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Common Knowledge

Legal name: Cabell, James Branch
Other names: Cabell, Branch
Washington, Burwell (pseudonym)
Jefferson, Henry Lee (pseudonym)
Anderson, Claiborne Hauks (pseudonym)
Birthdate: 1879-04-14
Date of death: 1958-05-05
Gender: male
Education: College of William and Mary (BA|1898)
Occupations: novelist
short story writer
essayist
poet
reporter
editor (show all 7)
geneaologist
Awards and honors: American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature ∙ 1937)
Relationships: Glasgow, Ellen (friend)
Cabell, Margaret Freeman (wife)
Munford, Beverley Bland (uncle)
Tompkins, Ellen Wilkins (cousin)
Harrison, Henry Sydnor (cousin)
Rives, Amelie (cousin) (show all 12)
Cabell, James Alston (cousin)
Cabell, Isa Carrington (cousin)
Harrison, Norvell (cousin)
Christian, W. E. (cousin)
Bouve, Pauline Carrington (cousin)
Bowie, Walter Russell (cousin)
Short biography: Cabell, Branch - (James Branch Cabell)kăˈbəl, 1879–1958, American novelist, b. Richmond, Va., grad. William and Mary, 1898. "As a mnemonic for the pronunciation of his name, he wrote: 'Tell the rabble / My name is Cabell.' (2004, F Brett Cox, editor)" After various experiences as a journalist and as a clerk for a coal mining company he began writing fiction. His early works, which are sophisticated novels deriding conventional history, include Gallantry (1907), Chivalry (1909), and The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck (1915). Many of Cabell's most popular novels are set in the imaginary medieval kingdom of Poictesme; among these are The Cream of the Jest (1917), Jurgen (1919)—Cabell's most famous work because of its attempted suppression on charges of obscenity—and The Silver Stallion (1926). Cabell's novels are usually pointedly antirealistic, and many of them can be considered moral allegories. Although he was enormously popular in the 1920s, his highly artifical prose style and subject matter lost favor with critics and public alike by the 1930s. His nonfiction writing includes Beyond Life (1919), The St. Johns (with A. J. Hanna, 1943), and Let Me Lie (1947).
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: Richmond, Virginia, USA
Places of residence: Richmond, Virginia, USA
New York, New York, USA
St. Augustine, Florida, USA
Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
Place of death: Richmond, Virginia, USA
Burial location: Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia, USA
Map Location: Virginia, USA

Members

Discussions

Wind-Breaking of the Lepidoptera in Good Show Sir! — bad science fiction and fantasy covers (February 16)

Gallantry translations, some notes in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (August 2025)

Who of us are writing A Book on Cabell? in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (December 2023)

Straws and Prayer-Books cabell's reading list in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (July 2023)

From the Hidden Way - translations in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (November 2022)

Notes and Translations on Chivalry? in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (September 2022)

New digital project explores the life and legacy of James Branch Cabell, namesake of VCU’s library in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (January 2022)

Cabell's original titles in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (September 2021)

Cabell reference in science fiction story in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (September 2021)

Gaiman's steal on Cabell in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (July 2021)

Celebrating JBC's birthday at Good Show Sir in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (April 2021)

Happy Anniversary! in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (February 2021)

Cabell Bargains in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (February 2021)

3201 Monument Avenue, Richmond, Virginia in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (February 2021)

German ballad (1907) about a knight called Manuel in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (January 2021)

Cabell Editions in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (December 2020)

"The Vampire," a First Story by Cabell in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (December 2020)

The Certain Hour in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (December 2020)

Favorite Cabell Illustrations in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (December 2020)

Cabell's Heirs? in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (November 2020)

Faulkner and james Branch Cabell in William Faulkner and his Literary Kin (October 2020)

Happy 100th birthday Jurgen! in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (September 2019)

Beyond Life in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (January 2019)

Special Delivery (screening the mail) in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (November 2017)

Ecben and the Witch-Women (and a pendant) in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (October 2013)

Illustrated Cabell Bibliography in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (January 2013)

Dedicated to JBC in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (December 2012)

Cabell articles on offer in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (May 2011)

A new book called Jurgen in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (March 2011)

