COVE

This edition of the Rubàiyàt of Omar Khayyàm contains both the first and fifth translations by Edward FitzGerald. It was published by Pocket Books, Inc., a subsidiary of Simon & Schuster established in 1939 with the mission of producing cheap mass-market paperbacks for a broad readership. This 1941 edition embodies that ethos: it is printed on pulp paper, its edges are dyed red, and its binding is glued rather than sewn. The book comprises a total of 175 pages, though the final two pages feature advertisements for other Pocket Books titles, highlighting its place in a commercial literary ecosystem. The back cover features a sales blurb in black text on a white rectangle set against a yellow background. Below that appears the Pocket Books colophon and their iconic kangaroo mascot, Gertrude, in a matching white box. Beyond its visual character, the book is a sensory object: the pulp paper is thin and fragile, yellowed with age, and has a faint  musty scent like old newspaper. The glued binding, though stiff, is holding up surprisingly well.

The cover (Figure 1) presents the Rubàiyàt of Omar Khayyàm in stylized gold lettering against a black background. Below the title is an illustration referencing quatrain XI: two lovers recline beneath a tree, with a flask of wine and a book of verse in the foreground. This image is set in a blue field dotted with golden flowers and framed to evoke a sense of richness and allure. The cover image is one of 75 full-page black-and-white illustrations by Gordon Ross, a prolific illustrator who was born in Scotland in 1873 and emigrated to the United States in 1894. Ross studied fine art at the Mark Hopkins Art Institute in San Francisco before moving to New York, where he became known for illustrating classic literary works. His style blends fine linework with theatrical composition—a style he puts to great effect in illustrating the Rubàiyàt of Omar Khayyàm.

Each quatrain of the first translation—placed at the beginning of the book—is paired with one of Ross’s full-page illustrations, creating a visual rhythm of text on the verso (left) and image on the recto (right) (Figures 2 and 3). Ross was one of the few artists to illustrate all 75 verses of FitzGerald’s first translation, making this edition particularly distinctive. The fifth translation, placed later in the volume, is presented without accompanying illustrations. Occasionally, footnotes appear on the pages of the first translation, offering brief commentary or interpretation, but these are inconsistent and seem to be added for select verses only.

Upon opening the book, after the half-title, is Ross’s first full-page illustration (Figure 4): a woman in flowing garments draped over a robed man in a turban. They lounge in a lush garden beside a palace with a “sultan’s turret”—a stylized evocation of a romanticized Middle East. This imagery, along with the thematic emphasis on wine, love, and fate, situates the edition firmly within the pulp tradition. Here, “pulp” refers to more than just the paper; it refers to the genre traditions the book borrows from—traditions built on sensational storytelling, high drama, and exotic settings. Pulp fiction in the early twentieth century often portrayed the so-called “Orient” as a site of mystery, decadence, danger, and romance—a fantasy playground for Western imaginations. This edition of the Rubàiyàt of Omar Khayyàm trades in that same mystique. Ross’s illustrations amplify the Orientalist tone already embedded in FitzGerald’s translation, which reworks Omar Khayyàm’s philosophical musings into a vision of a lush, sensual, and vaguely Islamic East that would have appealed to Western readers looking for escapism.