Cabell Editions

A lot (perhaps most!) of the key editions have been mentioned or even described in the various posts here, but it would be useful to gather them in one place, and perhaps get some focused discussion on the relative merits.

Here's what I recall (without the time to actually review the posts, since, well, I'm at work):

DelRey
Dover
Grosset
Harper & Bros
McBride
Kalki
Storisende
various e-ditions (e-books via Google, etc)

I'm mostly interested in characteristics of the series, such as approved, or with annotations, introductions, and so forth -- rather than characteristics of specific volumes. Though the latter would be useful, too.

ETA - additional publishers

Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series published, under its unicorn head insignia, the following:

The Silver Stallion, James Branch Cabell (Aug. 1969) (#01678)
Figures of Earth, James Branch Cabell (Nov. 1969) (#01763)
The High Place, James Branch Cabell (Feb. 1970) (#01855-9)
Something About Eve, James Branch Cabell (Mar. 1971) (#02067-7)
The Cream of the Jest, James Branch Cabell (Sep. 1971) (#02364-1)
Domnei, James Branch Cabell (Mar. 1972) (#02545-8)

DelRey, a later imprint of Ballantine, reprinted these books with the ugliest covers in history. JURGEN was never printed. TOWNSEND OF LICHFIELD was printed with THE CREAM OF THE JEST, and THE MUSIC FROM BEHIND THE MOON with DOMNEI. (From memory - I could be wrong.) The improved, Storisende edition of that tale never appeared in the series. THE WAY OF ECBEN appeared in THE YOUNG MAGICIANS, a collection.

I have several editions of Cabell books from the British publisher THE BODLEY HEAD:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bodley_Head

Very helpful, wirkman -- thanks.

I realise now that another characteristic of interest would be illustrations. The Kalki illustrations for Cream of the Jest kept that volume in my library long enough to reach the point I could appreciate the book, and read it. I probably would have ditched it long before if they'd been missing, and I'm very glad they weren't.

I'm about to post here a guide to the various series and editions but am putting the finishing touches on it. Thanks, wirkman, for your detailed list of the BAF editions. And of course you mean that 'Lineage of Lichfield' (not 'Townsend of Lichfield') was published along with Cream of the Jest in the Storisende and BAF editions-- easy slip to make.

As to the version of Music from Behind the Moon in the BAF edition, I think you might be mistaken. From what I see, the Ballantine policy seems to have been to use the Storisende text for their reprints-- sometimes they explicity say they have used it. I can't imagine why they would go back to the 1926 John Day edition, unless for the illustrations-- but they didn't use those illustrations. There WAS a later revision of Music-- in the 1948 Witch-Woman volume-- can it be that one you're recalling as better than the other(s)? But in the end I'm not sure, as I haven't sat down and actually compared the Day vs the Storisende vs the 1948 text vs the BAF. I have all four-- can you point me to a speech, image, paragraph, or episode to compare from version to version?

Elenchus -- I wonder if the copy of Cream of the Jest you refer to might be the 1927 'illustrated edtion' instead of the Kalki, as the Kalkis were not illustrated. Kalkis are smallish books with a textured brick-brown binding, while the illus ed was a bit larger than yer average novel, with a black binding, illustrations by Frank C Pape...

More later...

Rough guide to editions of works in or related to the Biography of the Life of Manuel
(I will be glad to try to answer questions about specific editions. But I'm pretty hopeless on any after about 1980. Perhaps someone else can provide a rundown of currently available-as-new reprints and electronic editions...)

pre-McBride
(Most of these exist in variant ‘states’ and bindings. For that matter, so do many of his later books.)
1904 – The Eagle’s Shadow (Doubleday, Page) - modern novel
1905 – The Line of Love (Harper & Brothers) - linked medieval stories
1907 – Gallantry (Harper & Brothers) - linked 18c stories
1909 – The Cords of Vanity (Doubleday, Page) - modern novel
1909 – Chivalry (Harper’s) - linked medieval stories
1913 – The Soul of Melicent (Stokes) - novel set in medieval Poictesme

