Cabell's original titles

Several of Mr Cabell's books were first intended to have different titles than the ones we know....

- The Devil's Own Dear Son was originally written in the first person and entitled "I Go to My Father". If I recall, the draft ms. is currently held at the University of Virginia.

- Jurgen's working title was "The Pawnbroker's Shirt". Cabell argued long and hard for this title with his editor Guy Holt and his publisher McBride, but was overridden and now we have Jurgen. I think UVa also has the Jurgen draft Cabell gave to dedicatee Burton Rascoe -- I think that might still be called Pawnbroker's Shirt.

- The original title of The Cream of the Jest was "In the Flesh". JBC had trouble placing this novel and it went thru some amount of revision and acquired a new title before McBride finally accepted it. But if you read it carefully you will find that the phrase "in the flesh" recurs frequently, I'll estimate a couple dozen times.

I like The Cream of the Jest better than In The Flesh, but prefer The Pawnbroker's Shirt to Jurgen. The former reminds me of something that might be in the Mabinogion.

The Pawnbroker's Shirt is certainly a better title, if only because Jurgen causes even more difficulty in pronunciation than "Cabell."

In the Flesh is fine, but not as good as The Cream of the Jest.

Not sure how I feel about I Go to My Father.

>3 paradoxosalpha:
I think I Go to My Father is some kind of biblical reference? except in this case the father he is going to is the devil. And the first person in the title corresponds with the first person viewpoint of the novel's draft which was changed to third person.

>4 Crypto-Willobie: except in this case the father he is going to is the devil

Or is it? Sorta reminds me of The Last Temptation of Christ, where Jesus' last temptation (by my count) must be the one he succumbs to: dying in order to serve as a religious savior.

>4 Crypto-Willobie: "I think I Go to My Father is some kind of biblical reference?"

John 16:10 "Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;" and a couple similar verses earlier in John. I don't remember seeing the change from 1st to 3rd person mentioned before.

>6 dscottn:
Thanks.

I forget where read about that... perhaps in MacDonald or Bruccoli. I know I've seen references to the draft version being preserved somewhere.

Cabell remarks in his own introduction to the book that the early drafts of this novel were written in the first person narrative voice.