A round-table in Poictesme : a symposium

This is only for the most devoted readers of Cabell — an appreciation of Cabell’s creativity and creations, by a variety of writers in 1924. I gather that these were all real authors in their day. I certainly know some of them — Morley, Mencken, Rascoe, Cabell himself — but, knowing Cabell’s own “rogueries” (see M. P. Mooney, p. 77), I would not bet on all of them having possessed, in 1924, the facticity of corporeal existence.

On the whole? Droll. Informative. Inspirational.

And by that latter, I mean, think of it: in America a century ago there were enough luminaries to fill a book such as this with clever encomia to a great writer, a writer now mostly forgotten. Could we muster this up today, in a culture made show more excessively political? I have my doubts. show less

A mixed bag, certainly. The essays are less analysis than appreciation, and when they range beyond effusive praise, primarily it is to focus on Cabell's style rather than themes or character. To be fair, that seems to have been the point of the Colophon Club's Symposium, and I suspect several of the pieces (Bregenzer's in particular) were more successful in recitation than as essays read afterward.

Notable contributions from Mencken, Mooney, a couple others; among them, Cabell himself, who submits a dialogue between his younger and older selves, in the manner of Kennaston / Horvendile.

A suggestion from several contributors to look to Anatole France as similar to Cabell in style and setting, if not in characterisation.