Early McBride (various bindings and trim sizes, pre-Kalki)
1915 – The Rivet in Grandfather’s Neck - modern novel
1916 – The Certain Hour - linked stories
1916 – From the Hidden Way - poetry
1917 – The Cream of the Jest - novel
1919, Jan – Beyond Life - essays in dialogue
1919, Sept – Jurgen - novel (The copyright page of first two printings says Aug 1919; this was later corrected. The 3rd printing of Jurgen, Dec 1919, was the first “Kalki” binding. This was a uniform trim-size with a textured brick-brown cloth binding, bearing in the corner of each front cover the rearing-horse logo designed by Cabell himself. When Jurgen was confiscated and banned at the start of 1920, McBride experienced an explosion of demand for Cabell, and they reprinted their other five Cabell titles in the Kalki binding. In the cases of Certain Hour and Hidden Way they even bound up as Kalkis unused sheets from the 1916 first printings.)

The Kalki Edition (McBride, brown binding with Kalki logo)
(The “Kalki Edition” comprised uniformly bound reprints of Cabell’s first dozen titles, along with five new full-length works* published during the 20s. Some of the Kalki reprints added introductions by prominent literary figures, and all included revisions, though these were sometimes not extensive. The date given here is that of the first issue thus; all went thru multiple printings up through 1930)
1920 – Beyond Life (slightly revised; slightly revised again in 1921)
1920 – Domnei (revision of Soul of Melicent, intro by Joseph Hergesheimer; slightly revised again in 1925)
1920 – The Cords of Vanity (revised, with intro by Wilson Follett)
1920 – The Certain Hour (very slightly revised)
*1921 – Figures of Earth
1921 – The Line of Love (revised, with intro by H L Mencken, and 2 new stories)
1921 – Chivalry (revised, with intro by Burton Rascoe)
1922 – Jurgen (four quick reprints once the ban was lifted; later in the year a slight revision with added author’s foreword; revised again in 1925)
1922 – Gallantry (revised, with intro by Louis Untermeyer)
1922 – Cream of the Jest (revised, with intro by Harold Ward)
1922 – The Rivet in Grandfather’s Neck (very slightly revised; very slightly revised again in 1925)
*1923 – The High Place (the first Kalki was the 2nd printing, as the illus ed was the true 1st)
1923 – The Eagle’s Shadow (revised, with intro by Edwin Bjorkman)
*1924 – Straws and Prayer-books (and a simultaneous large-paper limited 1st edition)
1924 – From the Hidden Way (revised, new poems added)
*1926 – The Silver Stallion (and a simultaneous large-paper limited 1st edition)
*1927 – Something About Eve (and a simultaneous large-paper limited 1st edition)

Illustrated editions of major titles
(All illustrated by Frank C Pape except as noted; all but the 1921 Jurgen published by McBride.)
1921 – Jurgen (UK)
1923 – High Place (illus.ed.was also the actual first edition of this title)
1923 – Jurgen (US edition, illustrations by Ray F Coyle)
1925 – Figures of Earth
1927 – Cream of the Jest
1928 – The Silver Stallion
1929 – Something About Eve
1930 – Domnei
(in addition, several of the Shorter Limited Editions were illustrated)

Shorter Works in Limited Editions
(The bindings of Taboo, Lineage, and Jewel Merchants resemble Kalkis, but they were a different trim size and were not numbered among “The Kalki Edition” as listed on Cabell’s dust-jackets, so I list them here not there.)
1920 – The Judging of Jurgen (Bookfellows, new episode, later incorporated into Jurgen)
1921 – Joseph Hergesheimer (Bookfellows, essay, later in Straws and Prayer-books)
1921 – Taboo (McBride, satirical fable, later in Townsend of Lichfield)
1921 – The Jewel Merchants (McBride; one-act play, later in Storisende Hidden Way volume)
1922 – The Lineage of Lichfield (McBride; genealogy of Biography characters, later added to Storisende Cream of the Jest)
1926 – The Music from Behind the Moon (John Day; novella, later added to the Storisende Domnei)
1928 – Ballades from the Hidden Way (Crosby Gaige; literally From The Hidden Way, w/1 new poem)
1928 – The White Robe (McBride. novella, later in Townsend of Lichfield)
1929 – Sonnets from Antan (Fountain Press; spoof poems, later in Townsend of Lichfield)
1929 – The Way of Ecben (McBride; novella, later in Townsend of Lichfield. Although Ecben, like the others in this section, was a short work issued in a limited edition, it also had four trade printings just in 1929, which makes it very common nowadays. However, unlike other McBride trade issues it was not in the Kalki binding. It contained illustrations by Pape, but these were not original to this volume.)

