COVE

The bookplate [Figure 1] on the front endpaper of this edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám shows that it was donated to the Oregon State University Library by Charles Fox. A photograph found in Oregon Digital, an online repository of images from the OSU and University of Oregon special collections and archives, suggests that Charles Fox may have been a trustee of Oregon State during the 1970s (“OSU Foundation”). The following is a fictional letter based on this image, the historical and cultural context surrounding the Rubáiyát, and both textual and paratextual elements of the 1909 Hodder and Stoughton edition.

October 9, 1972

Dear friends at the Oregon State University Library,

In a recent meeting, my fellow trustees of the university and I were deep in discussion of the halcyon days. The topic of conversation glanced upon one of the favorite poems of that bygone time, the great Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Many an hour was spent debating the merits of this collection of quatrains, translated from the Persian of Old Omar by Edward FitzGerald. I remember distinctly the class in which Professor Sigurd Peterson introduced the Rubáiyát, reading those first few lines aloud, “AWAKE! for Morning in the Bowl of Night / Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight / And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught / The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.” An awakening indeed!

Through my role as a trustee, I have given back to this university through monetary means. However, this reunion with the companions of my adolescence has inspired me to provide a new generation of students with access to the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám in the hopes that it will inspire them to live life as fully as we did (and do!). I have sourced Hodder and Stoughton’s 1909 version of the Rubáiyát, an excellent edition with attractive watercolor illustrations by Edmund Dulac. I was inspired to acquire an edition illustrated by Dulac, as I remember my family owning a copy of his Stories from the Arabian Nights. I spent many hours poring over this tome as a young boy, imagining myself to inhabit the same fantastical Oriental worlds that Dulac depicts. While I admit that I prefer the first edition translation of the text to the second edition printed in this copy, it is still of high literary value—a quality essential to any book available for lending at a university library. The gilded text on the cover should entice students reluctant to read, and if displayed open to a page with one of Dulac’s intricate yet vibrant illustrations, it will demand anyone to take a closer look. Furthermore, this book is constructed with quality, bound in a strong yellow cloth, and should last many handlings.

If you are worried about the contents of the illustrations or text, I feel that university students are mature enough to handle hedonistic themes. My fellow students and I would often jokingly quote from Old Omar’s musings on the pleasures of “the Grape”: “And lately, by the Tavern Door agape, / Came shining through the Dusk an Angel Shape / Bearing a Vessel on his Shoulder; and / He bid me taste of it; and ‘twas—the Grape!” [Figure 2]. Dulac’s accompanying illustration [Figure 3] reminds me of the graceful figure that once ornamented our campus, the Lady of the Fountain. Youth is meant to be enjoyed!

I hope that you will accept this gift of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám and that Oregon State University students will enjoy it for generations to come.

Sincerely,

Charles Fox, Class of ‘24

OSU Foundation Trustee and Member of the Friends of the Library

Works Cited

FitzGerald, Edward. Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám with Illustrations by Edmund Dulac. Hodder and Stoughton, 1909.

"OSU Foundation Trustees meeting at North Willamette Station, Aurora, Oregon, circa 1972" Historical Images of Oregon State University, Oregon State University. Oregon Digital. https://oregondigital.org/concern/images/z890s792k