'Tell the Rabble My Name is Cabell'
By Dale D. Dalenberg, M.D.
September 22, 2013
Almost forgotten by the American reading public today, but still exerting far-ranging influence among fantasists, and a cornerstone author of the Dalenberg Library, we come to James Branch Cabell. Like most people, I used to say his name with an emphasis on the BELL. But I’ve seen it parsed out to be pronounced like the word CABLE. Then, I came across the poem the author himself wrote to convince people to say it his way—“Tell the rabble my name is Cabell.”
I came to Cabell in the 1970’s when Ballantine books were on their 2nd printing of 6 of his wonderful fantasy novels set in a fictitious French medieval province called Poictesme. After that it was important to seek out his most famous (and notorious) novel, Jurgen, which became an important footnote in literary history as the subject of a famous obscenity trial in 1919. Cabell speaks with a gentle and urbane voice that is drowned out in the din of modern times. He comes from a julet-sipping gentlemanly time from the old South, but he remained a fantasist in a more European mold throughout his literary career, and he never moved on to tackle all those Southern themes, like issues of class and race, that made others of his contemporaries immortal. Cabell is a very funny writer, but his humor is subtle and his voice is droll. You either “get” him or you don’t.
As a dedicated Cabell fan, I can’t resist showing off the Dalenberg Library, which has several really nice Cabell editions. One of the rarest books of importance in all of fantasy literature is The Soul of Melicent, published by Frederick A. Stokes Company of New York in September, 1913, one-hundred years ago this month. There was only this one edition, as the book was later re-titled Domnei (actually Cabell’s original title) when it was reissued in 1920 after Cabell had become famous in the trial over Jurgen. Cabell later wrote that The Soul of Melicent only sold 493 copies in the autumn of 1913, and he was discouraged to continually find it disparagingly discounted in bookstore remainder piles for the next 6 years (until his sudden rise to fame in 1919.) A search on abebooks.com found only 11 copies for sale, and only one of those was inscribed by the author, and that one not until 1920.
The Dalenberg Library copy of the book is a unique presentation copy inscribed by the author “To Martha Hamilton Paxton from James Branch Cabell September 1st, 1913.” It was therefore inscribed upon the date of publication or right away when the author got some pre-publication copies. The identity of Miss Paxton is a mystery. A cursory Internet search suggests that she may have been born in 1881, making her about 32 years old at the time and very close in age to Mr. Cabell (who was born in 1879).
The mystery of Ms. Paxton’s identity is made even more tantalizing by the fact that the Dalenberg Library copy of The Soul of Melicent has, tipped in, an undated postcard in Cabell’s unique hand depicting a Northwestern View of Rockbridge Alum Springs, a resort that Cabell frequented in those days. On the picture side of the card, Cabell has drawn a forearm and hand pointing to a room on the upper floor of the hotel. On the reverse, he has written “Just to remind you of my present address” and addressed it to “Miss Paxton, Natural Bridge Hotel, Natural Bridge, Virginia.”
Since Cabell married in November, 1913, and moved at that time to his famous residence Dumbarton Grange, and since he was seemingly inviting Miss Paxton (not his future wife) to his room, and since he sent Miss Paxton this romantic book of his very much “hot off the press”—I cannot help but imagine that we have evidence here of a romantic assignation of 100 years past. Whether Miss Paxton and Mr. Cabell ever hooked up is a detail that died with the principals, but it is amusing to note that Miss Paxton saved the postcard with the book, so that now, years later, they are still together.
Incidentally, the Howard Pyle illustrations are full page color plates including the onlaid cover, frontispiece, and a few scattered through the book. The publication date is posthumous for Pyle. I believe that the plates that were used were not original for this book, but that they were archival Pyle works that were appropriated for this project. To make matters more confusing for collectors of Howard Pyle: Pyle did do some original paintings for Cabell stories published in Harper’s Monthly Magazine. Parts of the source material for The Soul of Melicent were published in Harper’s in 1908 and 1911. The Pyle illustrations for the original story publications were original works intended for the Cabell stories, but the same paintings were not used for the book.
