Full Title:

Title page recto: [in decorative script] The | Cords of Vanity| [rule broken by the tail of "of" in the line above] | [in italic] A Comedy of Shirking | [rule] | By | JAMES BRANCH CABELL | With an introduction by Wilson Follett | [in italic] "Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords | of vanity! . . . . . their root shall be as rottenness | and their blossom shall go up as dust." | NEW YORK | ROBERT M. McBRIDE & CO. | 1920 (see image above).

Title page verso: Copyright, 1909, by Doubleday, Page & Co. | Copyright, 1918, by James Branch Cabell. | Revised Edition, copyright, 1920, by | James Branch Cabell. | [in italic] Printed in the United States of America | Second Printing December, 1920 | Published 1920 (see image above).

Publication:

New York: Robert M. McBride & Company, December, 1920

Collation:

Crown octavo [ 19.7 cm. (7¾ in.) x 13.3 cm (5¼ in.)]; Pp. xvi + 330 + 3 blank leaves; (i) half-title; (ii) BOOKS by MR. CABELL; (iii) title page; (iv) publication data; (v) dedication (verso blank); (vii) fly-title: AN INTRODUCTION (verso blank); ix-xiv text of Introduction; xv CONTENTS (verso blank); (1) fly-title: THE PROLOGUE (verso blank); 3-330 text; 3 blank leaves. Pages (vii) and (1) are fly-titles. Pages (vi), (viii), (xvi), (2), and (12) are blank.

Binding:

Kalki binding: red-brick cloth, gilt lettering and decorations on spine and front cover, top edge trimmed, else untrimmed. Spine: THE | CORDS | OF | VANITY | [rule] | CABELL | McBRIDE (see image above).

Dedication:

[rule] To | GABRIELLE BROOKE MONCURE | [in italic] Plus sapis vulgus, quia tantum, quantum | opus est, sapit. | [rule] (see image above).

Notes:

The quotation on the title page is from Isaiah 5:18 of the King James Version of the Bible. The Latin phrase in the dedication translates as “The common people are wise because they know only as much as is necessary.”