The Art of Omar Khayyam. Illustrating FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat

by

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

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