Musings on The Silver Stallion in The Rabble Discuss Cabell: James Branch Cabell &c (July 2010)

Reviews

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147 reviews

wreade1872 642 reviews

Figures of Earth by James Branch Cabell

"But I cannot put aside the thought that I, who for the while exist in this mortgaged body, cannot ever get out to you. Freydis, there is no way in which two persons may meet in this world of men: we can but exchange, from afar, despairing friendly signals, in the sure knowledge they will be misinterpreted.
So do we pass, each coming out of a strange woman's womb, each parodied by the flesh of his parents, each passing futilely, with incommunicative gestures, toward the womb of a strange show more grave: and in this jostling we find no comradeship.
No soul may travel upon a bridge of words. Indeed there is no word for my foiled huge desire to love and to be loved, just as there is no word for the big, the not quite comprehended thought which is moving in me at this moment. But that thought also is a grief—"

Wow that was depressing, amongst many other things. An early fantasy comedy satire, but also heavily allegorical. This is the closest of Cabells works to his famous book Jurgen (great novel, even if it did have a bit of a limp, insider joke :P ) which was banned for indecency but cleared after a trial.

I hadn’t checked the dates of the work so assumed this was an early one but it became clear from the plot that this was written after Jurgen. Indeed you could see it as a direct response to that work. Now that i think about it there’s a bit where Manuel becomes old really quickly and that might be a reference to the trial over Jurgen, maybe it prematurely aged the author.

Anyway aswell as a great bit of fantasy as i mentioned it has a lot of allegories going on and certainly didn’t decipher all of them, only close friends of Cabell could work them all out not that you need to decipher them. You can read this on many levels.

However the main allegory is pretty obvious. This book is about what do you do after you become successful? And related topics. What should an artist sacrifice for their art? How do you react to the growing obligations of life and family and the expectations of others?

There’s so much here and its a real delight, but also really depressing (for me) because its so truthful. But that's just me, if your an optimist this will probably just be delightful for you.

I think this might actually be better than Jurgen, but not quite as fun :) . Oh and this one isn’t naughty, in fact its very unnaughty.
I don’t think Cabell censored himself out of fear of another obscenity trial but rather because he wanted to rebel, against the rebels. His audience wanted him as the poster child for naughtiness so he did this (mostly) very clean book instead, at least that's my theory.

Almost exhausting in its brilliance. show less

Nov 28, 20217 other reviews

dulac3 143 reviews

The High Place by James Branch Cabell

James Branch Cabell was a phenomenal talent. He writes with wit and style, with turns of phrase that can take your breath away and displays of keen insight into human nature. Despite all this I find myself unable to love his works wholeheartedly. I’ve been accused of being something of a cynic or pessimist myself (I prefer the term pragmatist, thank you very much), but Cabell makes me look like a doe-eyed boy scout. While I certainly do not always disagree with many of his points about the show more incongruous and laughable aspects of human nature, I just can’t bring myself to wholeheartedly condemn even the best parts of it as mere illusion and wish fulfillment as he does. I also find that many of his stories in the great cycle of Poictesme, known collectively as “The Biography of Manuel”, lean a little too far towards the allegorical for my taste, though I readily admit that even Cabell’s allegorical characters have a fulsome and well-rounded nature. That being said reading _The High Place_ leads me to the conclusion that Cabell was first and foremost a moralist, though of a decidedly materialistic bent.

The “hero” of our tale is Florian, Duke of Puysange, descendent of both of the most famous members of the Poictesme cycle: Jurgen and Manuel. We first see him as a precocious boy wandering against all sound advice into the enchanted forest of Acaire. There he is taken to “the high place” wherein lies the castle of old King Helmas and his magically sleeping court and the boy is vouchsafed a vision of Melior, the King’s daughter and most beautiful woman in creation. From this point forward Florian retains this vision as his heart’s desire. All else in life pales in comparison to this great and lovely ideal. Herein lies the trouble.

