James Branch Cabell : An Illustrated Bibliography
FROM THE HIDDEN WAY: Being Seventy-Five Adaptations in Verse
Hall Code |
Description |
FHW-A1c |
First Printing, Fourth State 1916 [?] |
COMPILATION
Full Title:
Title page recto: FROM THE | HIDDEN WAY | BEING SEVENTY-FIVE | ADAPTATIONS IN VERSE | BY | JAMES BRANCH CABELL | [double rule] | [in italic] "Tell me now in what hidden way | is Lady Flora, the lovely Roman? | Where's Hipparchia? Where is Thais?" | [double rule] | NEW YORK | ROBERT M. McBRIDE & CO. | 1916 (see image above).
Title page verso: Copyright, 1916, | BY ROBERT M. McBRIDE & CO. (see image above).
Publication:
New York: Robert M. McBride & Co., 1916 (1921? actual date unknown).
Collation:
Crown octavo [19.5 cm. (7 11/16 in.) x 13.3 cm. (5 ΒΌ in.)]; pp. x + 190; (i) blank; (ii) Books by Mr. Cabell; (1) title page; (2) publication data; (3) dedication (verso blank); (5-8) Contents; 9-187 text; (188-190) blank; pp. (9), (19), (59), (91), (117), and (151) are fly-titles; pp. (10), (18), (20), (60), (92), (118), and (152) are blank.
Binding:
Red-brown cloth; gilt lettering and decorations; top edge trimmed, others untrimmed. Spine: FROM | THE | HIDDEN | WAY | [rule] | CABELL | McBRIDE. Front cover: FROM THE | HIDDEN | WAY [decoration] | JAMES | BRANCH | CABELL | [Kalki stallion device in lower right corner] (see image above).
Dedication:
TO | BEVERLY BLAND MUNFORD | (31 May 1910) | dedicatory sonnet (see image above).
Dust jacket:
Spine: FROM | THE | HIDDEN | WAY | [rule] | CABELL | [paste-on white label printed in red] $2.00 | McBRIDE.
Front Panel: FROM THE | HIDDEN | WAY | A book of verse | [in italic] by | JAMES | BRANCH | CABELL | [paste-on white label printed in red] $2.00 | [in italic] (For description of this book see flap of this jacket)
Rear Panel: "The Rivet in | Grandfather's Neck" | FINDS FAVOR WITH THE CRITICS | [rule] | [five reviews of The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck, separated by rules] | [rule} ROBERT M. McBRIDE & CO. | PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
Front Flap: [all enclosed in a single ruled box] From the | Hidden | Way | By | James Branch Cabell | [26 line blurb] | [rule] [in italic] [original $1.25 price has been marked through] net
Rear Flap: [all enclosed in a single ruled box] The | Certain | Hour | By | James Branch Cabell | [31 line blurb] | [rule] [in italic] [original $1.35 price has been marked through] net
this is the the second state of the 1916 dust jacket. The original price of $1.25 has been covered with stickers marked $2.00 on the cover and spine, and the prices for The Certain Hour and From the Hidden Way on the flaps have been marked out (see image above).
See also the dust jacket discussion on the From the Hidden Way home page, and the dust jacket for the sixth state binding, *FHW-A1e (K).
Notes:
Hall was the first to report this binding, which was missed by previous bibliographers. However, he referred to it as a binding freak, quoting I.R. Brussel that it was "probably unique." He also noted the unusual cloth, which we now know to be the an FL cloth very similar to the one used in the variant binding of the first printing of Jurgen, *Jur-A1b. Thanks to today's increased access to the market through the internet, we can also demonstrate that this binding is not unique after all. The Silver Stallion has seen four different copies, three of which are shown above (see images above).
