James Branch Cabell : An Illustrated Bibliography

JURGEN: A Comedy of Justice
McBride Printings

Hall Code
Description
*Jur-C1a
First American Illustrated Edition, Second State 1924

IMAGES:

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COMPILATION

Full Title:

Title page recto: JURGEN: | A COMEDY OF JUSTICE | BY JAMES BRANCH CABELL | WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS BY | RAY F. COYLE [row of three devices] | [in italic]"Of JURGEN eke they maken mencioun | That of an old wyf gat his youthe agoon, | And gat himselfe a shirte as bright as fyre | Wherein to jape, yet gat not his desire | In any countrie ne condicioun." | ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY | NEW YORK: 1924 [row of three devices] (see image above).

Title page verso: Copyright, 1919, by | JAMES BRANCH CABELL | [rule] | Copyright, 1923, by | Robert M. McBride & Co. | [rule] | [in italic] Printed in the | United States of America | [rule] | Illustrated Edition | Published 1923 (see image above).

Publication:

New York: Robert M. McBride & Co., 1924

Collation:

Small royal octavo [24.4 cm. (9⅝ in.) x 16.5 cm. (6½ in.); 1 blank leaf + xii + 368, with 12 tipped-in illustrations including frontispiece (not counted in pagination); (1 blank leaf not included in pagination); (i) half-title; (ii) Books by Mr. Cabell; (not counted in pagination) recto blank, verso frontispiece; (iii) title page; (iv) publication data; (v) dedication; (vi) quotations; (vii)-(viii) Contents; (ix) Illustrations (verso blank); (1) fly-title, A FOREWORD (verso blank); (3)-(6) text of foreword; (7) fly-title JURGEN (verso blank); 9-368 text. Illustrations face pages (iii) 16, 32, 64, 106, 148, 208, 236, 262, 276, 346, and 368.

Binding:

Black cloth, gilt lettering on spine and front cover; top edge trimmed and stained red, else untrimmed. Spine: [in decorative Gothic script] Jurgen | Cabell | [at base of spine] McBride. Front cover: [in decorative Gothic script] Jurgen | A Comedy of Justice | by | James Branch Cabell (see image above).

Frontispiece:

"I Am Jurgen Who Seeks He Knows Not What" [drawing by Ray F. Coyle] (see image above).

Dedication:

TO | BURTON RASCOE | [dedication in acrostic verse of three quatrains] (see image above).

Endpapers:

Black and grey marbled paper (see image above).

Dust jacket:

Not seen.

Notes:

This one is a bit of a puzzle. It's not listed in Hall, but several copies are known to exist. It is identical to the 1923 first printing (Jur-C1), except for the 1924 date on the title page recto, as well as a completely different title page verso. If the 1926 printing (Jur-C2) didn't clearly state Second Printing | August, 1926, we'd call this a second printing, after the 1923 first. As it is, we are classing it as the second state of the first printing. We leave open the real possibility, though, that this is actually an unrecorded second printing separate from the 1923 first.