James Branch Cabell Scholarship

About this collection
James Branch Cabell (1879-1958) authored 52 volumes of fiction and non-fiction in his lifetime. Considered a forerunner of American fantasy fiction, Cabell is applauded today by writers and artists including Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess. Cabell's medieval romanticism and fantasy, which combined many classic mythologies in a fantasy world Cabell called Poictesme (pwa-tem), were in fact thinly disguised commentaries on the manners of his times. He is the namesake of Virginia Commonwealth University's James Branch Cabell Library.

These items are presented as part of the James Branch Cabell: Literary Life and Legacy project.

In this collection
James Branch Cabell's Library, A Catalogue: Dissertation by Maurice Duke
James Branch Cabell collected nearly 3,000 volumes for his personal library. After his death, that library would come to Virginia Commonwealth University to seed what eventually became its Special Collections and Archives. This collection contains digitized versions of a 1967 dissertation by Maurice Duke that attempts to catalogue James Branch Cabell’s library, as well as a dataset containing other information about each entry.

Cabell-inspired musical works: Recordings by Michael Keith
Michael Keith performed and recorded three musical works inspired by the work of James Branch Cabell: Deems Taylor’s Jurgen: Symphonic Poem for Orchestra, Op. 17; Taylor's Jurgen: Arrangement for four-hand piano; and Louis Cheslock’s Overture to The Jewel Merchants. Opera in One Act.

The Cabellian: A Journal of the Second American Renaissance
The Cabellian (1968-1972) was a journal published by the Cabell Society devoted to the life and legacy of author James Branch Cabell. The Cabell Society was formed on January 15, 1968 with 85 founding members. By September 30, 1968, it reported having 133 members in 30 states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, Canada, England, Scotland, and Japan. The journal was published in four volumes with two issues each.

Kalki, Studies in James Branch Cabell
Kalki, Studies in James Branch Cabell (1965-1993) began as a mimeographed fanzine in June 1965 created by the Fellowship of the Silver Stallion, a club “whose purpose would be to promote the reading and appreciation of the works of James Branch Cabell.” (Kalki vol. 1, no. 4, February 1, 1967, p. 5). A total of 37 issues of Kalki were published between 1965 and 1993, with no issues published in 1972 or 1979. Learn more about the publication here.