Storisende Edition of “The Works of James Branch Cabell” in 18 volumes (1927-1930)
Each volume has a new Foreword by the author.
1.Beyond Life 2.Figures of Earth 3.The Silver Stallion 4.Domnei & The Music from Behind the Moon 5.Chivalry 6.Jurgen 7.Line of Love 8.The High Place 9.Gallantry 10.Something About Eve 11.Certain Hour 12.Cords of Vanity 13.From the Hidden Way & The Jewel Merchants 14.Rivet in Grandfathers Neck 15.Eagles Shadow 16.The Cream of the Jest & The Lineage of Lichfield 17.Straws and Prayer-books 18.Townsend of Lichfield.
(Beginning in 1925 Cabell set about revising all his works yet again, this time for the 'definitive' collected edition of his 'works'; and in at least some cases the revision was more extensive than it had been for the Kalki edition. A snap-shot of this can be seen by comparing the last pages of the story ‘Second April’ from Gallantry. It is very little changed between the 1907 Harper edition and the 1922 Kalki edition; but the Storisende version is quite rewritten, and it’s an improvement—not that the earlier versions weren’t good, but the Storisende is much better. Cabell stated that Silver Stallion and Something About Eve had been written so recently that they were barely revised for the Storisende, but for other books I would recommend reading the Storisende text when possible. (All six of the major works reprinted in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series are Storisende. The Dover reprint of Jurgen, although it contains the wonderful Pape illustrations not otherwise available in the US, gives an unrevised text.)
As first planned in 1926-27, Straws and Prayer-books was to be the 19th and final volume of the Storisende ‘Works,’ while the 17th and 18th volumes were to be The Witch-Woman as a ‘dizain’ of 10 episodes and Townsend of Lichfield as an actual novel about a Virginia writer, including his views on the literary scene. In the upshot, only 3 of the 10 Witch-Woman episodes were completed and the Townsend novel was never written, that title being used for a mop-up collection of miscellaneous pieces, including one actually entitled Townsend of Lichfield which explained how Townsend of Lichfield was never written.)

Biography add-ons
1930 – Between Dawn and Sunrise (an anthology compiled from volumes of the Biography)
1930 – Some of Us (essays on JBC’s 1920s literary peers; perhaps out-takes from the unwritten Townsend of Lichfield??)
1936 – Preface to the Past (collection of the Author’s Forewords from the Storisende Edition, bound as a Kalki in order to serve as a general Foreword to the Kalki Edition
1948 – The Witch-Woman, A Trilogy About Her (slightly revised texts of The Music From Behind the Moon, The Way of Ecben and The White Robe, collected into one volume, with a preface)

English editions
Many of Cabell’s early works were also published in the UK more or less at the same time as in the US. Then beginning in 1921 John Lane/The Bodley Head published or republished most of his books in their latest versions, except Townsend of Lichfield and some of the Shorter Limited Editions. They kept Jurgen in print in hardback until 1949.

Miscellaneous early reprints
1923 – Beyond Life (Boni/Modern Library, intro by Cabell’s favorite editor Guy Holt)
1926 – Figures of Earth (Grosset & Dunlap)
1927 – Cream of the Jest (Modern Library)
1931 – Jurgen (Grosset and Dunlap. The t.p. says 1927 since it is a reprint of the 1927 McBride edition; but it was issued in 1931)
1931 – High Place (Boni)
1934 – Jurgen (Modern Library)

