The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

KHAYYAM, Omar; Edward Fitzgerald; [Elbert Hubbard].

$975.00

Item Number: 146576

East Aurora, NY: The Roycrofters, 1906.

Finely bound edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, rendered into English Verse by Edward Fitzgerald, with an Address by John Hay and Introduction by Clarence S. Darrow. Oblong duodecimo, original half red suede over black boards, gilt titles to the spine and front panel, red leather spine label, top edge gilt, illustrated with decorated headpiece, tailpieces, and initials by W. W. Denslow. Association copy, inscribed by writer and publisher Elbert Hubbard to his niece on the front flyleaf, “To Mrs. Wellman with love and blessing, from her uncle Elbert Hubbard.” In very good condition with rubbing to the corners and suede binding. Rare.

Eleventh-century Persian poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam composed more than one thousand quatrains, or rubaiyat, on love and mortality, expressing an enigmatic theology that has been interpreted and disputed over the course of centuries. Scholar Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883), first translator and author of five separate English versions of the Rubaiyat, did not produce strict translations as much as loose "transmogrifications" of the poetry, often taking great liberties with the original Persian text. Nevertheless, he remains the most famous of Omar Khayyam's translators, and is credited with bringing the Rubaiyat to broad public notice in the English-speaking world.