Whitley Stokes and the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. J. Drew.
In: The tripartite life of Whitley Stokes (1830-1909). Ed. by Elizabeth Boyle and Paul Russell. Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2011. ISBN: 978-1-84682-278-0. pp. 111-118.
Drew describes Whitley Stokes’ role in the intriguing story behind the Madras 1862 edition.
The second (1862 pirate) edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. J. Drew.
In: FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Popularity and neglect. Ed. by A. Poole et al. London, Anthem Press, 2011. pp. 93-107.
Drew focuses on Whitley Stokes, Edward Cowell and Thomas Evans Bell, and the intriguing story behind the Madras 1862 edition.
On two manuscripts of ‘Omar Khayyám’s quatrains. Branson, J.H. Arthur. Madras Journal of literature and science, (1864) Nrs. 1-3 Series (July), pp. 97–105.
The Englishing of ‘Omar Khayyám. John Drew
The Daily Star, 9-12-2017
Summary:
Drew points out that there is an Indian connection in the history of the Rubaiyat’s rise to fame, and that is the pirate Madras edition, produced by Whitley Stokes, a Dubliner who, unable to find work in London, sailed for Madras and evidently took a copy of the Rubáiyát with him. Once in Madras, Stokes met up with Thomas Evans Bell, a dissident army officer who was Hon. Sec. of the Madras Literary Society, and together they printed (anonymously) a pirate edition of the Rubáiyát. It not only reproduced Fitzgerald’s translations of Omar’s rubáiyát but also 32 by Cowell (published in the Calcutta Review, 1858), 10 in French by Garcin de Tassy and 15 versions by Stokes himself. Drew also compares some quatrains from the three translations.
Empire, Piracy and Appropriation. India & the Englishing of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. John Drew. Cambridge, Cambridge Poetry Workshop, 2009. 73 p.
Summary:
When the Rubáiyát was published in London in 1859, it fell dead from the press. Surprisingly, the next edition of the poem was publieshed in India. The Madras edition of 1862 was not a mere reprint but a whole compendium of Omarian studies. This booklet makes available all 136 translated quatrains published in the Madras edition, 79 by FitzGerald and the rest by others intimately associated with him in the Rubáiyát story.
The dog & the mongoose. The Indian pirate edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1862). An introduction by John Drew. Cambridge, Cambridge Poetry Workshop, 2009. 68 p.
Summary:
Limited Library edition. A variant edition for the general reader was published as: Empire, piracy and appropriation: India and the Englishing of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.