Cabell, James Branch, 1879-1958

Richmond author James Branch Cabell (1879-1958) is best known for his controversial Jurgen (1919), one of several ironic fantasies he wrote that took place in the mythical medieval world of Poictesme (Pwa- tem). Jurgen, laced with erotic overtones, was considered pornographic by some, and a trial over its content brought the reclusive writer national fame. Throughout the 1920s, Cabell was highly regarded by his literary peers -- H.L. Mencken, Sinclair Lewis, and others praised his works. His medieval romanticism and fantasy were in fact thinly disguised commentary on the manners of those times.Cabell was born April 14, 1879 at 101 E. Franklin St., the present site of the Richmond Public Library. His father was Robert Gamble Cabell, II (1847-1922), a physician; his mother Anne Harris (1859-1915), daughter of Col. and Mrs James R. Branch. Cabell's great grandfather was William H. Cabell, governor of Virginia from 1805-1808. Cabell had two brothers, Robert Gamble Cabell, III (1881-1968) and John Lottier Cabell (1883-1946). His parents separated and were later divorced in 1907. After attending William and Mary College (1893-1898), where he taught courses in French and Greek while an undergraduate, Cabell worked briefly at the Richmond Times as a copy-holder. Beginning in 1899 he lived for two years in New York City, working for the New York Herald as a social reporter, serving for a time in the paper's Harlem office. In 1901 he returned to Richmond and worked several months on the staff of the Richmond News. During the next ten years he performed genealogical research and wrote many short stories and articles, contributing to national magazines such as Harper's Monthly Magazine and the Saturday Evening Post. In 1911, he was employed as a bookkeeper in the office of his uncle's (James R. Branch) coal mine in West Virginia. He returned to Richmond in 1913 and married Rebecca Priscilla Bradley Shepherd (1874-1949), a widow with five children by her previous marriage. They had one son, Ballard Hartwell Cabell (1915-1980). Although he had written for newspapers, Cabell's first work to be published in a journal was a college paper entitled The Comedies of William Congreve which appeared in the April 1901 edition of International. His first book, The Eagle's Shadow, was published in the autumn of 1904 after it appeared serially in the Saturday Evening Post during that summer. Whether it was his highly mannered prose or the fact that he was writing ironic romances, his work was slow to draw critical attention. By 1918 he had published 10 major works and began to attract critical admirers. In an article published that year in the New York Evening Mail, H.L. Mencken described Cabell as "the only first-rate literary craftsman that the whole South can show." Cabell's stature and fame as an author grew immensely with the 1919 publication of Jurgen.On January 14, 1920, the New York State Society for the Prevention of Vice charged Cabell's publishing editor, Guy Holt, with violation of the anti-obscenity provisions of the New York State Penal Code by publishing Jurgen. The controversy over the charges and the attempt at censorship brought the shy Cabell much notoriety. Writers defended the artistry of Jurgen and Cabell's right to publish it. College students and others read it because it had been banned.The obscenity trial over Jurgen began October 16, 1922, and ended three days later with an acquittal of all charges. Judge Charles C. Nott, the presiding judge, wrote in his decision that "...the most that can be said against the book is that certain passages therein may be considered suggestive in a veiled and subtle way of immorality, but such suggestions are delicately conveyed" and that because of Cabell's writing style "...it is doubtful if the book could be read or understood at all by more than a very limited number of readers." Throughout the 1920s, he continued to publish in the style of Jurgen, a combination of satire, symbolism and fantasy, set in a mythical medieval French provence, called Poictesme. The name was a compound of two provinces located in the south of France, Poitiers and Angouleme. In these books, Cabell blended an assortment of myths and legends laced with puns, anagrams, and allegories. These works eventually became part of an eighteen-volume collection entitled The Biography of the Life of Manuel. The last volume was published in 1930.Cabell had become well regarded by prominent writers of the period and maintained an extensive correspondence with a wide circle of literary artists and friends, including Mencken, Joseph Hergesheimer, Burton Rascoe, Theodore Dreiser, Sinclair Lewis, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Carl Van Vechten, and fellow Richmonder and close friend Ellen Glasgow. He had known Glasgow since his days at William and Mary College. He also served as editor of the Virginia War History Commission (1919-1926) and later joined Dreiser, Eugene O'Neil and others on the editorial board of the American Spectator (1932-1935). In 1937, Cabell was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. While the controversy over Jurgen insured Cabell an audience throughout most of the 1920s, interest in his books dropped sharply in the New Deal era of the 1930s and continued to decline. His work was considered outdated, his writing too stylized.In 1932, in an attempt to break away from his past, he began to publish work under the name Branch Cabell. During the next three decades he wrote and published nearly twenty more books. They were grouped in a series of trilogies. He returned as James Branch Cabell in 1947 with the publication of Let Me Lie. It was the first installment of his fifth and last trilogy, consisting largely of semi-autobiographical essays, filled with remembrances of Virginia. Cabell continued to live and work in Richmond, residing at 3201 Monument Avenue. He and his family began to spend most of their winter months in St. Augustine, Florida after Cabell began to suffer from attacks of pneumonia in 1935. During their stay in Florida in 1949, his wife died of heart failure. In 1950, he married Margaret Waller Freeman (1893?-1983), whom he had known for many years. Cabell suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in 1958 and on May 5, he died at his home in Richmond. Cabell's writings, published in various magazines, newspapers and anthologies, included numerous short stories, poetry, essays, book reviews and one play. He had authored more than 52 volumes of work, including three devoted to genealogy.Cabell is recognized as one of the first contemporary writers from the South. Like his friend and fellow Richmond writer Ellen Glasgow (1873-1945), Cabell was not afraid to satirize what he saw as the South's contradictions. Others, noting Cabell's unique blending of classic myths and legends with his own imagination, consider him a pioneer of fantasy writing. His work has been admired by a diverse group of writers, including Carl Van Vechten, Margaret Mitchell, Edmund Wilson, Robert Heinlein, and Neil Gaiman.Soon after Virginia Commonwealth University was established in 1968, when the Medical College of Virginia merged with Richmond Professional Institute, the University began plans for a new library for the Academic Campus. In 1970, the James Branch Cabell Library, named for one of Richmond's most respected writers, opened its doors.