Miscellaneous later reprints
1940 – Jurgen (UK Penguin paperback)
1946 - Jurgen (US Penguin paperback)
1949 – Jurgen (Golden Cockerell- illustrated limited edition)
c1960 – Jurgen (Xanadu Library)
1965 – Jurgen (Avon paperback)
1973 – Cream of the Jest w/ textual Appendix
1976 – Jurgen (Limited Editions Club, illustrated)
1977 – Jurgen (Dover reprint of the 1921 UK Pape-illustrated edition, w/ Storisende foreword added) - reissued 2011
1978 – The High Place (Dover reprint)
2009 – Jurgen (cancelled Overlook Press reprint)

UK pb editions
from Tandem Books, 1971
Figures of Earth, Silver Stallion, Jurgen – all with introductions by James Blish

BAF – Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series (1969-1973), reprints of Storisende texts, with intros by Lin Carter
Figures, Stallion, High Place, Eve, Cream, Domnei,
See wirkman’s detailed list.

Library reprints
in the 70s several companies—Ayer, Books For Libraries, and others-- produced facsimiles for the library market. Sometimes these were of the later revised editions, sometime of earlier unrevised texts.

Current reprints
I must confess almost total ignorance of the currently available facsimile reprints with generic covers such as those from Wildside, Dodo, Bibliobazaar, and others. I believe they are facsimile reprints and in at least some cases Wildside seems to use the Storisende text.
As to e-books, I know of a kindle bundle of 12 works called The Essential James Branch Cabell, and I think some of them are also available separately. There is nothing in this package later than 1921 and I suspect that unrevised texts are used. But I don’t really know.

Oops! forgot about e-texts available on-line. They're out there -- Google, Gutenberg, etc-- I think there are even a few sponsored by the U. of Virginia? I've glanced, but can't say I'm familiar with them. I assume each one will somewhere state which text it is based on.

>1 elenchus: ... the key editions... it would be useful to gather them in one place, and perhaps get some focused discussion on the relative merits.

I don't mean to overwhelm 'discussion' of the key editions and their relative merits with mountains of lists... I just really love lists and have been playing with my Cabell bibliographies quite a bit over the last few months! ... hence the previous mega-post.

Well, as one side of a discussion, here's some opinions on (as opposed to lists of) the the various series...

pre-McBride editions, 1904-1913
These have value for their illustrations (many by Howard Pyle) and their sometimes beautiful bindings, but textually they are mere curiosities. Each of them was revised significantly later— twice, once for the Kalki Edition of the 1920s and again for the Storisende collected works of 1927-30. Not only were they brought into line with the Manuel saga, but they were improved stylistically (without however completely altering their essential romantic nature).

The Kalki Edition, 1919-1930
Pluses:
- They are generally easy to find, sometimes for just a few bucks. They were reprinted multiple times between 1920 and 1928—Hidden Way and Eagle’s Shadow just twice, but Cream of the Jest 9 times and Jurgen 20 times(!), other titles falling somewhere in between; with Cream of the Jest and Beyond Life being printed in Kalki bindings as late as 1930.
- They are generally good textually, having been revised.
- Seven of the earlier titles appearing here in revised texts have introductions by prominent writers.
Minuses:
- Textually they vary. The Hidden Way Kalki of 1924 has more poems and is divided differently than the Hidden Way Kalki of 1921. The 1st through 7th printings of Jurgen (1919-1922) don’t have the Dung Beetle episode; the 8th through 17th printings (1922-1924) don’t have the revisions made to the 18th through 20th printings (1925-27). Cream of the Jest didn’t get its intro until the 5th printing. And there are other variations in other volumes, mostly slight. How important is all this? I dunno, just sayin’. Overall, they’re pretty good.
- Drab bindings, cheaply printed. Often beat, jackets rare.

The Illustrated Editions 1921-30
All of the ‘Big 7” fantasy novels were given this treatment by McBride. Cabell himself loved Frank C Pape’s illustrations. Pape, who lived in Britain, was already well-known for his illustrations of Anatole France, Rabelais, etc, and was first used by The Bodley Head to illustrate the 1921 1st English edition of Jurgen. McBride tried using an American illustrator (Ray F Coyle) for the 1923 US illustrated Jurgen; but beginning with The High Place of 1923 they went with Pape. Good move. Wonderful illustrations. Textually each seems to use the latest Kalki revision available at the time it was printed. The 1921 UK Jurgen was actually the first edition anywhere to incorporate the Dung Beetle episode.

