The Line of Love

New York. Harper & Brothers. 1905. "Published September, 1905. 8vo., 21.2cm, First Edition, xi,[1],291p., with 10 colour plate illustrations by Howard Pyle, text printed within ornamental floral borders & with decorative initials letters, bound in stiff orange/red cloth, spine titles and cover stamped in black, dust worn, spine colour slightly faded, decorated endpapers, text slightly toned, the plates are fine, A variant issue, very good, rare (ho3.2). Not indicated but probably a "publisher's dummy" or less likely a remainder issue. ~ James Branch Cabell, (1879-1958), an American author of fantasy fiction and belles-lettres. He was well-regarded by his contemporaries, including H. L. Mencken, Edmund Wilson, and Sinclair Lewis. His works were considered escapist and fit well in the culture of the 1920s, when they were most popular, this is his second book. The book contains a series of episodes which are adaptations from medieval legends and tales, all carrying the theme of love, which Cabell considers to be "no trifle". He argues in his Epistle Dedicatory that "literature, mimicking life at a respectful distance, may very. reasonably.be permitted an occasional reference to the corner-stone of all that exists". Howard Pyle's coloured illustrations depict the chivalristic stories very well.