Special Delivery (screening the mail)

I've just finished reading and posted my review of Special Delivery: A Packet of Replies. Both I and the previous LT reviewer quoted Cabell's disclaimer in full:

The reader is asked to believe that all the correspondents addressed in this book are imaginary persons. Should the reader not comply with this moderate and civil request, the author must decline to accept any responsibility for such stubbornness.

Shall we play at "such stubbornness"? Does anyone have any good hypotheses about particular addressees? Which successful authoress wrote the "invincibly dull" book Cabell declined to read in "Study in Sincerity"? Which friendly critic inspired the devastating "Art, Beauty and Balderdash"? What Englishman had his occult curiosity rebuffed in "Mirror and Pigeons"? (It couldn't have been Aleister Crowley, surely!) And whom did he address as "My dear Ettarre"?

I believe these questions are answerable, in that the correspondents were just as imaginary as the addressees of the "Epistle Explicative," i.e. you and me.

I've not read that volume yet -- presently working my way through Beyond Life -- and so expectantly await the suggestions left here by Other Rabble.

I have little doubt that the Ettarre letter was addressed to his sometime flame Gabriella Moncure.

She is the addressee in much of the poetry in From the Hidden Way (Moncure = mon couer = my heart); she is Bettie Hamlyn, Townsend's (=Cabell's) final love-interest in The Cords of Vanity; and elsewhere she has been called the model for Ettarre.

She was a few years older and they knew each other in childhood. This grew into love as he matured, but his lack of funds (complicated by his scandals) kept them from marrying. She was heartbroken when she learned in 1913 of Cabell's impending marriage to the wealthy widow Priscilla Shepherd. See Edgar MacDonald's James Branch Cabell and Richmond-in-Virginia, especially pp. 80-95.

Considering all this history between them I find the Ettarre section of Special Delivery: A Packet of Replies to be both tragic, and cruel and graceless.

>3 Crypto-Willobie: both tragic, and cruel and graceless.

Was Cabell prone to cruelty and disregard in his life, perhaps especially in relation to his scandals? His writing suggests he would not be so insensitive, but of course there are many examples through history of the gulf between an artist and the ideals of art.

He was reportedly very reserved but amiable and gracious in person, but in print could certainly be waspish.

People, even good writers, are bundles of contradictions. You're going to have to draw your own conclusion in this case. When you get the time, read MacDonald's biography of JBC, and then read the Ettarre letter in Special Delivery. I think you'll see what I mean. I still admire Cabell but I also think his Ettarre letter was 'cold'.

MacDonald:

ex-library, $6.64 net
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22496844477&searchurl=bi%3...

Very Good $9.75 net
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=21050403670&searchurl=bi%3...

Special Delivery

Very Good, $15
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=2258707202&searchurl=kn%3D...

VG in jacket, $45
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=446733598&searchurl=kn%3Dc...

NB, I just checked ABE and didn't scour other possible sources like Biblio, Alibris, Amazon, eBay

I agree that there's something genuinely unpleasant to "About Loveliness Revised." I'm sympathetic to the philosophical points that Cabell makes there, but the sort of peeve that entertained me in the other letters of the collection felt rather misplaced in addressing an ex-lover.

I will have to reread that letter. Grace Abundant is my favorite, at least in memory.

The book is terrific. And I do not think a little auctorial cruelty undermines the book’s status as an under-acknowledged classic. The opposite may be the case.

>5 Crypto-Willobie:

I appreciate the links, and I'm going to add the MacDonald to my abebooks "wants" list. But I've recently purchased a scad of books and need to take a break for a bit. (Even at those attractive prices.)