Editing James Branch Cabell (section)

== Influence ==
Cabell's work was highly regarded by a number of his peers, including [[Mark Twain]], [[Sinclair Lewis]], [[H. L. Mencken]], [[Joseph Hergesheimer]], and [[Jack Woodford]].{{cn|date=May 2023}} Although now largely forgotten by the general public, his work was influential on later authors of fantasy fiction.{{cn|date=May 2023}} [[James Blish]] was a fan of Cabell's works, and for a time edited ''Kalki,'' the journal of the Cabell Society. [[Robert A. Heinlein]] was greatly inspired by Cabell's boldness, and originally described his own book ''[[Stranger in a Strange Land]]'' as "a Cabellesque satire". A later work, ''[[Job: A Comedy of Justice]]'', derived its title from ''Jurgen'' and contains appearances by Jurgen and the Slavic god [[Koshchei|Koschei]].<ref name="patterson">{{citation|author=Patterson, Bill |url=http://www.library.vcu.edu/jbc/speccoll/exhibit/cabell/prize3.html |title=The Heir of James Branch Cabell: The Biography of the Life of the Biography of the Life of Manuel (A Comedy of Inheritances) [Winner of the "James Branch Cabell Prize" awarded by VCU Libraries in 2000, from the Internet Archive.] |access-date=June 20, 2016 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100820102932/http://www.library.vcu.edu/jbc/speccoll/exhibit/cabell/prize3.html |archive-date=August 20, 2010 }}</ref> [[Charles G. Finney]]'s  fantasy ''[[The Circus of Dr. Lao]]'' was influenced by Cabell's work.<ref>[[Gary K. Wolfe]], "The Circus of Dr. Lao" in Magill, Frank Northen. Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature, Vol 1. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Salem Press, Inc., 1983.{{ISBN|0-89356-450-8}} . (pp.&nbsp;282–286).</ref> The Averoigne stories of [[Clark Ashton Smith]] are, in background, close to those of Cabell's [[Poictesme]].{{cn|date=May 2023}} [[Jack Vance]]'s [[Dying Earth]] books show considerable stylistic resemblances to Cabell; Cugel the Clever in those books bears a strong resemblance, not least in his opinion of himself, to Jurgen. Cabell was also a major influence on [[Neil Gaiman]],<ref name="gaiman">{{cite web|url=http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2004/10/novelisting.asp|title=Neil Gaiman's Journal: Novelisting|author=Neil Gaiman|work=neilgaiman.com}}</ref> acknowledged as such in the rear of Gaiman's novels ''[[Stardust (Gaiman novel)|Stardust]]'' and ''[[American Gods]]''. 

Cabell maintained a close and lifelong friendship with well-known Richmond writer [[Ellen Glasgow]], whose house on West Main Street was only a few blocks from Cabell's family home on East Franklin Street. They corresponded extensively between 1923 and Glasgow's death in 1945 and over 200 of their letters survive. Cabell dedicated his 1927 novel ''Something About Eve'' to her, and she in turn dedicated her book ''They Stooped to Folly: A Comedy of Morals'' (1929) to Cabell. In her autobiography, Glasgow also gave considerable thanks to Cabell for his help in the editing of her [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning book ''[[In This Our Life (novel)|In This Our Life]]'' (1941). However, late in their lives, friction developed between the two writers as a result of Cabell's critical 1943 review of Glasgow's novel ''A Certain Measure''.<ref name="friendsrivals"/>

Cabell also admired the work of the Atlanta-based writer [[Frances Newman]], though their correspondence was cut short by her death in 1928. In 1929, Cabell supplied the preface to Newman's collected letters.<ref name=Drake>Drake, Robert Y. "Frances Newman: Fabulist of Decadence." ''The Georgia Review'' 14, no. 4 (1960): 389-398.</ref>

From 1969 through 1972, the [[Ballantine Adult Fantasy series]] returned six of Cabell's novels to print, and elevated his profile in the fantasy genre. Today, many more of his works are available from [[Wildside Press]].

Cabell's three-character one-act play ''The Jewel Merchants'' was used for the libretto of an opera by [[Louis Cheslock]] which premiered in 1940.<ref name="Griffel2012">{{cite book|author=Margaret Ross Griffel|title=Operas in English: A Dictionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y8bQAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA247|date=21 December 2012|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-8325-3|page=247|author-link=Margaret Ross Griffel}}</ref>

[[Michael Swanwick]] published a critical monograph on Cabell's work, which argues for the continued value of a few of Cabell's works—notably ''Jurgen'', ''[[The Cream of the Jest]]'', and ''The Silver Stallion''—while acknowledging that some of his writing has dated badly. Swanwick places much of the blame for Cabell's obscurity on Cabell himself, for authorizing the 18-volume Storisende uniform edition of the ''[[Biography of the Life of Manuel]]'', including much that was of poor quality and ephemeral. This alienated admirers and scared off potential new readers. "There are, alas, an infinite number of ways for a writer to destroy himself," Swanwick wrote. "James Branch Cabell chose one of the more interesting. Standing at the helm of the single most successful literary career of any fantasist of the twentieth century, he drove the great ship of his career straight and unerringly onto the rocks."<ref name="Swanwick">{{cite book |last=Swanwick |first=Michael |title=What Can Be Saved From the Wreckage? |publisher=Temporary Culture |location=Upper Montclair, New Jersey |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-9764660-3-1}}</ref>

Other book-length studies on Cabell were written during the period of his fame by [[Hugh Walpole]],<ref>Walpole, Hugh, ''The Art of James Branch Cabell'', New York, 1920</ref> [[W. A. McNeill]],<ref>McNeill, W. A., ''Cabellian Harmonics'', Random House, New York, 1928</ref> and [[Carl van Doren]].<ref>Van Doren, Carl, ''James Branch Cabell'', New York, 1925</ref> [[Edmund Wilson]] tried to rehabilitate his reputation with a long essay in ''[[The New Yorker]]''.<ref>Wilson, Edmund, "The James Branch Cabell Case Reopened", ''The New Yorker'', April 21, 1956.  Reprinted in ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=TnFWZw0vkGcC&pg=PA291 The Bit Between My Teeth: a Literary Chronicle of 1950–1965]'' (1965), Macmillan, pp. 291–321.</ref>