The Little Red Rubáiyát, Cassidy Malick

This little red book at first looks unread. The spine isn’t cracked, there’s only minimal bending of the leather cover at the corners, and the pages are all in good condition. Then, as one looks closer at the details, it becomes clear that someone cared enough about this poem, about this gift, to carry it with them. It’s only ten centimeters by eight centimeters, only 96 pages—a perfect pocket-edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. There’s no publication date or indication of edition on the book, but it’s estimated that this book was created sometime between 1925…

In part two of On Exhibit: Victorians and Their Museums, Barbara Black argues that the nature of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám’s popularity as a gift book is directly related to Orientalism. The way the Western public consumed the Rubáiyát was as an exotic piece of art. By approaching something as exotic, it is inherently othered and simultaneously conquered (Black 63). On pages 60-61, she states: “Susceptible to a minimizing that is consistent with the popular miniature packaging of the Rubáiyát, this poem’s value becomes inseparable from its pretty,…

On page 37 of this book, we find one ruba'i and one illustration. Ruba'i LXI of this edition, reads as follows:

Why, be this Juice the growth of God, who dare
Blaspheme the twisted tendril as a Snare?
       A Blessing, we should use it, should we not?
And if a Curse–why, then, Who set it there?

Breaking this ruba'i down, we can see it follows the standard AABA rhyme-scheme most of the Rubáiyát has. There are three questions here, with one line indented. This…

Created sometime between 1926 and 1930, this little red book has a fascinating history. As discussed in the Description of the Edition, this book was published by Robert K. Has, inc. as part of the Little Luxart Library collection. This set of thirty books were all created using leatherette, a synthetic alternative to leather. In the late 1910’s to early 1920’s, leather prices rose, making synthetic materials more popular and less expensive–but it was also rumored to smell bad in warm weather. Given the…

June 6, 1928

Dear Robert,

Congratulations on your new home! My hope was to help you fill those lovely shelves in your living room with color and culture, and there’s nothing like thirty red books to brighten a room. I know you’ll still be traveling often, so I thought these books would make the perfect companion. They’ll fit in your pocket when they aren’t decorating your home, and that way you can always be with “A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse–and” me!

It gives me comfort to think of you with the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám in your breast pocket…