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Newsletter – restart

OmarianaheaderOmariana started in April 1998 as a newsletter, initially issued on paper, and later on as an e-mail newsbulletin. After a couple of years it seemed a logical step to turn it into a weblog, and this is what you are reading now.

However, my impression today is that Omariana might be more effective when you get the news at home in stead of going out to get it when you don’t even know if there is anything new.

So after a break of a couple of years I have decided to start this email newsletter again. It will appear once or twice a year, or whenever there is something important to inform you about, and it will exist in addition to the Omariana weblog. Please subscribe by using the subscription form.

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Holyoak’s “Rubáiyát”

Potter139-1One of the more intriguing entries in Potter’s Bibliography of the rubáiyát is number 139, the ‘Cyclostyle Edition’. There are several aspects that draw attention to this edition.

First there is the title ‘Cyclostyle edition’, suggesting an early adaptation of advanced office technology: cyclostyles were only invented in the early 1880’s. Second there appears to exist a number of versions of this edition, published from 1885 unto 1899 in various forms and formats, under varying titles and printed in varying numbers of copies.

A more fascinating aspect however is the interference with Holyoak’s work by Macmillan, the London publisher who had acquired the copyrights of FitzGerald’s work. They regarded Holyoak’s printings as a serious threat to their business and threatened him with a court action. The affair drew the attention of G.J. Holyoake who came to his namesake’s defence.

Finally there is the nature of Holyoak’s editions, which are issued in a limited number of copies, and being handwritten and printed with the cyclostyle, they were probably regarded as somewhat ephemeral printings. The various editions differ in a number of details such as misspellings or choice of paper. If copies have survived outside libraries, they are probably very rare.

The cyclostyle editions of the rubáiyát have never drawn too much attention, and until recently hardly anything was known about them. Only when a proof print copy was offered for sale a few years ago, which was purchased by a private collector, a search was initiated by John Drew and myself to find out more about the editions and the actors involved. These efforts resulted eventually in the discovery in the USA of a copy of the original “Book Store Monthly” edition of April 1885.

BSM Cover adjusted

Book Store Monthly, April 1885

An extra feature to the story was to find out how Holyoak’s selection had its roots in an earlier pirate Rubáiyát: the so called Madras edition of 1862. John Drew has published about this before.

The story of this highly interesting piece of rubáiyát history is now recorded, together with documents and publications, in a pamphlet called The erring finger writes. The Leicester pirate cyclostyles of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, by Jos Coumans and John Drew (Cambridge Poetry Workshop, 2015). ISBN 978-1-871214-26-0.
A copy can be ordered at £ 6,00 from cambridgepoetry@hotmail.com or € 7,50 from info@omariana.nl.

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A ‘Rubáiyát’ with Steve McCurry

WomanInNiqab

Image by Steve McCurry

21st Editions, considered the purveyors of some of the finest books in the world, recently announced a new Deluxe title combining Edward Fitzgerald’s first edition (1859) of “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” with photographs by Steve McCurry in platinum.

It is a limited edition of fifty copies, with an introduction by John Stauffer, containing 9 bound and 3 free-standing platinum prints, each signed.

Steve McCurry is an American editorial photographer best known for his 1984 photograph “Afghan Girl” which originally appeared in National Geographic.

For more details see 21st Editions.

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Recent articles

In this year’s Summer issue of American Art, there are two essays on Elihu Vedder’s Rubáiyát.
Sylvia Yount shows how the fifty-four drawings that Vedder made for the deluxe edition of Edward FitzGerald’s translation —as well as the related paintings and decorative designs inspired by them—reveal Vedder’s deep engagement with the late nineteenth-century Anglo-American Aesthetic movement as both an artistic and a commercial enterprise, aimed at a wide range of viewers and consumers.

Akela Reason explores Vedder’s preoccupation with the mystery of death, a subject he returned to again and again. Death comes in many forms in Vedder’s art—from “all-devouring” sphinxes presiding over desert wastes to the fratricidal conflict of the Old Testament, and devastating medieval plagues.

Elihu Vedder’s Rubáiyát: Art and Enterprise (pp. 112-118)
Sylvia Yount
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/683354
Love and Death in Elihu Vedder’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (pp. 119-125)
Akela Reason
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/683355
American Art, Vol. 29, No. 2, Summer 2015.

 

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New books

Two new titles have been published recently:

Rubá’iyát of Hakim ‘Umar Khayyám. Selected quatrains of Khayyám. Translated into simple Solati Cover 2015English with spiritual interpretation. Edited and translated by Bahman Solati. Boca Raton, Universal-publishers, 2015. 109 pp. ISBN: 978-1-62734-033-5.

In this edition 60 quatrains are literally translated and presented with a spiritual explanation and with the Persian text of the quatrains. The introduction (20 pages) highlights the most important facts, features and history of Khayyám’s rubáiyat. Solati published a number of studies on Hafez, as well as on the impact of Sufism on post-Islamic Persian literature.

The 108 quatrains of Omar Khayyam. Persian – English – Chinese. [Selection and translation] Sen Du 108 quatrainsDu. Litfire Publishing, 2015. 148 pp. ISBN: 978-1-942296-75-1.

