A book, once it is printed and published, becomes individual. It is by its publication as decisively severed from its author as in parturition a child is cut off from its parent. The book "means" thereafter, perforce, — both grammatically and actually, — whatever meaning this or that reader gets out of it.


"A Note on Cabellian Harmonics" in Cabellian Harmonics (April 1928)

James Branch Cabell Quotes

A book, once it is printed and published, becomes individual. It is by its publication as decisively severed from its author as in parturition a...

A book, once it is printed and published, becomes individual. It is by its publication as decisively severed from its author as in parturition a...

A book, once it is printed and published, becomes individual. It is by its publication as decisively severed from its author as in parturition a...

A book, once it is printed and published, becomes individual. It is by its publication as decisively severed from its author as in parturition a...