From the description of James Branch Cabell papers, 1860s-1960s (James Branch Cabell Library). WorldCat record id: 695118604

Andrews was a Whimsies editor.

From the description of Letter, 1922 Nov. 15, Dumbarton, Va., to [Charles] Andrews [Ann Arbor] (University of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 34368005

Virginia author.

From the description of Letter to "My dear Louise" [manuscript], 1946 January 17. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647833413

From the description of Letter to Mr. Greenwald [manuscript], 1924 December 27. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647834062

From the description of Papers of James Branch Cabell, 1932-1956. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 32136017

From the description of Letter to John Meloy Stahl [manuscript], 1924 January 7. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647824636

Born in Richmond in 1879. Graduated from William and Mary. Worked as newspaperman and as a mining company employee. Wrote over fifty volumes including the suppressed work, Jurgen. Died in 1958.

From the description of Letters, 1940-1953, to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. (College of William & Mary). WorldCat record id: 20021172

From the description of James Branch Cabell Papers (IV) 1909 and 1921 (College of William & Mary). WorldCat record id: 192075183

James Branch Cabell was born in Richmond, Va. 14 April 1879 and graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1898. he worked for newspapers in Richmond, Va. and New York City and as a mining company employee. Cabell wrote over fifty volumes including the suppressed work, Jurgen.

From the description of Papers, ca. 1902-1958. (College of William & Mary). WorldCat record id: 25750839

J.B. Cabell was born in Richmond, Va. and spent the majority of his life in that city; he is the author of over 50 works and numerous articles and short stories; he is best known for "Jurgen" (1919), the controversial work which was labeled as obscene and pornographic.

From the description of James Branch Cabell Collection, 1930-1945. (Florida State University). WorldCat record id: 40862487

James Branch Cabell was an American author, known for his highly stylized prose and somewhat controversial subject matter. Born into an aristocratic Virginia family, he was educated at the College of William & Mary, where he excelled as a student and taught language courses as an undergraduate. His name was associated with a pair of awkward scandals, but he was acquitted and worked as a journalist while honing his literary skills as a short story writer. He developed his key work, the Biography of the Life of Manuel, as a series of interconnected novels and short stories based upon the myth-making adventures of the Faustian swineherd Manuel and his descendents. Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice, elicited a lawsuit on charges of obscenity, but Cabell was exonerated. His mannered prose was deemed tedious by some, but Cabell's works had many contemporary admirers, including Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken, and have influenced writers such as Robert A. Heinlein, Jack Vance, and Neil Gaiman.

From the description of James Branch Cabell letter, page proof, and keepsake pamphlet, 1929-1979. (Pennsylvania State University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 155847730

Author.