Dover reprinted the UK Jurgen and The High Place in the 1970s, with the Pape illustrations. Otherwise you have to go for a used McBride copy. (eta: oops! see commnets on Wildside and Dodo reprints under Storisende below...) Fortunately most of these went through multiple printings; so while if you want a pristine one with a jacket you’ll pay big bucks, if you’re satisfied with a worn-but-decent copy that still has all the plates you can find one without too much trouble in the 10 to 30 dollar range.

The Works of James Branch Cabell, 18 Volumes (The Storisende Edition)
Cabell famously (or infamously) and ambitiously (or hubristically) collected all his writings up to 1929 into the Storisende ‘works’ of 1927-30. This was a signed limited edition of 1590 copies (why 1590? the date of Marlowe’s Dr Faustus?) in a high-quality uniform binding of dignified dark green. He provided relatively lengthy (and informative and entertaining) Author’s Forewords for each volume, and everywhere made significant revisions (though by his own admission only slight revisions to Silver Stallion and Something About Eve which had just been published in 1926 and 1927).
My observations have been that these revisions are mostly (though not invariably) improvements (unlike, say, the late revisions made by Henry James or Marianne Moore or W.H. Auden to their earlier works). So, other factors aside (illustrations, prices, research) these are the versions of Cabell’s works to read.

Actual Storisende volumes vary in price and availability. A few of the titles are pretty scarce and go for $50 to $100 per volume. However I’ve seen copies of some titles in decent shape listed for as little as 10 or 20 dollars. Also, for six of the key titles you’ve got the wonderful-in-its-own-right Ballantine Adult Fantasy series which uses the Storisende text.

Are there Storisende texts available in the current whirlwind of reprints available on Amazon and elsewhere? I’m not sure. I said elsewhere, based on something I thought I recalled, that at least some of the Wildside reprints were Storisende-based. Now that I browse them on Amazon I’m not so sure. A number of them mention intros by the folks who did the Kalki intros and their High Place says it has illustrations by Pape. The Dodo Press listings also mention Kalki intros for some volumes, their Figures of Earth is illustrated by Pape, and they have Soul of Melicent instead of Domnei. Same, with variations, for Bibliobazaar/Bibliolife, and their Eagle’s Shadow says it has illustrations by Will Grefe which means it’s the 1904 text. Same for Kessinger…

So these reprints are a real mix—a lot of Kalkis, which are ok; some illustrated editions, which are neat; and a few pre-McBride throwbacks. But I haven’t detected any current Storisende reprints (yet).

Other editions

I’m not sure what text is used by the Penguin and Avon Jurgen, or Tandem paperbacks—anyone have the Tandems that can tell us? I assume the Dover High Place is the 1923 illustrated 1st edition. As mentioned, the Tandems have James Blish intros; the Avon has an afterword by Cabell scholar Louis D Rubin Jr.

The Modern Library edition of Beyond Life is neat because it has the Guy Holt intro. Its copyright page says 1919 but it was really printed in the mid 20s.

The Grosset & Dunlap reprints of Jurgen and Figures are supposed to have snazzy art deco jackets, where those survive.

The Cream of the Jest published in paperback in 1973 or 1974 or 1975 by (New) College & University Press is nice for its intro and textual appendix by Cabell scholar Joseph Flora. I’m a little surprised more textual work hasn’t been done on Cabell.

I own nearly a dozen Kalkis, and I've certainly browsed many more, and I've never seen a dust jacket! I had come to think of them as being issued naked. Can any one here point me to a scanned one in LT perhaps? I'm curious now.

>7 paradoxosalpha:

Until a couple years ago I thought the same thing, and at that point I had 15 of the 17 Kalkis.

