Exhibit:

Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám - 1947

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This specific edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám was published by Random House in 1947. The collection of poems is believed to be written by Omar Khayyám and translated into english by Edward Fitzgerald. This edition of the Rubáiyát is a complete reprint of the first edition, and the combined third, fourth and fifth editions. 

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Description of the Edition

This specific edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám was published by Random House in 1947. The collection of poems is believed to be written by Omar Khayyám and translated into English by Edward FitzGerald. This edition of the Rubáiyát is a complete reprint of the first edition, and the combined third, fourth and fifth editions. This book is comprised of 149 pages total, with alternating prints and borders on each page. The designs of these prints work well with each other as they all contain something of what English and American readers at the time would have...
Gift Books and Orientalism
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In her book titled On Exhibit: Victorians and their Museums Barbara J. Black brings light to the acutely Victorian attraction of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám as the links with which the Persian book of poems is now forever chained to the Oriental. Although the book of poems was initially received as unpopular when FitzGerald published his translations, the Rubáiyát gained traction when the “Fitz-Omar craze” began somewhere around 1861 (Black, 59). By the turn of the century, the act of collecting and sharing luxurious and ornate copies of the Rubáiyát ...