From the description of James Branch Cabell papers, 1926. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79454946

From the description of Papers, 1915-1935. (Indiana University). WorldCat record id: 28084741

American poet and essayist.

From the description of Autographed photograph of James Branch Cabell [manuscript], n.d. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647898740

From the description of Letter to Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair Lewis, from James Branch Cabell [manuscript], 1920-1921. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647898786

Cabell was a 20th-century American author famous for his novel Figures of earth.

From the guide to the Letters to Ivan Somerville, 1927-1928., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

American novelist and essayist.

From the description of Letter to Mrs. Woolf [manuscript], 1920 September 25. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647807885

Novelist, historian.

From the description of James Branch Cabell papers, 1919-1922. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 489374963

Cabell was a 20th-century American author, famous for his novel Figures of earth.

From the description of Letters to Ivan Somerville, 1927-1928. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 80404991

American author.

From the description of Letter and petition, 1920-1938. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 56349786

From the description of Papers of James Branch Cabell [manuscript], 1913-1924. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647833194

From the description of Letters to admirers [manuscript], 1929, 1941, 1948. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647824764

From the description of Letter to William Shaw [manuscript], 1940 January 10. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647825685

From the description of Jurgen [manuscript], n.d. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647807737

From the description of Proofs of "The silver stallion" [manuscript], 1920-1946. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647831028

From the description of Letter to Guy Holt [manuscript], 1927 September 5. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647826840

From the description of Letter to Mr. Hathaway [manuscript], 1927 November 11. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647833229

From the description of Manuscripts : of James Branch Cabell, 1911-1951, n.d. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 30793043

American author and essayist.

From the description of Papers of James Branch Cabell [manuscript], 1669-1937, n.d. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647898745

From the description of Photograph of James Branch Cabell [manuscript], n.d. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647898780

From the description of Photograph and autograph poem of James Branch Cabell [manuscript], 1923. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647898738

From the description of Papers of James Branch Cabell [manuscript], 1917-1930. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647898714

From the description of Letters to Harold Ward [manuscript], 1919-1923. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647898778

From the description of Correspondence with A. Grove Day [manuscript], 1926-1935. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647898783

From the description of Letter to Hudson Strode [manuscript], 1940 March 2. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647898775

From the description of Letters from James Branch Cabell manuscript], 1928-1938. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647898772

Forms part of the Clifton Waller Barrett Library.

Virginia author.

From the description of Letters and greeting cards to Benjamin De Casseres, 1919-1938. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 31084205

Richmond author James Branch Cabell (1879-1958) is best known for his controversial Jurgen (1919), one of several ironic fantasies he wrote that took place in Cabell's mythical medieval world of Poictesme (Pwa- tem). Jurgen, laced with erotic overtones, was considered pornographic by some and a trial over its content brought the reclusive writer national fame. Throughout the 1920s, Cabell was highly regarded by his literary peers -- H.L. Mencken, Sinclair Lewis, and others praised his works. His medieval romanticism and fantasy were in fact thinly disguised commentary on the manners of those times.

Cabell was born April 14, 1879 at 101 E. Franklin St., the present site of the Richmond Public Library. His father was Robert Gamble Cabell, II (1847-1922), a physician; his mother Anne Harris (1859-1915), daughter of Col. and Mrs James R. Branch. Cabell's great grandfather was William H. Cabell, governor of Virginia from 1805-1808. Cabell had two brothers, Robert Gamble Cabell, III (1881-1968) and John Lottier Cabell (1883-1946). His parents separated and were later divorced in 1907.

After attending William and Mary College (1893-1898), where he taught courses in French and Greek while an undergraduate, Cabell worked briefly at the Richmond Times as a copy-holder. Beginning in 1899 he lived for two years in New York City, working for the New York Herald as a social reporter, serving for a time in the paper's Harlem office. In 1901 he returned to Richmond and worked several months on the staff of the Richmond News. During the next ten years he performed genealogical research and wrote many short stories and articles, contributing to national magazines such as Harper's Monthly Magazine and the Saturday Evening Post.

In 1911, he was employed as a bookkeeper in the office of his uncle's (James R. Branch) coal mine in West Virginia. He returned to Richmond in 1913 and married Rebecca Priscilla Bradley Shepherd (1874-1949), a widow with five children by her previous marriage. They had one son, Ballard Hartwell Cabell (1915-1980).