This is a somewhat remarkble edition, as it not only presents the quatrains in English, Persian and Chinese, the verses are also classified by subject matter in ten sections. Each quatrain has a title and for each one a rhyme pattern is given for the Persian text. These patterns are collated in a table at the end of the book. The Introduction and the Notes are partially in English and Chinese, whereas the Notes are composed from ‘copy-pasted’ fragments from various older editions and studies, which results in a somewhat cluttered impression. To fully enjoy this edition the reader needs to understand the Chinese language.

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René Bull

Bull 2014 CoverBodleian Library issued a reprint of the edition of the Rubáiyát that was illustrated by René Bull (1872-1942). Bull started his career studying engineering in Paris where he soon switched to the art of illustrating. When he settled in London in 1892 he started to draw for newspapers and magazines, and from 1898 till 1900 he worked as a photographer in India, Sudan and South Africa, where he covered several campains. Bull also illustrated “The Arabian Nights”, “The Russian Ballet” and “Andersen’s Fairy Tales”.

There is an introduction by Susan Scollay. The original twenty-nine coloured illustrations are reproduced, though in another sequence, as well as the drawings and decorations, here printed in brown colours. The text is printed with varying decorative borders above and below.

Though this new edition is less exuberant than the original by Hodder & Stoughton, 1913, it has a certain air of luxury because of the dark blue cloth binding with an imprint in gold, and the heavy 135 gsm Tatami Ivory that it is printed on.

Earlier issues of Bull’s edition were done by the Golden Medal Library (London, New York, 1927), Grammercy Books (New York, 1992) and Smithmark Publishers (New York, 1995).

“The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. With illustrations by René Bull.” Oxford, Bodleian Library, 2014. ISBN 9781851244171. Available from the Bodleian Library Bookshop, at £ 30.00.

 

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Jack Kerouac’s Omar

USA On the roadMichael Skau, emeritus professor with the University of Nebraska at Omaha, recently published an article in the Journal of Popular Culture titled: “Jack Kerouac’s Rubáiyát: The Influence of Omar Khayyám” (vol. 48, No. 3, 2015).

Almost all of the Kerouac studies have ignored the influence of FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát in his life and work. The Rubáiyát provides significant similarities to Kerouac’s dualistic viewpoint: “the extremes of innocent indulgence of the beautiful variety of life and bitter, or even perverse, acceptance of the desolation of mortal existence”. The author, expert in ‘Beat poetry’ (Corso, Ferlinghetti, Burroughs, Ginsberg) points to numerous allusions to and echoes from Khayyám’s poetry, not only in On the road but in his other novels, essays and letters as well.

In a letter to Stella Sampas, his third wife, he writes: “When I’m an old man I’ll at least have my jug of wine and a loaf of bread too”. Another example of how Kerouac looks upon life is his lament on this world “which made us, but only imperfectly, that is to say unsuited to its every barb and to most of its insuitable commandments […] I never asked to be made, and so unsuited born”. To the reader this almost immediately brings to mind the book of pots . Skau’s conclusion:

For Kerouac and FitzGerald, the intertwining of delight and sadness, of happiness and dreariness, cannot be denied. Both writers find that the approach toward life is one of bright melancholy, a mournful smile, a reminder that the rose is both flower and thorns. They cannot deny the twin poles of human experience, a “triste Plaisir” that continues to resonate with their readers.

Skau’s nice and very well readable article is an almost inescapable invitation to get back On the Road again for a new experience.

Jaarboek 7

Jaarboek 7Jaarboek 7. 25 jaar Genootschap is now published, as always by Avalon Pers, Woubrugge. The book contains a number of shorter articles in which the members of the Club look back onto their membership. Jos Biegstraaten, president from 1990 till 2014, presents a short history of the Society. Hans de Bruijn ponders on the eternal and unanswered questions surrounding the origins of the rubáiyát. Jos Coumans explains how and why he started to collect the editions of the rubáiyát. For Marco Goud the exploration of life and work of the Dutch poet P.C. Boutens leads to confrontations with Khayyám’s influence on Boutens’ work he cannot evade. Rokus de Groot first encountered Khayyám’s poetry in the leather workshop of Stavros Melissinos in Athens, who presented him with a signed copy of his ‘Persian Rubáiyát’. Johan ter Haar is fascinated by the diversity of interpretations of Khayyám’s poetry that range from pure mysticism to sheer nihilism, and Remi Hauman looks at the rubáiyát as a collective, national oeuvre by various Persian ghostwriters, with international dimensions. For Dirk Meursing the Society was a useful and joyful resource while working on his own translation, and Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, now president, remembers how in his youth in Tehran he was fascinated by the secrets and mysteries that Khayyám’s verses seemed to conjure. Jos Biegstraaten finally describes how Khayyám influenced the work of the Dutch graphic artist Siep van den Berg.

The book is illuminated with a number of colour illustrations by various artists. It was printed in various states, in soft and hardbound copies, and was issued on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Dutch Omar Khayyám Society. Copies are available from Avalon Pers, Woubrugge, at € 45,00.

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The members of the Club

At the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Dutch Omar Khayyám Society, May 30, 2015 the club members were kindly requested to pose before the camera.

Groepsfoto 2 buiten 30 mei 2015From left to right: Jos Coumans, Hans de Bruijn, Marco Goud, Dirk Meursing, Jos Biegstraaten, Gabrielle van den Berg, Johan ter Haar, Jan Keijser, Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, Rokus de Groot, Remi Hauman.

A new issue of the Jaarboek / Year book was presented, which is proudly shown here by Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, president of the Society.

Jaarboek 7