Cabell, James Branch


Cabell, James Branch

(1879–1958) writer; born in Richmond, Va. After graduating from the College of William and Mary, he worked as a journalist and as a coal miner. With his first novel, The Eagle's Shadow (1904), this Virginia-based author launched a prolific literary career producing works ranging from historical short stories to Virginia genealogy. He was known chiefly for his polished romances set in a mythical French province, Poictesme (18 vols. 1913–29), intended as allegories of the modern world. The best known of the series, Jurgen (1919), was originally suppressed as being immoral. Highly admired by literary types in his day, Cabell's work failed to speak to later generations.