Although he had written for newspapers, Cabell's first work to be published in a journal was a college paper entitled The Comedies of William Congreve which appeared in the April 1901 edition of International. His first book, The Eagle's Shadow, was published in the autumn of 1904 after it appeared serially in the Saturday Evening Post during that summer. Whether it was his highly mannered prose or the fact that he was writing ironic romances, his work was slow to draw critical attention. By 1918 he had published 10 major works and began to attract critical admirers. In an article published that year in the New York Evening Mail, H.L. Mencken described Cabell as "the only first-rate literary craftsman that the whole South can show." Cabell's stature and fame as an author grew immensely with the 1919 publication of Jurgen.

On January 14, 1920, the New York State Society for the Prevention of Vice charged Cabell's publishing editor, Guy Holt, with violation of the anti-obscenity provisions of the New York State Penal Code by publishing Jurgen. The controversy over the charges and the attempt at censorship brought the shy Cabell much notoriety. Writers defended the artistry of Jurgen and Cabell's right to publish it. College students and others read it because it had been banned.

The obscenity trial over Jurgen began October 16, 1922, and ended three days later with an acquittal of all charges. Judge Charles C. Nott, the presiding judge, wrote in his decision that "...the most that can be said against the book is that certain passages therein may be considered suggestive in a veiled and subtle way of immorality, but such suggestions are delicately conveyed" and that because of Cabell's writing style "...it is doubtful if the book could be read or understood at all by more than a very limited number of readers."

Throughout the 1920s, he continued to publish in the style of Jurgen, a combination of satire, symbolism and fantasy, set in a mythical medieval French provence, called Poictesme (Pwa-tam). The name was a compound of two provinces located in the south of France, Poitiers and Angouleme. In these books, Cabell blended an assortment of myths and legends laced with puns, anagrams, and allegories. These works eventually became part of an eighteen-volume collection entitled The Biography of the Life of Manuel. The last volume was published in 1930.

Cabell had become well regarded by prominent writers of the period and maintained an extensive correspondence with a wide circle of literary artists and friends, including Mencken, Joseph Hergesheimer, Burton Rascoe, Theodore Dreiser, Sinclair Lewis, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Carl Van Vechten, and fellow Richmonder and close friend Ellen Glasgow. He had known Glasgow since his days at William and Mary College. He also served as editor of the Virginia War History Commission (1919-1926) and later joined Dreiser, Eugene O'Neil and others on the editorial board of the American Spectator (1932-1935). In 1937, Cabell was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

While the controversy over Jurgen insured Cabell an audience throughout most of the 1920s, interest in his books dropped sharply in the New Deal era of the 1930s and continued to decline. His work was considered outdated, his writing too stylized.

In 1932, in an attempt to break away from his past, he began to publish work under the name Branch Cabell. During the next three decades he wrote and published nearly twenty more books. They were grouped in a series of trilogies. He returned as James Branch Cabell in 1947 with the publication of Let Me Lie. It was the first installment of his fifth and last trilogy, consisting largely of semi-autobiographical essays, filled with remembrances of Virginia.

Cabell continued to live and work in Richmond, residing at 3201 Monument Avenue. He and his family began to spend most of their winter months in St. Augustine, Florida after Cabell began to suffer from attacks of pneumonia in 1935. During their stay in Florida in 1949, his wife died of heart failure. In 1950, he married Margaret Waller Freeman (1893?-1983), whom he had known for many years. Cabell suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in 1958 and on May 5, he died at his home in Richmond.

Cabell's writings, published in various magazines, newspapers and anthologies, included numerous short stories, poetry, essays, book reviews and one play. He had authored more than 52 volumes of work, including three devoted to genealogy.

Cabell is recognized as one of the first contemporary writers from the South. Like his friend and fellow Richmond writer Ellen Glasgow (1873-1945), Cabell was not afraid to satirize what he saw as the South's contradictions. Others, noting Cabell's unique blending of classic myths and legends with his own imagination, consider him a pioneer of fantasy writing. His work has been admired by a diverse group of writers, including Carl Van Vechten, Margaret Mitchell, Edmund Wilson, Robert Heinlein, and Neil Gaiman.

Soon after Virginia Commonwealth University was established in 1968, when the Medical College of Virginia merged with Richmond Professional Institute, the University began plans for a new library for the Academic Campus. In 1970, the James Branch Cabell Library, named for one of Richmond's most respected writers, opened its doors.

From the guide to the James Branch Cabell Papers, 1860s-1960s, (Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University)