If you look at the Kalkis in my library here http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Crypto-Willobie&deepsearch=kalki using Style C, you will see jacket images for Something About Eve, Silver Stallion, Straws and Prayer-books, Cords of Vanity and Line of Love. I confess I don't have jackets for those last two, but couldnt find a jacketless Kalki image to use for them. I do however also have jackets on my Beyond Life, From the Hidden Way, High Place and Eagle's Shadow Kalkis but couldn't find jacket images. (Scanning them myself is not currently an option.)

Some of the Kalki jackets have artwork (e.g. Eve, Stallion) but many of them are rather drab with oversized publisher's blurbs on them. The one for Straws and Prayer-books is a weird wavy greenish thing...

>4 Crypto-Willobie: yes, I own the 1927 illustrated edition with illustrations by Pape: sorry to sow any confusion. I think somehow I knew about the McBride edition using the Kalki text, perhaps that what mixed me up.

And wow, wow, wow: Crypto-Willobie, your mega-post is more than I dared dream. Wondrous information, really appreciate the time you put into that list.

> 8

Thanks!

>9 elenchus:

My pleasure, really. As I said, I love making lists. And I had already extracted a lot of that info from the bibliographies in a different form for my own use, so it wasn't as much work as you might think.

Does your Cream of the Jest have a jacket? I know that on the backs of several of the illustrated edition jackets is a full-page list headed "The Kalki Edition of the Works of James Branch Cabell" which, unless one specifically knew otherwise, would likely lead to the belief that the book in hand was one of these Kalkis, though it's only intended to advertise them. I've seen a book dealer list an illustrated edtion as a Kalki for just this reason...

Yes, that's exactly what it was -- though the jacket is disintegrating so any chance of discovering it was an advertisement may be the result of not having the full text available.

My grandfather appears to have collected several of the illustrated editions -- these are the only titles I own. I am pleased he chose those, the illustrations by Pape are a marvel, as you noted.

Editions of The Music from Behind the Moon

I just finished a quick collation of four editions of The Music from Behind the Moon:
1926 1st edition, published by John Day
1928 as included with Domnei in volume iv of the Storisende edition
1948 as included in The Witch-Woman, a Trilogy About Her
1972 as included with Domnei in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy edition

As wirkman has noted, the 1928 Storisende text is revised and improved from the 1926 Day text. I have also confirmed that there are some further revisions in the 1948 text, a few of which I detail below. But as far as I can tell, the 1928 Storisende and the 1972 BAF text are identical.

I confess I haven’t cross-checked every word in 1928 and 1972; but I did check the beginning and end and general length of every paragraph of every section. The paragraphing is the same in these two editions; often even the lineation is the same, though it is thrown off in places by 1972 not using the oversized initial capitals as in 1928, and by the slightly different margin width. I did do detailed checks of random passages and didn’t find a single variation, even in punctuation. The only difference I did find is that the table of contents has been moved from the beginning of the volume, where it is in 1928, to right before The Music from Behind the Moon proper in the 1972 text. I suppose it’s possible that there is a word or brief phrase that differs in the middle of a paragraph somewhere, but I doubt it.

By this same method it is easy to see the differences from Storisende/BAF in the 1926 and 1948 texts. It appears that much of the initial revision consisted of the addition of material, which makes some of the paragraphs of 1928 obviously longer than those of 1926. The revision of 1948 appears to be much slighter.

One of the 1948 revisions consists of the elimination of the detailed table of contents for The Music from Behind the Moon, the brief Contents for the whole volume listing only the Note as to Ettarre and the titles of the three Witch-Woman tales. The contents of the Contents do survive—that is the Numbered Titles to each segment—but the numbering has changed slightly. At the beginning of Part 1 ‘The Text From Genesis’ has lost its number and become a sort of preface, while what had been segment II is now segment 1, with the resultant renumbering of the other segments (and no longer in Roman but in Arabic numerals). I have also noted the following changes:

- The final sentence of ‘The Text From Genesis’, “And, lastly, this is a regrettably true tale.” has been changed in 1948 to read “And, lastly, this is a regrettably true tale such as no correct-thinking person ought to regard seriously.”

- The first words of the next segment (II/1) have changed from “This Madoc was…” to “Lean red-haired Madoc was…”; presumably this was done to strengthen the supposed identification of Madoc with Horvendile.

