Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by POGANY, Willy; FITZGERALD, Edward

London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., 1930. The Rubaiyat Of Willy Pogany One of 750 Signed Copies And With an Original Signed Etching [POGANY, Willy, illustrator]. FITZGERALD, Edward. Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The First and Fourth Renderings in English Verse by Edward Fitzgerald. Illustrations by Willy Pogany. London: George F. Harrap & Co., Ltd, 1930. Limited to 750 copies signed by the artist, this being copy no. 210. Quarto (10 1/4 x 7 3/4 in; 261 x 198 mm). 171, [4] pp. Twelve tipped-in color plates, including frontispiece. Head- tailpieces in black and white. With a black and white etching signed by Pogany in pencil opposite the title page. Publisher's full teal crushed morocco with gilt-stamped device with red and pale calf floral onlay. Gilt rules to spine head and foot, four raised bands, gilt lettering. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Neat ink presentation on front free-endpaper. A fine copy in the publishers original gray cardboard box with matching limitation number. Willy Pogany had previously illustrated the Rubaiyat in 1909, but these later illustrations are quite a different interpretation, more westernized and modernized than the earlier ones. Willy Pogány, born in Szeged, Hungary, in 1882, studied at Budapest Technical University and in Munich and Paris. His reputation as a muralist, painter and illustrator was well established in Paris, London and Munich before arriving in the United States in 1915, at the age of thirty-three. Skilled in an unusually wide range of media, he had won gold medals at exhibitions in Budapest, Leipzig, and at the Panama Pacific International Exhibition. "Among Pogány's many murals are those for the Heckscher Children's Theatre in New York City and the Niagara Falls Power Station. As a painter he did portraits of famous people in all walks of life. An expert on scenery design and lighting effects, Pogány also designed sets for ballets and operas, including "Le Coq d'Or," and for many films, such as Modern Times for Charlie Chaplin as well as animated cartoons based on his children's books. "Among his other artistic endeavors Pogány was an accomplished book illustrator. It was this phase of his career, especially as an illustrator of children's books, which gives this collection special relevance for Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Oregon Libraries. Pogány designed and illustrated more than 150 books. His illustrations include those for the Rubaiyat and the Sonnets from the Portuguese, The Song Celestial, The Adventures of Odysseus, Gulliver's Travels, and many others, both classic and original. "Working tirelessly right up until the end, Willy Pogány died in 1955" (University of Oregon, Guide to the Willy A. Pogány Papers 1910-1967).