COVE

For this specific edition, there is an unusual scenario where the illustrator, Willy Pogány, has illustrated multiple works of the Rubáiyát, one of which is within another piece of this exhibition. Pogány is a relatively well known illustrator of his time, an artist of Hungarian descent who was well known for his art noveau style. Born in 1882, the Hungarian boy who would later become William Andrew Pogány, Vilmos Feichtmann, originally studied in Budapest for engineering, but swapped over to art studies within the first year. This took him to London, and later America, where he would spend the rest of his life residing in New York. By 1916, he was officially an artist.

In developing his style, Pogány took inspiration from many Oriental illuminated books and artworks, emulating their rich colors and botanical details. Following the path that his muse had set, he would continue illustrating books as his primary source of work for the rest of his career and until his death in 1955. His style is often equated to a "fairy-tale book," often containing mythical elements and capturing surreal tones. This is one of the reasons his style was likely used more than once in copies of the Rubáiyát , both for its storybook prominence and .

The publisher for this piece, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, is a now defunct publishing company from America, founded in 1834 under a different name, It wasn't until 1876 that the company began to publish books. After Thomas Young Crowell took over, the company remained in the family for three generations, until a long line of combinations that culminated in them merging with Harper and Row in 1980, a still existing and prominent publishing company in current day. If the speculation of the year this edition was published is accurate, then this text would have been released about halfway through its lifespan, under the direction of either the second or third generation. This would have been during their first spike of activity, where the were most frequently publishing before their last decade or so. They were not revolutionary to the publishing industry, but they were proactive and maintained the relevancy by keeping with the times and improving their craft as new trends and technologies were released. This indicates that this text likely is indicative of the current styles that were popular at the time of publishing, although there is room for error.

 Citations:

"By Willy Pogany." Illustrated Gallery, www.illustratedgallery.com/artwork/for-sale/artist/willy-pogany/. Accessed 17 May 2023. Auction site.

"Pogany, William Andrew (Hungarian painter, 1882-1955)." Union List of Artist Names Online: Full Record Display, Getty Research, www.getty.edu/vow/ULANFullDisplay?find=willy&role=&nation=&prev_page=7&s.... Accessed 17 May 2023.

"Thomas Y. Crowell Co." Wikipedia, 16 Apr. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Y._Crowell_Co.

Tripp, Edward. “THOMAS Y. CROWELL.” RQ, vol. 6, no. 1, 1966, pp. 13–16. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25823042. Accessed 18 May 2023.

University of Mississipi. "Willy Pogány Papers." de Grummond Children's Literature Collection The University of Southern Mississippi, Internet Archive, 26 Nov. 2022, web.archive.org/web/20221126144218/www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/degrum/public_html/html/research/findaids/DG0785f.... Public archival site screen capture.