University of Virginia Library

II
Cabell's Own Works

With money received from the sale of an early story, Cabell purchased a large mahogany cabinet and stored there the numerous impressions, states

and editions of his own works. Of the 236 volumes in this cabinet, eighty-eight have letters from his publishers, critics, and friends inserted in them. There are also numerous documents pertaining to Cabell's career in these books. Cabell inscribed almost every volume here, and some have directions to his future editors. Often the inscriptions are of a bibliographical nature, as, for example, in a copy of Branchiana: "Property of / James Branch Cabell / Only some 10 copies were / issued in this red binding."; and again, in a copy of Chivalry: "Property of / James Branch Cabell / this is the first state," and in Beyond Life: "First state, / normal binding. / James Branch Cabell."[4] There are numerous similar inscriptions.

Although there are no full length manuscripts in the mahogany cabinet there is much manuscript material. In addition to notes jotted on scraps of paper and various kinds of minutiae, there are scores of typed manuscript sheets with holograph overlays inserted in the books. Sometimes the material relates to a section of a book which Cabell rewrote or to a preface or introduction. Especially is this the case regarding the Storisende Edition of his works. Occasionally the manuscript pertains to a purple passage, or other special effect Cabell was seeking. The manuscript for the "Author's Note" in the Storisende Edition of Jurgen, for example, indicates that Cabell changed his attitude toward this novel before it was republished in the collected edition of 1927-30. The manuscript is a typed fair-copy with a holograph overlay of corrections in black ink. Notice the changes that he made in his final revision:

• Original: As I recall it, the writer whom in some place or another I have seen identified as "the author of 'Jurgen'" aimed with this volume to introduce into the Biography the element of gallantry, as well as yet further to foreshadow the poet's fundamental attitude toward existence.
• Revised: Upon reflection I have decided not to write any new preface for "Jurgen." Otherwise, I would here explain that the writer whom, in some place or another, I have seen identified as "the author of 'Jurgen'" aimed with this volume to introduce into the Biography the element of gallantry, as well as yet further to foreshadow every poet's fundamental attitude toward existence.
• Original: Nor, for that matter, — I repeat, — do I feel any strong desire to say anything more as to this "Jurgen." . . .
• Revised: Moreover — I repeat, I am indissuadably set against writing any sort of preface for this "Jurgen." . . .
• Original: . . . "Don Quixote" and "Pride and Prejudice" and "Tom Jones", depends not upon what the author has put into its pages but upon what the reader gets out of them. And upon this understanding, I am willing enough to concede that the sixth chapter of the Biography may be the best.

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• Revised: . . . "Don Quixote" and "Pride and Prejudice" and "Tom Jones", depends not upon what the author has put into its pages, but upon what one or another reader, for one or another reason, gets out of them. And I do not press the point that "Jurgen" seems to me not truly an individual book but just the sixth chapter of the Biography.

These examples, and there are numerous others in this manuscript, are evidence that Cabell's attitude toward the Storisende Jurgen changed from the time that he wrote the "Author's Note" in fair-copy form until he finally revised it. In the fair-copy he indicates that Jurgen "may be the best" novel in the edition, while in the overlay he indicates it is "not truly an individual book but just the sixth chapter of the Biography." In the total Cabell canon such a point may be relatively minor; however, a study of sufficient similar examples will yield fruit for the scholar concerned with Cabell's revisions. The mahogany cabinet contains other similar manuscript material; the above is only an illustration.

Apart from Cabell's methods of revision, the manuscript material gives us knowledge of his methods of composition. This is not the place to attempt a study of Cabell's prose style. It is enough to say that like Hawthorne, Henry James, Whitman, and a host of others, he worked very consciously for studied effects, and the steps by which he achieved them can often be seen in the manuscript material.

In one volume we find manuscript sheets that prove Cabell scanned his prose as poetry in order to construct purple passages. It is necessary to quote at length from pages twenty-five and twenty-six of Special Delivery, New York: Robert M. McBride and Co., 1933 in order to illustrate this point:

The latter paragraph, we see, takes on a poetic regularity absent in the former. The manuscript inserted in Special Delivery casts light on this, for

here we find three versions of the paragraph. Cabell scanned the first two lines of the first version, arriving at a basically dactyllic hexameter line. The second version is slightly rewritten and it too is basically dactyllic hexameter. The final version, which appears the same as in the published form, has two overlays of revision, but it too retains the dactyllic hexameter line. Here we have concrete evidence that Cabell was an extremely meticulous prose stylist, and the importance of such evidence is of moment to the Cabell scholar. There are 225 sheets of manuscript inserted in the books — many indicating textual changes intended for future editions — as well as numerous pages of notes. Collectively they comment significantly on Cabell's attitudes toward his craft and on his methods of composition, and his plans for subsequent editions.