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The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Rachel Martin Cole.
Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, 34 (2008), nr. 2, p. 40-41, 93.

Edward FitzGerald’s English translation of The Rubaiyat, a twelfth-century book of Persian poetry, sparked a sensation among nineteenth-century publishers and readers. His work, entitled The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, possesses a dream like quality, rich imagery, and appealing beauty that are attested to by the publication of hundreds of editions between 1859 and the present. From his first translation of the Rubaiyat to his death in 1883, FitzGerald completed five versions of the text. The Persian original comprised a collection of over one thousand quatrains, and FitzGerald felt free to transform the work in his own way, rearranging the verses and taking liberties with language. The result was a product that was less a reflection of its medieval Persian origins than the tastes of its nineteenth-century American audiences.

The Art of Omar Khayyam. Illustrating FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat

The Art of Omar Khayyam. Illustrating FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat. William H. Martin & Sandra Mason. London : New York, Tauris, 2007. 184 p. Index. ISBN 978-84511-282-0

Summary:
“This book describes a phenomenon unique in publishing history: a book of poetry, published anonymously nearly 150 years ago – purporting to be the translation of an eleventh century Persian work – which has remained almost continuously in print and has stimulated at least 130 illustrators to try to illuminate the verses it contains.”

Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Part 1: Illustrating FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat
– A unique publishing phenomenon
– Illustrating The Rubaiyat
– A century of change in illustration
– Still popular – at home and abraod
Part 2: Illustrating individual quatrains
– Presenting the quatrains
– Illustrations for FitzGerald’s first edition – quatrains 1-75
– Illustrations for FitzGerald’s other editions of The Rubaiyat
– Illustrations unrelated to specific quatrains
Appendix 1. Publishers and illustrators of FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat
Appendix 2. Artists who have illustrated FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat
Appendix 3. Published versions of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam Appendix 4. Omar Khayyam and his Rubaiyat
Appendix 5. FitzGerald and his Rubaiyat
Notes
Select bibliography
Index

A Book in the Wilderness. FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. 150 years in print and image

A Book in the Wilderness. Jos Biegstraaten and Jos Coumans. Amsterdam, Rozenberg Publishers, 2009. 125 p. ISBN: 9789036101141

Summary
‘A Book in the Wilderness’ accompanied an exhibition held in Museum Meermanno, The Hague (The Netherlands). The book provides information on a variety of editions that illustrate two important developments in publishing and printing the Rubáiyát: typographical aspects in a number of private press editions, and the various ways in which the Rubáiyát were illustrated. The main sections in the book highlight
– the four FitzGerald editions and a number of facsimile and pirated editions;
– the succes of the Rubáiyát in the USA and the UK with Mosher, Bradley, the Roycrofters and a number of English private press editions;
– illustrated editions: William Morris and Elihu Vedder; famous illustrators such as Dulac, Pogany; Dutch illustrators;
– miniature editions from the early 20th century until today.

Each item is illustrated with miniatures, larger illustrations in a separate section of the book.

Contents

Foreword by Leo Voogt, p. 7
Introduction, p. 13
Edward FitzGerald: first editions, p. 19
Edward FitzGerald: pirated and facsimile editions, p. 25
USA: Mosher and Bradley, p. 28
Morris’ influence: UK, USA and The Netherlands, p. 32
USA: The Roycroft Printing Shop, 41
English presses, p. 46
The first illustrated editions, p. 51
Illustrated editions: commercial publishers, p. 58
Illustrated editions: some techniques, p. 68
Dutch illustrators, p. 74
Miniatures and small books, p. 79
Select bibliography and further reading, p. 113
Index, p. 120