# Is "Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice" by James Branch Cabell a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice by James Branch Cabell (Robert M. McBride & Co., 1919) is identified by: McBride & Co., 1919; octavo, pp. US first, confirmed: Robert M.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- New York: Robert M. McBride & Co., 1919; octavo, pp. [1-8] [1-8] 9-368; original brown cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, fore and bottom edges untrimmed; book seven of the Biography of the Life of Manuel
- Two physical points identify the first printing and both should be checked together, because the McBride title page dated 1919 is by itself insufficient — three printings were run from the same setting before the January 1920 seizure
- First: the text block measures 2.8 cm across the top
- Second: the rule on page 144 is unbroken/intact; later printings show the rule broken
- L. W. Currey states the pair as 'measuring 2.8 cm across top of text block and with unbroken rule on page 144'
- James Cummins states the same pair independently as 'line rules on p
- Publisher imprint reads Robert M. McBride & Co.

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | James Branch Cabell |
| Publisher | Robert M. McBride & Co. |
| Year | 1919 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | New York: Robert M. McBride & Co., 1919; octavo, pp. [1-8] [1-8] 9-368; original brown cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, fore… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
New York: Robert M. McBride & Co., 1919; octavo, pp. [1-8] [1-8] 9-368; original brown cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, fore and bottom edges untrimmed; book seven of the Biography of the Life of Manuel. Two physical points identify the first printing and both should be checked together, because the McBride title page dated 1919 is by itself insufficient — three printings were run from the same setting before the January 1920 seizure. First: the text block measures 2.8 cm across the top. Second: the rule on page 144 is unbroken/intact; later printings show the rule broken. L. W. Currey states the pair as 'measuring 2.8 cm across top of text block and with unbroken rule on page 144'; James Cummins states the same pair independently as 'line rules on p. 144 intact and the covers measuring 1-the printed price inches across.' There is no number line and no printing statement to rely on.

## Is this the true first?
US first, confirmed: Robert M. McBride & Co., New York, 1919 — off the presses 27 September 1919 — is the true first. No simultaneous or earlier UK edition is recorded in the sources consulted; the British issue followed. The suppression is precisely why the points matter rather than being mere trivia: on 14 January 1920 the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice seized the plates, copies and sheets at McBride's offices and sale was banned for roughly two years, so surviving first-printing sheets are the target and the later printings from the same setting are the trap the census note flags.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition is documented for the 1919 McBride first. The reprint field is instead crowded with later McBride printings from the same setting, separable only by the broken rule on page 144 and the text-block measurement, plus a later illustrated edition with plates by Ray F. Coyle and mid-century reprints — all 'first thus' or later states, not the first printing.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice* by James Branch Cabell a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/jurgen-a-comedy-of-justice
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.