Archives

Editing the Rubaiyat: two case-studies and a prospectus

Editing the Rubaiyat: two case-studies and a prospectus. Daniel Karlin.
Victorian Poetry, 46 (2008), nr 1, p. 87-103.

The Variorum and Definitive Edition of the Poetical and Prose Writings of Edward FitzGerald is an enjoyably preposterous example of Edwardian bookmaking–if the latter epithet may be applied to an American product. It was published in New York, by Doubleday, Page, and Company, in seven volumes, the first in 1902 and the last in 1903; though “published” is not quite the right word for an edition which, we are told on a half-title page, “consists of twenty-five sets on Japanese paper, one hundred sets on hand-made paper.

‘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.