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.
-
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:
It does not seem logical that I have looked at every painting and
sketch
and water color in the Musée Moreau (including the three hundred
little
ones in the revolving stand), but have not yet seen Niagara Falls. To touch
the skin of a peach sets my teeth on edge: so does the sight of a cut and
wilted flower. I am stingy in small money matters. I dislike nobody, now
that
Woodrow Wilson is dead. In writing prose I observe that I do not naturally
employ the Ionic a minore or the third paeon. I support
twenty-eight
goldfish, each of whom has his or her own name. I have never been
cordially
moved by philanthropy or altruism. When a dentist is working on my teeth
I
find it an immense comfort to wave both feet in the air. Such are the
thoughts which occur to me when I think frankly about myself.
Into the drift of new days I forbear to pry after dreams as large and
ardent as those which swayed my far-away youth-time. Then I had grief,
love, and laughter: now I am fairly contented. Life, which was tragic or
blissful, becomes a more moderate commerce. All that is done seems well
done with; all that I keep well contents me; all that awaits I must meet,
God
willing, without any whining. So much alone one may gain from the half
of a
century's schooling — platitudes flavored with gratitude. That is
life's
stinted tuition's end, in so far as I fathom it. Such are the thoughts which
occur to me when I (who attempt this rarely) think frankly about
myself.
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.
