James Branch Cabell
James Branch Cabell ( born April 14, 1879, the Richmond ( Virginia), † May 5, 1958 ) was an American author.
Biography
Cabell's father was the doctor Robert Gamble Cabell (1847-1922), his mother was Anne Harris ( 1859-1915 ). His parents divorced in 1907. He was the great-grandson of William H. Cabell, Governor of Virginia 1805-1808.
During his studies at William and Mary College (1893-1898), he gave lessons in French and Greek. He worked as a journalist for the New York Herald, and for a short time for the Richmond News. Cabell devoted himself for ten years genealogical studies and was an accountant for the coal mines of his uncle James R. Branch in West Virginia.
In 1913 he married Rebecca Priscilla Bradley Shepherd ( 1874-1949 ), a widow with five children from his first marriage. Together they had one son: Ballard Hartwell Cabell ( 1915-1980 ).
Had he already written stories, so it enabled the prosperity of his wife, to devote himself entirely to writing. Throughout his life he wrote 52 books. 1950, a year after the death of his first wife, he married Margaret Waller Freeman (1893? -1983 ), Whom he had known for a long time.
Cabell died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
The Chronicles of Poictesme
A central position in his oeuvre assume the 18 volumes of the Biography of the Life of Manuel (Eng. The Chronicles of Poictesme ). The stories are grouped by life and the aftermath of the Deceiver Manuel. Manuel began his career as a swineherd and passive behavior which allows room for interpretation, the Lords of Poictesme, a fictional province of medieval southern France. For the series include some pre-modern romances, poems and genealogical considerations. However, special attention was paid to the fantastic stories of the series. They follow the lines of Manuel and Jürgen up to the present the author, in which the fictional character Felix characteristic Aston, an author who is similar in many details Cabell itself, turns out to be a spiritual creator of his ancestors Manuel.
Cabell processed in these stories not only many details of his own biography, he takes as its central theme the different views of life on. According to him, there are three basic settings: The followers of the chivalrous attitude take the values of the environment seriously and strive to be successful for them; the followers of the gallant attitude react negatively and veralbernd to these values , but put nothing new in their place and the followers of the poetic attitude sit on the values of time to create their own.
Cabell's stories draws from elegant styles and have rough times ridicule, sometimes subtle irony. Although his works of contemporaries were very much appreciated, they have hardly found literary reverberation. As part of the fantasy were allowed to Fritz Leiber's tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouse Ling his best known: the figure of the gray mouse Lings is clearly inspired by Jürgen.
Jürgen
1919, the satirical and sarcastic parable Jurgen A Comedy of Justice (German Jurgen ) was published. The story revolves around an aging pawnbroker in the fictional Poictesme who praises the work of the Demiurge and therefore a wish gets fulfilled. Alone, the desired disappearance of his wife is not satisfy him, and so he sets out to half-heartedly to get her back. Jürgen takes off " in search of justice, over the grave of a dream and through the malice of time" ( in search of justice, over the grave of a dream and the wickedness of the time), passes through several dream kingdoms, learning all sorts of beguiling women know and love is changing, inter alia, to Duke, King, Emperor and Pope, however, is not universal justice, but always greater disillusionment. In his years of wanderings he loses faith, desire and imagination, this has even back when she personifies him as women face, and returns at the end back to his wife and his profession as a simple pawnbroker. The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice was 1920 printing plates and prints seize and sought an action against Jurgen for obscenity, but failed. Based on this, Jurgen is his most famous work.
Jürgen in music
The American composer Deems Taylor created in 1925, the symphonic poem Jurgen, which was first recorded in 1999 by Mike Keith on sound recordings. Taylor wrote in 1920 clearly impressed in a letter to Mary Kennedy:
"I have finished Jurgen; a great and beautiful book, and the saddest book I ever read. I do not know why, exactly. The book hurts me - tears me to small pieces - but somehow it sets me free. It says the word that I've been trying to pronounce for so long. It tells me everything I am, and have been, and 'may be, unsparingly ... I do not know why I cry over it so much. It's too - something- or- other - to stand. I've been sitting here tonight, reading it aloud, with the tears streaming down my face ... "
("I have Jürgen finished reading; .. . A great and beautiful book, and the saddest book I ever read I do not know exactly why the book hurt me - pulls me into small pieces - but freed me somehow It says the word I 've been trying to express for so long it tells me everything I am, and was, and could be completely ... I do not know why I cry so much about it is to -. . whatever -. endure it I have here the whole night sitting, read it out loud, while the tears streamed down my face ... ")
Quote James Branch Cabell
"The optimist proclaims we live in did the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true. "
( " The optimist claims that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears that this is true. " )