THE RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM

1867-2011. Comprising 220 separate line items..
Most in publisher's bindings or original wrappers, several in limp leather, limp suede, or stiff vellum, a few nicely bound in half or full morocco, and TWO PICTORIAL MOROCCO BINDINGS, one by RIVIERE (with inlaid frame of brown stems, green leaves, and purple grapes), and the other by BAYNTUN (with a reclining figure in a turban under a moonlit sky, the scene framed by titling at top and bottom and a very handsome panel on the left and right with brown stems, green leaves, and purple grapes set against a densely stippled ground). ◆Much of the collection with bindings showing light (and in some cases moderate) wear, contents with occasional minor foxing, soiling, and similar issues, the two fine bindings rejointed; but a good portion of the books in excellent condition, with only trivial issues.

Amassed over the course of many years by a passionate collector of the Rubaiyat, this is a very substantial and wide-ranging group of 220 items that attest to the work's enduring popularity more than 150 years after Edward FitzGerald introduced it to the West. Son of a wealthy Irish landowner, FitzGerald had enough money to pursue a rather desultory literary career as a "genteel gipsy" (in Terhune's words) before beginning to study languages in middle age. He started his translation of the quatrains ("rubáiyát" in Persian) attributed to "Umar Khayyam" in 1856; according to DNB, about half of FitzGerald's final work paraphrases (rather than directly translates) portions of the 11th century poem, while the rest is original verse inspired by Omar. "The result is generally seen as being in some ways an original English poem, one that is much better known than Omar's poem is in Persian." (DNB) In Jewett's opinion, it certainly earned FitzGerald "a prominent place among the immortals of English literature." In 1858, FitzGerald submitted 25 of the "less wicked" verses to "Fraser's Magazine," only to be rejected. He had 250 copies published, anonymously, at his own expense, but had no luck selling them. Admitting defeat, he gave 200 copies to Quaritch; these sold so poorly that they were relegated to the penny bin, where Potter says they were discovered--and soon celebrated--by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Algernon Swinburne. Those copies that remained unsold when Quaritch moved to Piccadilly in 1860 were either lost or destroyed, but by 1861, Rossetti and his Pre-Raphaelite brethren, along with Celtic scholar Whitley Stokes, were evangelizing for the work, embracing the lush, lyrical verse that would move English poetry away from Victorian orthodoxy and convention. According to Day, by the end of the 19th century, "a copy of the 'Rubaiyat' upon an Oxford table was a symbol of sophistication. Today . . . it remains the most popular single poem of the Victorian era." The present collection contains a large number of editions with FitzGerald's text (the earliest examples being a Third Edition (1872), a Fourth Edition (1879), and the First Published American Edition (1878)), but it also contains a number of other important translations that followed thereafter, such as those by Justin Huntley McCarthy (First Edition, one of 60 copies on Large Paper), Eben Francis Thompson (First Edition, one of 485 copies signed by the translator), and Elizabeth Alden Curtis (First Edition, one of 600 copies), as well as translations into languages other than English, examples of which here include the First Edition in French (1867) and the First Edition in Yiddish (1926). The collection is especially strong in illustrated editions, with more than 40 different artists represented, including Edmund Dulac, Elihu Vedder, Willy Pogany, Florence Lundborg, Adelaide Hanscom, Gilbert James, Edmund J. Sullivan, Arthur Szyk, and Stephen Gooden. It also contains an impressive selection of fine press material, including limited editions issued by the Vale Press, Gregynog Press, Thomas Mosher, Essex House, the Roycrofters, and the Shakespeare Head Press, as well as rare and important examples by lesser-known presses such as the Philosopher Press of Wausau, Wisconsin, and the Blue Sky Press of Chicago. While most of the books here come in their original bindings, there is a small group of fine bindings that include two sumptuous examples of pictorial morocco by Riviere and Bayntun. Satirical adaptations with titles like "The Rubaiyat of the Egg" and "The Rubaiyat of a Persian Kitten" inject a little humor into the group, and demonstrate the work's broad influence. Finally, there is useful reference material, including a special copy of Potter's bibliography (one of 50 signed and numbered copies on special paper), providing important context and scholarly resources. There are no duplicated editions in this collection, and there are no trade paperbacks. A full list of the collection's contents is available upon request..