- In segment IV/3, “Still, as one nail drives out another nail, and as one fire consumes another, so …” has been changed to “Still, as one nail drives out the other, and as one fire consumes another fire, so…”

- In segment VI/5, the end of the second paragraph has been changed from “… and about her wrists also were bands of silver.” to “...and about her wrists also were bands of silver, and in her face was the bright pride of youth.”

I haven’t checked further in 1948 but no doubt there are more such minor augmentations and tinkerings. The paragraphing is sometimes different as well, 1928 paragraphs being broken into briefer paragraphs in 1948.

I don’t mean to be getting in wirkman’s face by contradicting his statement that the 1972 BAF text of The Music from Behind the Moon is inferior to the Storisende—I just want to make it safe for America to read a good text of The Music from Behind the Moon in the more easily available Ballantine Adult Fantasy edition without having to spend the money on an actual Storisende copy. I recommend folks check out the ‘Cabelliana’ link on wirkman’s blog both for the 1926 The Music from Behind the Moon illustrations and for his considered assessment of that work. I, who have only recently returned to Cabell after several decades of neglect, salute his wide and deep reading in the varied output of Koshchei the Immortal…

Hey: I make a mistake, it must be corrected!

I prefer the final revision of THE MUSIC FROM BEHIND THE MOON to any earlier version. That version is from THE WITCH-WOMAN, and it is available for a download (in my layout, with the first-edition drawings I like so much) on my web pages:

http://www.wirkman.com/Wirkman/Cabelliana.html

I will try to fix that mistake about the Storisende edition as soon as possible.

For what it's worth, my first encounter with Cabell was at age 16, with THE CREAM OF THE JEST, in the variorum edition by Flora. I fell for it whole. I thought it the best book I had read to that time.

My most recent encounter is in a book that just came in the mail: THE HOUSE OF LOST IDENTITY by Donald Corley. Cabell wrote the introduction to the 1927 edition.

Does anyone know what version the Bibliolife texts are? I can't seem to find much information about this publisher's editions, and I don't know much about Bibliolife in general:

http://www.amazon.com/Gallantry-James-Branch-Cabell/dp/0554321300/ref=sr_1_3?ie=...

On the Bibliolife (BiblioBazaar) website it says that their edition of Gallantry has an introduction by Louis Untermeyer which indicates that it is from the 1922 Kalki edition.

Of course, right here http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?kn=gallantry+mcbride+cabell&st... you may find half a dozen actual Kalkis of Gallantry for less than Amazon's $24.99, several of them in 'Very Good' condition, and one (in 'Good') for as little as $3.00 plus shipping. (Or if you just hit the lottery you can spend $450 on a copy Inscribed by Cabell to Untermeyer himself!)

< 7, 8

Speaking of Kalkis with dust jackets, here's a bargain. Kalki Silver Stallions and Something About Eves with jackets are not that uncommon, but other titles are less common are some are downright scarce. At the link below one may find for sale a VGplus first Kalki of Straws and Prayerbooks with a VGplus dust jacket for just $16.50 plus $4 shipping. I have one like it but am tempted ,just to get the bargain!

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=2820095751&searchurl=an%3Dc...

You knocked?

yeah, i typed one out and posted and when I clicked submit it disappeared. grrr. I'll have to reconstruct it when I get home from work.

Many of the English editions produced by Bodley Head have cream dust jackets with dust jacket illustrations by Frank Pape, including Domei, The Silver Stallion, Figures of Earth, The Certain Hour, Chivalry, and perhaps others. In fact the edition of Domnei also has a Pape-illustrated frontispiece.

I'd seen a couple of those in my on-line shopping but didn't realize so many of them had Pape jackets. I'm going to have to get a second job!

>13 Crypto-Willobie: Referring to Music from Behind the Moon C-W wrote, The first words of the next segment (II/1) have changed from “This Madoc was…” to “Lean red-haired Madoc was…”; presumably this was done to strengthen the supposed identification of Madoc with Horvendile.

