine old book is way more interesting than a sterile reprint, no? Only a germophobe would prefer the pod -- at least that's how it seems to me.

That particular Wildside DODS is priced lower than one usually finds them. It wouldn't be a sin to get it -- in fact I have a copy of that edition but then I'm something of a completist where Cabell is concerned --- I have six copies of DODs: 1st, 2nd, British, signed, working copy, Wildside.
Here's a real one for essentially the same price http://www.biblio.com/book/devils-own-dear-comedy-fatted-calf/d/706084909?aid=aa...
It has a jacket too, which is tattered but it's wonderful what a brodart sleeve can do for even a tattered jacket.

Oh, I'm with you in your puzzlement at why anyone would prefer these quick reprints over an original of whatever edition. I'm not interested in getting one of these, but I have an autosearch on Abe to find any Cabell hardcover under $20, first time one of these popped up.

My curiosity was in whatever motivation there was to even offer such inelegant reprints, and I thank you for the insight into Wildside specifically. Interesting that they have permission from the Cabell estate.

Well, the pod folks are pretty promiscuous. After all they don't have to print and store stock, they just need access to some e-file of the text. So early Cabell is a dro pin the bucket.
I recently ordered a $12 pod of a book that wd've cost me $80 for a real copy, and I was sent a botch containg about a quarter of the books pages randomly selected. When I complained, they replaced it but with a different edition that turned out to be volume 1 of 2 (and of course the story I wanted most was in vol. 2).
Yeah, Wildside is areal publisher that uses pod reprint technology to help support their 'mission' -- mostly SF, fantasy, horror, and scholarship about it. If they didn't have Cabell estate persimmon, they wdn't be able to print anything of his stuff after 1923.

There's at least one pod edition which is really useful, I think: The Jurgen one from The Editorium (Waking Lion Press) incorporates James P. Cover's "Notes on Jurgen", revised by David Rolfe (same as online: http://home.earthlink.net/~davidrolfe/jurgen.htm), an introduction by Rolfe, the introduction to the British Edition by Hugh Walpole and the "Note on the Notes" by James P. Cover. Plus the map of Poictesme, as published in the 1928 "Silver Stallion", a photograph of Cabell, all the major plates by Frank C. Papé (except the "Dorothy" frontispiece); and a short afterword taken from a 1921 Times Literary Supplement.

I used it at university once since from an academic point of view it offers you a lot. From a bibliophile's point of view ... well, there's this greyish engraving on the cover, which is oddly fitting if you consider the working title of "Some Ladies and Jurgen" ... but that's probably all there is to say about it. See here: http://www.amazon.com/Jurgen-James-Branch-Cabell/dp/1434102475/

>5 rainlights:
Agreed! the Waking Lion edition is a 'real' book using pod technology, rather than a cheap facsimile. And so you can find it listed on Silver Stallion among the editionsof Jurgen.

Oh right, I just noticed. By the way, do you still collect scans of foreign editions? I have the German paperbacks of Domnei, The Cream of the Jest, The High Place and The Silver Stallion, should you need them (same bluish edition as Figures of Earth and Something about Eve).

>7 rainlights:
Yes we do, at least most of them. We have the German pbs of Jurgen and FoE, but I guess Silver Stallion webmaster John Thorne hasn't acquired the ones you mention yet, or at least hasn't posted them. You can check with him or send scans here: cabell@karkeeweb.com
Thanks!