James Branch Cabell : An Illustrated Bibliography
THE RIVET IN GRANDFATHER'S NECK: A Comedy of Limitations
Hall Code |
Description |
*Riv-A3a (K) |
Third Printing, variant printing/binding 1920 |
COMPILATION
Full Title:
Title page recto: THE RIVET | IN GRANDFATHER'S | NECK | A Comedy of Limitations | BY | JAMES BRANCH CABELL | [in italic] "To this new South, who values her high | past, in chief, as fit foundation of that edifice | whereon she labors day by day, and with | augmenting strokes." | NEW YORK | ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY | 1920 (see image above).
Title page verso: COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY | ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY | [in italic] Second Printing, May, 1916 | Third Printing, March, 1920 | PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | [rule] | Published October, 1915 (see image above).
Publication:
New York: Robert M. McBride & Co., March, 1920
Collation:
Crown octavo [20 cm. (7⅝ in.) x 12.7 cm. (5 in.)]; pp. 368 (first 12 un-numbered); (1) half title; (2) Books by Mr. Cabell; (3) title page; (4) publication data; (5) Dedication (verso blank); (7) Contents (verso blank); (9) Note (verso blank); (11) fly-title; (12) sonnet, Paul Verville, Nascitur (JBC); 13-368 text. Pages (11), (45), (79), (115), (163), (191), (241), (273), (319), and (353) are fly-titles; pages (6), (8), (10), (78), (114), (240), and (272) are blank.
Binding:
Kalki binding: red brick cloth, gilt lettering and decorations of spine and front cover, top edge trimmed, else untrimmed. Spine: THE RIVET | IN | GRAND- | FATHER'S | NECK | [rule] | CABELL | McBRIDE. Front cover: [Kalki device at lower right] (see image center above).
Dedication:
TO | PRISCILLA BRADLEY CABELL | [14 line dedicatory verse in two stanzas] (see image above).
Dust jacket:
Not seen, but presumed to be identical to the jacket used for Riv-A3 (K).
Notes:
The quotation on the title page was adapted from "The New Virginia," by James Branch Cabell, originally published in Julia Wyatt Bullard's Jamestown Tributes and Toasts, 1907, Hall A2.
We have observed two different versions of the 1920 3rd printing. The first type, for which we have assigned Hall's code of Riv-A3 (K), measures 1-5/16 in. across the tops. The spine text begins approximately ⅜-in. below the top of the spine, and the "c" in McBride is raised but not underlined. The second variation, for which we have assigned a new code of *Riv-A3a (K), measures 1-9/16 in. across the tops. The spine text begins approximately ¼-in. below the top of the spine, and the "c" in McBride is raised and underlined. Both bindings are in FL cloth, rather than the B cloth most often used for Kalki bindings. We have no clear explanation for these variations, but clearly there were two print runs using paper of different thicknesses, which necessitated two slightly different bindings. The image at top row center above shows a comparison of the spines of the two different bindings.
