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30 FORSTER, E. M. The Story of the Siren. London: The Hogarth Press, 1920 An unopened copy in exceptional condition First edition, first impression, one of only 500 copies, printed by Virginia and Leonard Woolf at the Hogarth Press. The wrappers appear in either blue or green without priority, and the label in three forms; Leonard Woolf identified this format to the bibliographer Kirkpatrick as the most probable first state, with the label lettered “The Story of the / Siren” (the others with the title on a single line). The Story of the Siren was unsuccessfully submitted for publication to the Temple Bar periodical in 1904, and went unprinted until this edition. This was the ninth Hogarth Press publication, and the first by a member of the Bloomsbury Group other than the Woolfs themselves. The story tells of a swimmer who is disfigured by a siren and who marries a woman similarly disfigured, but is then killed by locals who fear their child will be a monster. “One need not go as far as a later critic and claim that The Story of the Siren is the ‘archetype of all his fictions’ to see that it displays some recurrent features of Forster’s Edwardian writings, including Apostolic ruminations on the nature of reality. As in The Story of a Panic the opening narrator is a priggish Englishman abroad, though a student this time. Instead of Pan, the Siren is the sexual deity who induces an awakening that is more disastrous than sexual liberation” (Rosenbaum, pp. 47–8). Octavo. Original blue marbled paper wrappers, white paper title label to front wrapper lettered in black, edges uncut. Light peripheral rubbing, couple of nicks at head of front wrapper, contents entirely unopened; an exceptional copy. ¶ Kirkpatrick A6; Woolmer 9. S. Rosenbaum, Edwardian Bloomsbury , vol. 2, 1994. £1,500 [153796]
31 FORSTER, E. M. A Passage to India. London: Edward Arnold & Co., 1924 Signed limited issue of Forster’s novel, recognised as his “finest achievement” First edition, limited issue, number 138 of 200 copies signed by the author on the limitation page, this an unusually fresh copy with the slipcase intact. The novel is noted by Forster’s biographer as the author’s “masterpiece and . . . finest achievement”. It was adapted into the Academy award-winning film of 1984 of the same name, starring Peggy Ashcroft, Judy David, James Fox, and Alex Guinness. Octavo. Original brown cloth-backed boards, paper spine label, top edge gilt, others uncut and unopened. Title page printed in red and black. With original slipcase. Housed in a blue morocco-backed folding box. Ownership signature of George Whitney Martin, dated 19 May 1967, on front free endpaper. Light abrasions to paper label, light browning to boards and endpapers, occasional minor tears; a very good copy with some leaves unopened. Slipcase a little worn with some chips, but intact. ¶ Kirkpatrick A10a (see note on p. 44). P. N. Furbank, E. M. Forster: A Life , II, 1978, p. 123. £6,000 [152481] 32 GOLL, Ivan. Die Chapliniade. Dresden: Rudolf Kaemmerer Verlag, 1920 First edition, first impression, presentation copy inscribed by author to the prominent Spanish Dadaist Guillermo de Torre, “à Giullermo de Torre, fraternellement, Ivan Goll, Paris, Dec 1921”. Ivan Goll’s “cinepoem” was based on the character of Charlie Chaplin and illustrated with the famous cubist portraits of “The Tramp” by Fernand Léger, who would develop the theme of a deconstructed Chaplin puppet in his avant-garde film Ballet Mécanique (1924).
INEXHAUSTIBLE LIFE
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