Archives

Het jaar van Omar Khayyám

Het jaar van Omar Khayyám. Janneke van der Veer
In: Boekenpost, 17 (2009) 101, p. 43-45

2009 is niet alleen het jaar van Darwin en Calvijn, het is ook het jaar van de Perzische dichter Omar Khayyám. Dit jaar is het namelijk 150 jaar geleden dat de eerste Engelse bewerking van aan hem toegeschreven gedichten verscheen. Bovendien is het 200 jaar geleden dat Edward FitzGerald (1809-1883), die voor deze bewerking heeft gezorgd, geboren is. Alle aanleiding dus voor een gesprek met Jos Biegstraaten, voorzitter van het Omar Khayyám Genootschap.

Ventriloquism

Ventriloquism. Marina Warner.
London Review of Books, 31 (2009) 7 (9 April)

Review of: Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám by Edward FitzGerald, edited by Daniel Karlin. Oxford, 167 pp, January 2009.

Khayyam, Omar ix. Illustrations of English translations of the Rubaiyat

Khayyam, Omar ix. Illustrations of English translations of the Rubaiyat. W.H. Martin, S. Mason.
Encyclopaedia Iranica Online, July 2009

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam contain some of the best-known verses in the world. The book is also one of the most frequently and widely illustrated of all literary works. The stimulus to illustrate Khayyam’s Rubaiyat came initially from outside Persia, in response to translations in the West.

Khayyam, Omar x. Musical works based on the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Khayyam, Omar x. Musical works based on the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. W.H. Martin, S. Mason.
Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, July 15 2009

The enduring popularity of the verses in the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is reflected in the large number of musical works they have inspired. Not all the works were small-scale pieces. One of the best-known large-scale compositions is Sir Granville Bantock’s (1868-1946) ‘Omar Khayyam’ (1908-10) for soloists, chorus and orchestra. It is a three-part work, setting all the 101 quatrains from FitzGerald’s fifth edition.

Edward FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Edward FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Richard Dalby
Book and Magazine Collector (2009), nr. 314, p. 44-61.

Dalby presents a short history of the Rubáiyát and highlights the most important and best known illustrated editions, also giving prices that were realized at recent auctions. The article is illuminated with sixteen illustrations from these editions, mainly by artists from the first decades of the previous century, such as Greiffenhagen, Palmer, Robinson, Dulac, Brangwyn, Bull, Geddes and Balfour.

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

 

Empire, Piracy and Appropriation. India & the Englishing of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

Empire, Piracy and Appropriation. India & the Englishing of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. John Drew. Cambridge, Cambridge Poetry Workshop, 2009. 73 p.

Summary:
When the Rubáiyát was published in London in 1859, it fell dead from the press. Surprisingly, the next edition of the poem was publieshed in India. The Madras edition of 1862 was not a mere reprint but a whole compendium of Omarian studies. This booklet makes available all 136 translated quatrains published in the Madras edition, 79 by FitzGerald and the rest by others intimately associated with him in the Rubáiyát story.

Contents

Introductory Essay:
1. The Calcutta Connection p. I
2. Piracy in Madras, p. II

A Sample Comparison of Translated Quatrains Together with Several others of Interest p. 25
Quatrains Attributed to Omar Khayyám Published in the Madras 1862 Edition p. 28
1. Garcin de Tassy p. 29
2. Edward Byles Cowell p. 31
3. Whitley Stokes p. 37
4. Edward FitzGerald p. 40

A Further Note on Major Thomas Evans Bell (1825-1887) and Whitley Stokes (1830-1909) p. 54

1857: Two Appendices p. 60
Extract from a Letter by Evans Bell p. 61
Extract from a Letter by George Thompson p. 65

Select Bibliography p. 67
Acknowledgements p. 73

The dog the mongoose. The Indian pirate edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1862)

The dog & the mongoose. The Indian pirate edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1862). An introduction by John Drew. Cambridge, Cambridge Poetry Workshop, 2009. 68 p.

Summary:
Limited Library edition. A variant edition for the general reader was published as: Empire, piracy and appropriation: India and the Englishing of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.

Contents

Introductory Essay:
The Dog & the Mongoose p. l
Quatrains Attributed to Omar Khayyám
Published in the Madras 1862 Edition p. 28
1. Garcin deTassy p. 29
2. Edward Byles Cowell p. 31
3. Whitley Stokes p. 37
4. Edward Fitz.Gerald p. 40
A Sample Comparison of Translated Quatrains Together with Several Others of Interest p. 54
A Further Note on Major Thomas Evans Bell (1825-1887) p. 58
Essential Sources p. 62
End Note p. 68

Infinite transformation: The modern craze over the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in England and America, c. 1900-1930

Infinite transformation: The modern craze over the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in England and America, c. 1900-1930. Michelle Kaiserlian. Proquest Dissertations and Theses, 2009. Illustrated. 374 p. ISBN: 9781109586534.

Summary
“In the first critical study of the Rubáiyát craze as a whole and as a creative and historical phenomenon, I examine visual and literary responses to the poem in the form of illustrations, parodies, advertisements, and religio- philosophical debates to determine the Rubáiyát’ s overwhelming and enduring resonance in the culture. I argue that people’s engagement with and their myriad responses to the poem performed a kind of cultural work during a period of great social, economic, technological, scientific, and religious upheaval. I demonstrate how the Rubáiyát became a vehicle through which people processed the rapid changes of modern life and how poem and craze alike provided a tool to define and order an increasingly uncertain and fragmented world.“

Contents

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii

INTRODUCTION 1

PROLOGUE 20
The Imagined Elites of the Omar Khayyám Club

CHAPTER ONE 35
In (and Out of) Omar’s Garden: Illustrating the Rubáiyát

Out of the Garden: Taking Omar on Holiday
In an Oriental Garden
The Symbolic Garden

CHAPTER TWO 81
Rubáiyát Parodies and Modern Life: The Omar Cure-all

Defining the Rubáiyát Parody
Nationalism, Fraternity, and the British Rubáiyát Parody
The Other Among Us: Views of Dominance and Compassion
Risky Business and Deviant Behavior: Control and Resistance in the Realm of Leisure
Courtship: Changing Rituals for Modern Life

CHAPTER THREE 133
Consumerism and the Rubáiyát

Too Much and Never Enough: Rubáiyát Mania
Production and Consumption in the Modern Middle Class

CHAPTER FOUR 161
Omar Sells: Advertisements Based on the Rubáiyát

Parody-Advertisements
Advertising Schemes

CHAPTER FIVE 185
The Rubáiyát as Doctrine, or “What Would Omar Do?”

Religious Climate
The Rubáiyát as Doctrine: Problems of Interpretation
In Search of Omar Khayyám
Khayyám’s Skepticism and the Lure of Modern Science
The Question of Immortality
The Triumph of Free Will over Fate

CONCLUSION 223

APPENDIX 228
Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, first and fifth editions

ILLUSTRATIONS 239

BIBLIOGRAPHY 317

CURRICULUM VITAE