COVE

This edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is printed from the second edition of Edward FitzGerald’s translation and features vibrant illustrations by Edmund Dulac. It was published in 1909 by Hodder and Stoughton with colored plates and borders printed separately by Henry Stone & Son. The edition consists of eight pages, 55 leaves, and 20 unnumbered leaves of plates. Oregon State University’s Special Collections and Archives Research Center (SCARC) houses many copies of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, donated in honor of Sigurd Peterson, a faculty member in the university’s early English department. These Rubáiyáts originally circulated in the Valley Library’s main collection, before being transferred to the McDonald Rare Book Collection in SCARC. As such, this edition shows signs of use. Its cloth cover exhibits staining and grime, and is starting to wear thin on the edges of the boards [Figure 1]. The spine, hinges, and corners of the boards have had to be reinforced with book binding repair tape, and the pages have begun to yellow with age.

However, it is no wonder that this edition of the Rubáiyát was so popular with library patrons. Edmund Dulac’s illustrations are visually stunning: they are highly detailed, saturated with color, and depict compelling scenes that would capture the imagination of any early-twentieth-century Western reader. Dulac meticulously layered watercolors over pencil tracings and outlines, creating multi-dimensional images that seemed to transport the viewer to another world (White 23-25). His background as a caricature artist assisted in his creation of compelling characters imbued with a sense of individuality and personality (24). The influence of Persian and East Asian art is prominent in Dulac’s work, particularly in illustrations depicting scenes of a mythic “Orient” [Figure 2], such as those in the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (72).

Dulac was one of the best-known illustrators of the “Golden Age of Illustration”, a period brought on by the Industrial Revolution’s advancements in printing technology and the expansion of a middle-class with the disposable income to spend on deluxe children’s and gift books (Kosik). Born in France, Dulac emigrated to England to pursue his career as an artist. In the years prior to the First World War, and the subsequent decline of the gift book market in Britain, Dulac worked prolifically, and had a fruitful partnership with the publisher Hodder and Stoughton (Kosik). Books featuring Dulac’s illustrations, such as Stories from the Arabian Nights, Stories from Hans Andersen, The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales, and Shakespeare’s The Tempest, were typically released around Christmastime, and were a must-have present for middle and upper-class children (White). As the front cover of the Hodder and Stoughton edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám demonstrates [Figure 1], Dulac’s popularity resulted in this edition being titled the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám with Illustrations by Edmund Dulac rather than simply the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.

Works Cited

FitzGerald, Edward, translator. Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Illustrated by Edmund Dulac, Hodder and Stoughton, 1909.

Kosik, Corryn. “Children’s Book Illustrators in the Golden Age of Illustration”. Illustration History, Norman Rockwell Museum, 26 June 2018, https://www.illustrationhistory.org/essays/childrens-book-illustrators-i....

White, Colin. Edmund Dulac, Studio Vista. 1976. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/edmunddulac0000whit/page/22/mode/2up