Florian grows into a man who is certainly less than worthy of our admiration. He is a man of convenience who has disposed of four wives, and many more acquaintances and compatriots, when the waning of his desires, or the dictates of convenience, have urged him to do so. Of course in his own mind there was no maliciousness in these “acts of convenience”, Florian was simply following the dictates of his honour and his logic, the twin arbiters of his choices. He also performed these necessary acts in the most circumspect of ways, for he lives according to the great Law of Life as learned from his father: Thou shalt not offend against the notions of thy neighbours…at least publicly. Thus he retains respectability, while freeing himself to wantonly pursue his every desire. Every desire, that is, but one: the great desire of his heart for the beautiful, and apparently unattainable, Melior. Florian soon comes to discover, however, much to his ultimate chagrin, that this unattainability is less a reality than it at first appears.

The beginning of the end for Florian occurs when he meets “brown Janicot” the ever pragmatic and suavely accommodating Prince of this World. As is generally the case, a compact is made which involves a firstborn child and the ultimate loss of what Florian hopes to achieve. Florian is, however, in all things eminently logical so the price appears more than fair in order to attain his heart’s desire. Thus he once again enters the forest of Acaire armed with Janicot’s infernal blessing and destroys the now sleeping monsters that guard the castle of King Helmas, undoing the enchantment laid upon their land. Florian claims his expected price for his hero’s work: the hand of the king’s beautiful daughter in marriage. Things go downhill from here.

Once brought back to the real world some of Melior’s shine wears off. She is still a majestic beauty, but Florian soon learns, much to his regret, that she is also one of the stupidest people he has ever had the pleasure to meet. The incongruity of her actuality when compared to her hoped-for potentiality is disheartening to the poor Duke of Puysange and, after manfully fulfilling his marriage obligations, he leaves his great house of Bellegarde post-haste in order to hurry on the compact of Janicot so that he may be rid of this inconvenient reality. The ultimate moral of Florian’s tale is the truism perhaps more famously coined, and with a decidedly more optimistic spin, by Browning: that “a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?” One attains one’s heart’s desire only at the greatest of all perils, the ultimate loss of it forever. It would seem that Cabell allows for two types of happiness in the world: those whose dreams outsoar the commonplace and are never attained, and those whose pragmatism allows them to dispense with the airy cobwebs of poetic dreams and idealism. It is a world perhaps congruous with our own, but something of a bland one. In the final definition it would appear that mediocrity and self-delusion are the ultimate laws of human life.

To add to Florian’s consternation is the fact that his patron saint, St. Hoprig, also follows Melior back to the present day from his place in the forest of Acaire. The mere meeting of this person, upon whom Florian had pinned all of his hopes of intervention and salvation, is disquieting. Add to that the inconvenience of the saint’s powers and obvious regard for Melior, not to mention his very unsaintly bevahiour, and Florian is an unhappy man indeed. In one fell swoop Florian’s somewhat childish dreams of perfect beauty and perfect holiness are both destroyed by the fact of their attainment. The harsh light of day, it would seem, is unable to support the glamour of an ideal. As Cabell himself states: “there is nothing in life which possession does not discover to be inadequate”. Florian’s fault is his romanticism. His unhappiness is tied to the fact, as Melior herself advises him, that “[he] made the appalling discovery that [she] did not belong upon a pedestal.” He should have been more of a realist. Through many trials, and the intervention, not to say meddling, of a number of supernatural forces, Florian is left staring at the bald fact that the only solution to his problem proves to be to send back his embodied dreams from whence they came: to the land of story and song. The moment they are once again safely removed to the land of the fabled past Hoprig and Melior can once again allow Florian to merely admire them from afar and regain for him something of his former belief in their existence as ideals. In the end the ultimate conclusion of Florian’s story proves to be no less fantastic than his attaining of his dreams, and the instructive morality of his life-lesson is left, if not undone, then at least in a place of ambiguity.

