WHAT CAN BE SAVED FROM THE WRECKAGE? JAMES BRANCH CABELL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY ... With a Preface by Barry Humphries by (Cabell, James Branch) Swanwick, Michael - 2007

Temporary Culture, 2007. Octavo, pp. [i] ii-[iii] iv-vii [viii] [1] 2-53] [54-56: blank], pictorial wrappers. First edition. One of 200 paperbound copies. A presentation copy with signed inscription by Swanwick to David G. Hartwell on the title page: "To David Hartwell -- / because you use this sort / of thing --- / Michael." Additional signed inscription by Barry Humphries to Hartwell on the half title page. A short but essential study. "James Brach Cabell wrote a great many books, but the only serious claims he makes upon posterity lie in his Poictesme books. All else is peripheral to them. Further, these works, the Biography of the Life of Manuel if you wish, are not eighteen in number but six, of which the best are JURGEN, THE SILVER STALLION, and FIGURES OF EARTH. THE CREAM OF THE JEST and THE HIGH PLACE belong in there as well. Not far below these are THE WAY OF ECBEN and possibly a short story of three. These are not an insurmountable number of work to master. Those who start with the core novels and read outward, stopping when their enthusiasm flags, will be the best able to make a fair judgment of the accomplishment" (pp. 37-8). A fine copy. (#163988)