Cabell, James Branch (1879-1958)

I met James Branch Cabell at Richmond and got on very well with him. He has a very high colour and a thin fine skin over which hangs down by the side of the queer Jurgenish snub-nose a black ribbon from his glasses. His colour is so high that it suggests that his face is a delicate sponge that has sucked up blood. As I looked at his face, as we talked over the fire in the house of his aunt, it seemed to me as if it might suddenly drip all over with a delicate and fine bloody sweat. He has very fine hands; and is so self-conscious and shy that his sedate dignity is like that of a school-boy (a plump head boy) dressed up for the end of term performance of the Frogs of Aristophanes. Kekety! kax! koax! koax!
(Knoxville, Tenn., 23 November 1925 - Letters to His Brother Llewelyn)