James Branch Cabell (1879-1958) authored 52 volumes of fiction and non-fiction in his lifetime. Considered a forerunner of American fantasy fiction, Cabell is applauded today by writers and artists including Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess. Cabell's medieval romanticism and fantasy, which combined many classic mythologies in a fantasy world Cabell called Poictesme (pwa-tem), were in fact thinly disguised commentaries on the manners of his times. He is the namesake of Virginia Commonwealth University's James Branch Cabell Library.

These items are presented as part of the James Branch Cabell: Literary Life and Legacy project.

In this section
James Branch Cabell's Library
James Branch Cabell collected nearly 3,000 volumes for his personal library. After his death, that library would come to Virginia Commonwealth University to seed what eventually became its Special Collections and Archives. This collection contains digitized versions of a 1967 dissertation by Maurice Duke that attempts to catalogue James Branch Cabell’s library, as well as a dataset containing other information about each entry.

Cabell-inspired musical works: Recordings by Michael Keith
Michael Keith performed and recorded three musical works inspired by the work of James Branch Cabell: Deems Taylor’s Jurgen: Symphonic Poem for Orchestra, Op. 17; Taylor's Jurgen: Arrangement for four-hand piano; and Louis Cheslock’s Overture to The Jewel Merchants. Opera in One Act.