James Branch Cabell : An Illustrated Bibliography

THE CREAM OF THE JEST: A Comedy of Evasions
Modern Library Printings

Hall Code
Description
CoJ-D4 (ML)
Fourth Modern Library Printing (Fall 1928)

IMAGES:

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COMPILATION

Full Title:

Title page recto type "G": [All enclosed in a double rule] THE CREAM OF | THE JEST | [rule] | BY | JAMES BRANCH CABELL | [rule] | INTRODUCTION | BY | HAROLD WARD | [rule] | Bernhard Torchbearer device | [rule} | THE MODERN LIBRARY | PUBLISHERS : NEW YORK (see image above).

Title page verso: [in italic]Manufactured in the United | States of America | [in italic] Bound for The Modern Library, Inc., by H. Wolff (see image above).

Publication:

New York; no date, no copyright notice. Catalog at rear, printed contiguously with the text, can be dated to Fall 1928 (catalog includes The Golden Ass, by Apeleius, but not The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky).

Collation:

Sextodecimo [16.8 cm. (6 5/8-inches) x 10.8 cm. (4 1/4-inches)]. [i] half-title; [ii] advt; [iii] title; [iv] printer's notice (no copyright); [v] line drawing; [vi] blank; [vii] dedication; [viii] blank; ix-xii INTRODUCTION; [xiii - xv] Contents; [xvi] blank; [1] The | Cream | of | the Jest; [2] [rule] | BOOK FIRST | [8 line poem] | [rule]; 3-250 text; [251-252] blank; [253-256] catalog.

Binding:

Toledano Binding Style 4. Flexible leatherette in brown (also likely in black, blue, and green). Spine all in gilt: [Double rule] | THE | CREAM | OF THE | JEST | [Rule] | CABELL | MODERN | LIBRARY | [Double rule]. Front in gilt: Bernhard Torchbearer device. (see images above).

Frontispiece:

Line drawing by James Branch Cabell: The Sigil of Scotia (see image above).

Dedication:

TO | LOUISA NELSON | [in italic] "At me ab amore tuo diducet | nulla senectus." (see image above).

Endpapers:

Bernhard design endpapers, as used in Modern Library titles 1925-1929 (see image above).

Dust jacket:

Not seen but this printing would most likely have had a Style DJ-E dust jacket.

Notes:

For an explanation of the terms used on this page that are specific to The Modern Library, see the Cabell in The Modern Library page.