James Branch Cabell : An Illustrated Bibliography
THE CERTAIN HOUR (Dizain des Poëtes)
Hall Code |
Description |
CH-A2 (K) |
Second Printing 1920 |
COMPILATION
Full Title:
Title page recto: THE | CERTAIN HOUR | [in italic] (Dizain des Poëtes) | By | JAMES BRANCH CABELL | "Criticism, whatever may be its pretensions, never | does more than to define the impression which | is made upon it at a certain moment by a work | wherein the writer himself noted the impression | of the world which he received at a certain hour." | NEW YORK | ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY | 1920 (see image above).
Title page verso: Copyright, 1916, by Robert M. McBride & Co. | Copyright, 1915, by McBride, Nast & Co. | Copyright 1914, by the Sewanee Review Quarterly | Copyright, 1913, by John Adams Thayer Corporation | Copyright, 1912, by Argonaut Publishing Company | Copyright, 1911, by Red Book Corporation | Copyright, 1909, by Harper and Brothers (see image above).
Publication:
New York: Robert M. McBride & Co., 1920
Collation:
Crown octavo [20 cm. (7⅞ in.) x 13.7 cm. (5⅜ in.)]; pp. 256 (first 8 un-numbered); (1) half title, (2) Books by Mr. Cabell; (3) title page; (4) copyright data; (5) Dedication (verso blank); (7) Contents; (8) quotation; pp. 9-10 [poem] Ballad of the Double Soul; (11) fly title AUCTORIAL INDUCTION; (12) 12-line verse in three stanzas; pp. 13-34 text of Auctorial Induction; (35) fly title; (36) quotation as by Raimbaut de Vaquierias; pp. 37-253 text. Pages (11), (35), (61), (85), (105), (125), (147), (169), (189), (209), and (233) are fly titles. Pages (254-256) are blank.
Binding:
Kalki binding: red-brown cloth; gilt lettering and decorations; top edge trimmed, else untrimmed. Spine: THE | CERTAIN | HOUR | [rule] | CABELL | McBRIDE. Front cover: [Kalki device at lower right] (see image above).
Dedication:
TO | ROBERT GAMBLE CABELL II | [in italic] In Dedication of The Certain Hour | sixteen line dedicatory verse in four quatrains (see image above).
Dust jacket:
White paper, black lettering (see image above).
Spine: THE | CERTAIN | HOUR | [rule] | CABELL | McBRIDE
Front panel: The | Certain Hour | [10-line quote from a review in The Dial] |James Branch Cabell | [double rule] | ROBERT M. McBRIDE & CO. | PUBLISHERS [two devices] NEW YORK
Rear Panel: JAMES BRANCH CABELL: [in italic] Certain Opinions | [excerpts from 9 reviews] | [double rule] | ROBERT M. McBRIDE & CO. | PUBLISHERS [two devices] NEW YORK
Flaps: blank
Notes:
The quotation on the title page is by Jules Lemaître, quoted in French Maxims of Letters, translated and edited by Henri Pène du Bois, published by Bretanos, New York, 1894.
When this edition was issued in 1920, Mr. Cabell added a passage on page (8) that purported to be an excerpt from The Terrible and Marvellous History of Manuel Pig-Tender That Afterwards Was Named Manuel the Redeemer. This addition tied The Certain Hour to The Biography of Manuel by identifying the protagonists of these stories with the ten clay figures that Manuel created in Figures of Earth, and which were brought to life by Freydis, once the High Queen the Audela, "each in his certain hour" (see image above).