For some reason today the name Madoc set off an alarm. I remembered it as the title of a Robert Southey epic poem about a Welsh hero, but felt I knew it from an actual Welsh source. A little looking turned up 3 different Modawgs, in 3 of the Arthurian tales collected with the Mabinogion, Culhwch and Olwen, Dream of Rhonabwy, and Gereint and Enid. I also seem to remember the name somewhere in Kenneth Morris' writings. The name Madoc also appears in the Arthurian Layamon's Brut and in the first continuation of Perceval.

Something I knew but never connected with Cabell is that the Southey hero in part 1 is in Wales, but part 2 he travels to Aztlan in the ancient new world for the last 28 sections of the poem, dealing with the Aztecs and others. This might be a source for Coth's adventures in Silver Stallion.

I don't recall seeing Southey books in Cabell's library list, but he is familiar with him. The name Lisuarte is from Amadis of Gaul, Southey's translation 1804 (with later reprints), Palmerin and Polinarda are from Palmerin of England, Southey's translation 1807 (also in the very first Palmerin D'Oliva, last printed in English about 1637).

I will take a closer look at Southey's Madoc, but it is about 150 pages of double columned tiny print and I have other things pressing today.

ETA: And then there is always the internet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madoc This is the Madoc of Southey's poem.

It is on the basis of MBM's hero being named Madoc that Cabell is included in this anthology of 'New Celtic Writing':
https://www.librarything.com/work/2546278/book/80680394

>23 Crypto-Willobie: Hmmm. Despite what LT input thinks, I find hard to believe that popular writer John Matthews is the same as the translator for a half dozen or more Arthurian titles published by Garland. I'll have to go pull them down from out back.

Waiting in the parking garage for almost 3 hours while my sister she sees her doctor and get more tests, I reread MfBtM and was getting going on Coth at Porutsa, but then it got too dark to read. This time my mind at the end is going 1287 plus 7.25 years? Then in a Viking community for decades more? 1294? Not really the peak of Viking activity by about 2 centuries and more.

I had the James Blish intro'd Silver Stallion with me. I wish he had completed his Notes on SS. By far the hardest Cabell title to track down references for me. I guess I could start googling every reference in the book. Blish mentions again the 1969 MLA seminar focused entirely on SS. Surely some materials must have come out of that?

This guy, right?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_and_Caitlin_Matthews

I'm having trouble finding any Garland title by a John Matthews
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=john%20matthews&bi=0&b...

>25 Crypto-Willobie: When I try to remember scholarly editions of Arthurian material not in front of me, my mind sometimes lumps them in the Garland Medieval series. I should have said respected scholarly publications.

The titles that seemed off and caught my eye when I clicked John Matthews's author link on the New Celtic Writing page were Le Bel Inconnu, Le Lai de Lanval, Avowing of King Arthur, The Wedding of Gawain and Ragnall, Story of Grisandole, Story of Meriadoc, Knight of the Parrot, Arthur and Gorlagon, The Mule Without a Bridle, Guingamor and Guerrehes and a few others, the type of texts that tend to be in translations by mainstream scholars. I know Lanval has been translated many times, some of the texts are quite short, he could have translated published some editions of them, but "Temples of the Grail: the search for the world's greatest relic" is more the type of title I associate with him. Or the Steampunk Tarot Ebook: Wisdom from the Gods of the Machine. Pseudo-Pop-Scholarship.

I could not find his name on any of the editions of the Arthurian titles above that I own. The Avowing of Arthur (an actual Garland Publication which I don't have) has a John Matthews listed as one of the translators on LT. I just find it hard to believe it would be the same person as the John Matthews of John and Caitlin fame.

Many to most of the titles you cite seem to be collected in this: The Book of Arthur: Lost Tales from the Round Table. According to WorldCat https://www.worldcat.org/title/book-of-arthur-lost-tales-from-the-round-table/oc... this is by John Matthews b.1948, Caitlin's husband.

>27 Crypto-Willobie: Retellings of lesser known Arthurian texts sounds more believeable. I enjoyed some of those stories quite a bit. Not a particularly valuable judgment, as I have enjoyed every medieval Arthurian text I have ever read, with the possible exception of Gauriel Von Muntabel. Translations, on the other hand, sometimes can be pretty rough going.