Archives

The imagined elites of the Omar Khayyám Club

The imagined elites of the Omar Khayyám Club. Michelle Kaiserlian.
In: FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Popularity and neglect. Ed. by A. Poole et al. London, Anthem Press, 2011. pp. 147-174.

This study begins with a brief description of the role of elite men’s clubs in late- and post-Victorian society. In the first section, ‘Claiming the Rubáiyát’, Kaiserlian shows how members of the London Club distinguished themselves from outsiders through their exclusive knowledge and appreciation of the poem. ‘FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát & The Pilgrimage of the Rose’ analyses one of the Club’s early ceremonies, revealing imperialist metaphors at work in their worship of the Persian poem and its English translator. ‘Ordering Omar’s World’ investigates Clubbists’ regard for Khayyám as bastion of ‘the good life’ and their use of the poem’s Eastern context as a springboard for exotic indulgences. In the final section, ‘Containing the Rubáiyát’, she demonstrates how Clubbists’ privileged activities as collectors and publishers and their extraordinary objects both reflected their desire to contain the poem’s influence and maintain its status for themselves.

‘Under Omar’s subtle spell’: American Reprint Publishers and the Omar Craze

‘Under Omar’s subtle spell’: American Reprint Publishers and the Omar Craze. J.R. Paas.
In: FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Popularity and neglect. Ed. by A. Poole et al. London, Anthem Press, 2011. pp. 127-146.

By 1900 a cult of sorts with Omar and FitzGerald as the focus existed on both sides of the Atlantic, but what has yet to be clarified is the seminal role that American reprint publishers played as they first responded to the public’s interest in the Rubáiyát and then contributed to the spread of the cult. These enterprising publishers offered the public a range of inexpensive reprint editions of FitzGerald’s poem and in the process developed clever marketing strategies that continue to this day. The impact which they had on the cultural acceptance of the Rubáiyát cannot be overestimated, and the purpose of this essay is to shed light on how this happened.

FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát: popularity and neglect

FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát: popularity and neglect. A. Poole.
In: FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Popularity and neglect. Ed. by A. Poole et al. London, Anthem Press, 2011. pp. XVII-XXVI.

Introductory essay.

Gissing the ‘Omarian’ : Fin de siècle cult of Omar Khayyám and Gissing’s Born in Exile (1892)

Gissing the ‘Omarian’ : Fin de siècle cult of Omar Khayyám and Gissing’s Born in Exile (1892). Ayaka Komiya.
Hiyoshi Bulletin 41 (2002) p. 102-121

The year 1859 was made memorable in English literary history by the publication of three books—Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, Samuel Smile’s Self-Help, and Edward FitzGerald’s The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám. Although each of these three books is important in its own way, it is FitzGerald’s Omar Khayyám that bears the most importance to a study of George Gissing (1857-1903). Probably due to its extraordinaiy popularity, something that continues to this day, Omar Khayyám appears to have failed to attract attention as a serious work of art. However, its effect on contemporary literature was immense—so much so that its neglect is quite unwarranted. It is my aim here to remedy the present situation, at least in part, and to shed a new light on Gissing study by looking at the influence of Omar Khayyám on his works.

The vogue of Omar Khayyám in America

The vogue of Omar Khayyám in America. Mukthar Ali Isani.
Comparative literature studies, 14 (1977) 3, pp. 256-273

Summary

No literary event since the birth of classic letters and art in the sixteenth century is at all comparable to the discovery and reincarnation of Omar by Fitzgerald,” declared a journal in Portland, Oregon. According to a report current in the 1890s, even a frontiersman striking a remote camp on the Great Divide was heard murmuring a quatrain from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. An American was the first to review the poem and start it on its road to fame, and, in the nineteenth century, FitzGerald probably had more admirers in America than in his own country. By the turn of the century, Americans quoted the Rubaiyat from memory, called for a number of editions of British translations, brought out their own versions, publicly debated the philosophy of Omar, and copied the Persian’s manner and method either in admiration or to heap satire upon the events and personalities of their time. Some of the “Omarism” of the 1890s was a fad, but evidence of a serious and lasting American interest is now spread impressively over the span of a century.

First American edition of the Rubaiyat was published in Columbus

First American edition of the Rubaiyat was published in Columbus. F.F.D. Albery.
Ohioana Quarterly (1964) (Spring), pp. 3-6

Summary

One of the most interesting literary incidents in the history of Columbus was the publication of the first American edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. It was, of course, an unauthorized reprint, but, as it was made in pure admiration of the beauty of Edward FitzGerald’s translation and with no purpose to make money, but only to supply a limited market beyond the easy reach of the London publisher, nobody could have thought ill of the project. In fact, the Columbus edition was a high compliment to the English translator and to the group of Columbus readers as well. The latter knew a good thing when they saw it, and possessed not only a keen sense of the beautiful in literature but also a resourcefulness in making for themselves what they could not otherwise obtain. The story of this incident was some years ago written for The Book-Lover by F. F. D. Albery, one of the group of Columbus admirers of Omar and later a member of the select circle known as “the Omar Khayyam Club of America”. The article appeared in No. 12, May-June 1902, of that magazine.

The Fame of Omar Khayyam

The Fame of Omar Khayyam. Abd al-Haqq Fádil.
The Muslim World, 50 (1960) 4, pp. 259-268

Omar Khayyam’s popularity has two phases. In his life he was tremendously famous for his copious learning; after his death he became celebrated for his brilliant Rubáiyyát. In both he was unique and matchless. But he did not enjoy his fame completely either in life or in death. It is time now for us to grant him his due in full as a man of learning and as a poet.

One hundred years of FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

One hundred years of FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. John D. Yohannan.
Epiterea (1959) p. 259-274.

Brief account of the FitzGerald translation, later translations, the public attitude towards Omar Khayyam, interspersed with some interesting observations and facts.

An empty glass for Omar’s FitzGerald

An empty glass for Omar’s FitzGerald. L.H. Robbins
In: New York Times Magazine, July 2, 1933

Pictures life and times of FitzGerald, and the popularity of the rubáiyát

Omar Khayyám : Some Facts and Fallacies

Omar Khayyám : Some Facts and Fallacies by Reynold A. Nicholson.
In: Aberdeen University Review. Nr. 2 (1914), Feb., p. 138-142

Since FitzGerald introduced him to Europe, Omar Khayyám has enjoyed a world-wide reputation exceeding that of all the rest of the Persian poets together. Does he deserve it? What was his character and philosophy? Was he a materialist or a mystic, or neither? How far is the English version an original poem, and can we fairly use it as a key to the riddle? These are some of the questions that I am going to discuss and in part, I hope, to answer.