Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$264.50 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: Original blue marbled wrappers, white paper label printed in black and gold on front cover (state I according to Woolmer), 14 pages, blank page befor the title-page, advertisement leaf at end - everything complete. Front cover sunned, rear cover at the edges, archival transparent tape at spine, stapled binding, staple rusty, chipped at corners, good to very good condition. One of 500 copies handprinted and bound by the Woolfs, Virginia st the type for this very early Hogarth press publication (no 9 in Woolmer`s counting): "I spent the afternoon typing & setting up Morgans story" (Diary of Virginia Woolf, 11 May 1920). "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 dont, as a critic, see altogehter what the reason is." (Diary of Virginia Woolf, 6 July 1920). " I must now get my scisssors and paste and start again upon the Siren. Did you like her? I can`t judge any of our productions when I`ve done with them; in fact they cease to be literature in an early stage of the process." (VW, Letter to Lady Ottoline Morrell, 18 July 1920). Sprache: Englisch Gewicht in Gramm: 550
Seller: Books and Beaches, Anna Bechteler, Icking, Germany
Price: US$750.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition. Decorated paper wrappers with printed title label in the third state. Near fine. One of 500 copies of all state.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
E M Forster. THE STORY OF THE SIREN. The Hogarth Press, Richmond, 1920.
Price: US$790.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition. Original Wraps. Rare First Edition - State 1 -THE STORY OF THE SIREN. 500 copies handprinted by Virginia and Leonard Woolf at Hogarth Press July 20th, 1920. 14 pp. 9 1/2" x 5 3/4". Original paper wrappers printed in a blue marbled design with a white label printed in black with a triple gold frame. There were three variations to the label and this is the "State 1" label as indicated by the Gold Bars and by the spacing of the title: THE STORY - OF THE SIREN - E.M.Forster. It is written that Virginia set the type for the book herself. Woolmer (9) No previous owners bookplates or markings. Edges toned and worn but still a rare and beautiful edition for any collector.
Seller: TBCL The Book Collector's Library, Montreal, QC, Canada
Forster, E.M.. THE STORY OF THE SIREN. The Hogarth Press, Richmond, 1920.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Description: One of 500 copies. Slim octavo (23.5cm); original wrappers, with the label in the second state; [4],5-14,[2]pp. Light wear, a few tiny tears, and some creases to edges, subtle toning to wrapper extremities, with some faint foxing to label; contents clean; Very Good+ or better. A well-preserved copy of this fragile early work by Forster, a short story with no American counterpart. "Apparently based on Italian folklore. The young Italian tells the tourist about his brother Giovanni, who went diving into the sea to amuse the tourists, and was fished out a swollen, inhuman being. He had seen the siren, who had worked this transformation. Giovanni finds a woman like himself and marries her, but the local people believe that the coming child will be the Anti-Christ and murder the woman" (Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 646). The story would not see publication in the U.S. until it appeared in Atlantic Monthly (October, 1923), appearing in book form for the first time in The Eternal Moment (1928). Kirkpatrick A6; Woolmer 9.
Seller: Captain Ahab's Rare Books, ABAA, Stephenson, VA, U.S.A.
Forster, E.M.. The Story of the Siren. Hogarth Press, Richmond, 1920.
Price: US$1250.00 + shipping
Description: 500 copies were hand printed by Leonard and Virginia Woolf, from type set by Virginia. Original blue wrappers, plain title label (third state). Edges faded but a very good copy. Woolmer 9.
Seller: Thomas A. Goldwasser Rare Books (ABAA), CHESTER, CT, U.S.A.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition. Decorated paper wrappers with printed gold edge title label in the first state with the label reading "The Story of the" on the first line, and "Siren" on the second line. Small chip near the crown, tiny tears and rubbing, very good or a little better. One of 500 copies.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Forster, E.M.. The Story of the Siren. Hogarth Press, Richmond, 1920.
Price: US$1750.00 + shipping
Description: 500 copies were hand printed by Leonard and Virginia Woolf, from type set by Virginia. Original blue wrappers, title label surrounded by a gold border (state 1). Spine slightly faded, but a near-fine copy, unopened. Bookplate of New Directions publisher James Laughlin. Kirkpatrick A6; Woolmer 9.
Seller: Thomas A. Goldwasser Rare Books (ABAA), CHESTER, CT, U.S.A.
Price: US$4812.25 + shipping
Description: First edition, first impression. One of 500 copies hand-printed and bound by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press. Signed and inscribed by the author. 8vo. Original blue marbled paper wrappers with printed paper title label to the front cover (the label in the third state of three, without priority of issue). Pages entirely unopened. A very good copy indeed, the binding firm with a little wear and light toning to the extremities. The contents with a hint of dust-soiling to the head of the pages are otherwise clean throughout. Signed by E. M. Forster in black ink on the title page, with a strike through the printed name, and additionally inscribed by Forster to the front endpaper "Alexis and Jill / with Morgan's birthday greetings and gratitude / Nov. 26th 1960". Alexis Peter Vlasto (1915-2000) was a British historian, philologist and pioneer of Slavonic studies. Having entered King's College, Cambridge in 1937 to study modern and medieval languages, in 1939 he was headhunted to work at the British code breaking establishment Bletchley Park, where he was placed on secondment to undertake "war work". There, he was given charge of the Japanese Army Air Force section, where he would aid in cracking the Japanese Army Air Force code system 3366. Whilst at Bletchley Park Vlasto also renewed his acquaintance with the young musicologist, Hilda Joan "Jill" Medway, like him seconded from Cambridge. By the end of the war the pair were married, with the wedding taking place on 19th of March 1945, less than two months before VE day. Following the war, they remained in Cambridge, where Jill taught music and enthusiastically promoted the early music revival and Alexis worked alongside the renowned linguist Elizabeth Hill to establish the Cambridge University Department of Slavonic Studies, which opened in 1948. An honorary fellow of King's since 1946, Forster spent a significant amount of his time at the college, largely residing there for the final decade of his life and it was here that he developed a friendship with the Vlastos. An excellent association copy of E. M. Forster's metaphysical Mediterranean tale. (Woolmer 9; Kirkpatrick A6). Further details and images for any of the items listed are available on request. Lucius Books welcomes direct contact with our customers.
Seller: LUCIUS BOOKS (ABA, ILAB, PBFA), York, United Kingdom