Editing James Branch Cabell (section)

=== ''Jurgen'' ===
{{Main|Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice}}
Cabell's best-known book, ''[[Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice]]'' (1919), was the subject of a celebrated [[obscenity]] case shortly after its publication. The eponymous hero, who considers himself a "monstrous clever fellow", embarks on a journey through ever more fantastic realms, even to hell and heaven. Everywhere he goes, he winds up seducing the local women, even the Devil's wife.

The novel was denounced by the [[New York Society for the Suppression of Vice]]; they attempted to bring a prosecution for obscenity. The case went on for two years before Cabell and his publisher, [[Robert M. McBride]], won: the "indecencies" were double entendres that also had a perfectly decent interpretation, though it appeared that what had actually offended the prosecution most was a joke about [[papal infallibility]]. The presiding judge, [[Charles Cooper Nott Jr.]], wrote in his decision that "...&nbsp;the most that can be said against the book is that certain passages therein may be considered suggestive in a veiled and subtle way of immorality, but such suggestions are delicately conveyed" and that because of Cabell's writing style "it is doubtful if the book could be read or understood at all by more than a very limited number of readers."<ref name="vcubio" />

Cabell took an author's revenge: the revised edition of 1926 included a previously "lost" passage in which the hero is placed on trial by the [[Philistines]], with a large dung-beetle as the chief prosecutor. He also wrote a short book, ''Taboo'', in which he thanks John H. Sumner and the Society for Suppression of Vice for generating the publicity that gave his career a boost. Due to the notoriety of the suppression of ''Jurgen'', Cabell became a figure of international fame. In the early 1920s, he became associated by some critics with a group of writers referred to as "The James Branch Cabell School", which included such figures as Mencken, [[Carl Van Vechten]] and [[Elinor Wylie]].