The Story of the Siren
Price: $750.00
Original Wrappers. Richmond: Printed and published by Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, 1920. First Edition. Good.
First edition, first state with gold border to label and "Siren" on the second line. One of 500 copies. Original blue marbled wrappers, stapled, white paper label printed in black and gold. Good plus, with fading to front cover, wrappers toned at edges and with a few light stains, archival transparent tape at spine and some glue repair at inner hinges, staple rusty. Overall, a sound copy of this early Hogarth title, handprinted and bound by the Woolfs. Kirkpatrick A6. Woolmer 9a. In The Story of the Siren, a traveler drops a notebook containing his Fellowship Dissertation into the water and an Italian boatman dives in and salvages it. The boatman then tells the traveler a tragic tale involving a Siren. The book’s blue marbled wrappers are reminiscent of the notebook in the story: "[The notebook] dived, like a piece of black slate, but opened soon, disclosing leaves of pale green, which quivered into blue." E. M. Forster was the first member of the Bloomsbury Group to be published by the Hogarth Press, and the only member to sustain that relationship, publishing seven works over a 20 year period. One of his finest stories, Siren was Forster’s first publication in nine years after the success of A Room with a View (1908) and Howards End (1910). Virginia set the type for Siren: "I spent the afternoon typing & setting up Morgan’s story” (Diary, 11 May 1920). Later she remarked, "Too much to write as usual, but we work like navvies at binding Morgan & have no time for frivolity.... It looks as though Morgan might boom, though I don’t, as a critic, see altogether what the reason is..." (Diary, 6 July 1920). Writing to Lady Ottoline Morrell, she added: "I must now get my scissors and paste and start again upon the Siren. Did you like her? I can’t judge any of our productions when I’m done with them; in fact they cease to be literature in an early stage of the process." (Letters, 18 July 1920). Item #EMF017