Cabell’s story is chock-full of the somewhat acid revelations that poetry and dreaming are little more than something which “…embellishes a lazar-house with pastels.” He notes time and again that “…we strive for various prizes, saying “Happiness is there”, when in point of fact it is nowhere.” The fate of all heroes and lovers, it seems, is to ultimately rue the fact that they “…have ventured into the high place, that dreadful place wherein a man attains to his desires.” I can’t really say that much of what Cabell says doesn’t make sense, or have precedent in ‘reality’, but it is somewhat hard to see how the dreams of mankind can be so thoroughly trashed, and in the most poetic of language too. Cabell is a very interesting read, he seems to combine the fairy-tale whimsy of Gaiman and the poetic prose of Ashton Smith with the somewhat incongruous misanthropy of Harlan Ellison. An acquired taste indeed. show less

Apr 2, 20134 other reviews

paradoxosalpha 1,437 reviews

Taboo by James Branch Cabell

Cabell's novel Jurgen was the subject of an obscenity case brought in 1919 by Anthony Comstock’s New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, then headed by John H. Sumner. After two years of highly-publicized trial, the court found in favor of the defendants, Cabell and his publisher Robert M. McBride and Company. In 1921, McBride published a short work by Cabell in hardcover. This book Taboo: A Legend Retold from the Dirghic of Saevius Nicanor was dedicated to Sumner, with the claim show more that the notoriety conferred by the prosecution had rescued Cabell’s commercial prospects as a writer. He called Sumner a “philanthropic sorcerer” whose “thaumaturgy” had not only generated public interest in Jurgen, but resurrected prospects for the author’s other books (11-13). The hilarious little story of Taboo is set in the country of Philistia where it is the height of indecency to speak of eating, and a writer is accused of the “very shameless mention of a sword and a spear and a staff,” culpable since “one has but to write ‘a fork’ here, in the place of each of these offensive weapons, and the reference to eating is plain” (26).

The sword and spear and staff were in reference to Chapter 22 of Jurgen, "As to a Veil They Broke," which Cabell had in large measure lifted from the Gnostic Mass of Aleister Crowley, and Cabell also mentioned these weapons in his later "Judging of King Jurgen" episode, where the tumblebug Philistine prosecutor indicted Jurgen as "indecent for reasons of which a description would be objectionable to me, and which therefore I must decline to reveal to anybody."

The entirety of Taboo is an attack on hypocritical pearl-clutching regarding sex. Its satire is constructed around a conceit in which eating (a human activity no more essential than sex, if perhaps more frequent) receives the sort of conversational proscription that Cabell's contemporaries sought to impose on sex. Still, an appreciative reader must admit that such constraints led Cabell to write some very entertaining prose. Such writing is not limited to the absurdities of Taboo and the literature around Jurgen, and it includes the clever and hilarious encounters with the cult of the Holy Nose of Lytreia and that of the shaggy goddess Koleos Koleros in Something About Eve.

Anthony Comstock figures in Taboo as "St. Anthony Koprologos" and Sumner is himself "John the Scavanger." The set-upon protagonist of Taboo is not Jurgen but the Cabell alter-ego Horvendile, whose writings are "suspected of encroachment upon gastronomy" (30). Throughout the text, the reader may profit further by converting references to eating back into references to sex, for another, more familiar-seeming, but still equally absurd story.

Even though it concludes with a lament for the persistence of moralistic censorship, Taboo was a very amusing victory lap for Cabell and McBride. show less

Sep 17, 2018 (Edited)

elenchus 640 reviews

Jurgen: a comedy of justice by James Branch Cabell

Here Cabell suggests that all of us would be no better off than Jurgen, were our heartfelt desires granted and we found ourselves in our ideal circumstances. And yet, these dreams and ideals are not a waste of time, rather they are the very core of what is needed for our best life. Squaring that circle is left to each reader, though it appears there are far fewer Cabell readers today than when he wrote the book.

There is a mimetic element to the story: I experienced some of Jurgen's lack of show more satisfaction or discontent as I proceeded through the various episodes. Recognition of this effect actually lifted my spirits: Cabell may well have attempted this deliberately, and such a literary effect is thematically fitting. The double entendre for which Jurgen is notorious certainly is evident throughout, and it was becoming a bit tiresome until I noted my flagging interest was parallel to Jurgen's almost exactly.

Worth revisiting, as are all of Cabell's efforts I've read so far, but I suspect it never will be my favourite. Possibly it is because the plot and prose are so very richly embroidered. Though initially it was difficult to get a handle on Cabell's many and distinct motifs, in other writings they spool out more leisurely and with more space to develop. I might enjoy Jurgen best as recapitulation, after having read the rest of the Biography. show less

Jul 27, 202023 other reviews

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