Full Title:

PARIS

in: Virginia Woolf Quarterly: A Scholarly, Critical, and Literary Journal

Publication:

In the Virginia Woolf Quarterly, Vol. 1 No. 2, Winter 1973. San Diego State University Press; San Diego, California

Binding:

Self bound with plastic binding strips, 11 in. x 8 ½ in. Textured blue paper front and rear covers; text printed on light blue paper (see image above).

Notes:

Paris was reprinted for this first time in the second issue of this short-lived quarterly, pp. 4-17. The version of the poem printed here was extensively revised (more accurately, bowdlerized) by HM prior to its publication. HM had "got religion" and converted to catholicism in her old age; she went to some pains to replace sections she considered blasphemous, and to update some words and phrases that were current in 1919 but were considered racist or offensive by the seventies.

As far as I know, this revised version has never been reprinted. I cannot do so here because it is still under copyright. Some but not all of the changes were noted in the text. I will mention, however, that it my opinion and that of others, this version is not an improvement when compared to the original and can safely be consigned to history, and to a quiet back drawer of the collection. In the words of editor Suzanne Henig [page (3)].

Miss Mirrlees has insisted on making several small changes to correspond with her philosophy and beliefs today. These will be noted by footnotes marked by asterisks at the bottom of any changed page in order to differentiate them from the "Notes" at the conclusion of Paris furnished by Miss Mirrlees herself in the first edition.

My copy, while in nice condition otherwise, is a true child of the 1970s and absolutely reeks, even today, of tobacco.