COVE

Listed as Item Number 7 in Oregon State’s special collection of the 101 editions of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the copy gifted to “The Fair Lady Lucy” from “Her Lover” is a fourteenth American edition from Houghton, Mifflin & Co. published in 1888 titled Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia with an additional subtitle noting that it was “rendered into English verse by Edward Fitzgerald” (image 3), using Fitzgerald’s 1879 (4th) edition of translation. The copy also contains an “Ornamental Title-page and fifty-six magnificent full-page illustrations” (image 2) in black and white by Elihu Vedder along with a simple red border around the contents of each page. Additionally, the copy notes that it is “bound in a new and unique style, the covers being designed by Mr. Vedder” of a brown binding featuring gold-embossed ornamental typography of the title, subtitle, and a decorative flower with its stem and leaves. Around the embossing is a black ornamental border in an archway-style with corner embellishments and the publishing company’s name enclosed in a black rectangle border (image 1.) The copy is 150 pages and contains a preface with biographical information about Omar Khayyám and a notes section after the poem.

This edition is worn, with some fraying and scratched around the binding and an inch long split down the spine. Inside, the page binding is separating from the spine, resulting in some pages loose. The second blank page contains an inscription in pencil handwritten-cursive that reads:

“To The Fair Lady Lucy-

From Her Lover-

Dec. 1888”

The anonymity of the “Lover” from whom the gift comes allows them to hide their identity (see image 4.)

Another inscription (image 5) resides in the back blank pages that, in pencil-handwritten cursive, reads:

“Remember me a little when thou

comest-

To thine own country. Say farewell

to me

Not to the thought of me-

Stephen Phillips

on “Ulysses””

This inscription is taken from lines from the English poet-dramatist Stephen Phillips’ 1902 play Ulysses. As the play was not published for some fourteen years after the original 1888 gift of this book, this inscription must have been added far later. Additionally, the handwriting, while also bearing the similar hyphens at the end of lines, does appear different from the first inscription in the fashioning of the hs, ls, and ts. This particular quote comes from the end of Act I of Phillips’ play from Calypso upon Ulysses’ departure from her island. Ulysses, in the lines before, has told Calypso farewell briefly in his hurry, but she pleads for more. After hearing her plea to say goodbye to her at that moment, Ulysses rejects her, saying he “will not” and leaves. 

Within the poem’s quatrains are several annotations in pencil that feature underlining (VII.4, XLVII.4) and bracketing (VII.3-4 in a brace, XXIII.4 in a single parentheses, XXXIII.1-4 with a squiggle line) as well as similar annotations done in blue colored pencil that feature an exclamation mark (LXIV.3-4), underlining (CI.4), and bracketing in braces (LXVI.4, LXVIII.1-2, LXIX.1-2 and 3-4, LXXVIII.1-4, LXXX.4.) Additionally, within the notes section on page 76 is a small cursive “y” in the bottom left corner within the border. Lastly, worth noting is a printing error on page 63 (image 6) within stanzas XCVII and VCVIII with several letters being warped on the left hand side of the page, most obviously on XCVII.4's “As spring” and XCVIII.2 's “the yet.” This printing error occurs in the same place on Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.’s 1882 1st edition, but not the 1896 26th edition. It is likely the error occurred in editions 2-13 as well, but unknown when the error stopped appearing between editions 15-25.