ENG 470 / 570 Spring 2025 Dashboard
Description
A virtual exhibit of the Sigurd Peterson collection of editions of Edmund Fitzgerald's translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Created by students in ENG 470/570: Studies in Poetry at Oregon State University, Spring 2025.
Galleries, Timelines, and Maps
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (Pocket Book Edition) Published 1941
The Rubaiyat of Doc Sifers by James Whitcomb Riley
Illustrations by C.M. Relyea
Copyright 1897 New York: The Century Co.
The Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center is home to 101 editions of Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is a collection of loosely linked poems attributed to the medieval Persian mathematician and astronomer, Omar Khayyám. FitzGerald’s mid-nineteenth-century translation of these rubáiyát became a cultural phenomenon that was widely transmitted through the fashionable Victorian medium of the gift book. While there is some mystery regarding the library’s acquisition of such a large collection of Rubáiyáts, it seems that they were donated in honor of Sigurd Peterson, a professor and chair of the OSU English Department from 1922-1954.
This exhibit explores the history of one of these editions, the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám with Illustrations by Edmund Dulac, a gift book published by Hodder and Stoughton in 1909. It provides a description of the edition... more
At Oregon State University, the Special Collections and Archives Research Center (SCARC) houses an extensive collection of different gift book editions of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam translated by Edward Fitzgerald. This collection, known as the Dr. Sigurd H. Peterson Memorial Collection, was given to the university under strange circumstances. Little is known about Dr. Peterson, except that he was a former professor at the university. Dr. Walter Henry Ott endowed the university with this collection. It is still unknown why or how the Rubáiyát was important to either Dr. Peterson or Dr. Ott.
The Rubáiyát of a Scotch Terrier by Sewell Collins is one of the gift book editions in this collection. More specifically, this edition is a parody of Edward Fitzgerald's Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. In this exhibit, this edition will analyze the basic features of the editions and what makes it special compared to others. It will also delve into the details of how the... more
An exploration of the "Heath Robinson Edition" of Omar Khayyám's Rubáiyát, translated by Edward FitzGerald and published in 1907 by Ernest Nister of London and E.P. Dutton & Co. of New York.
This edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám was published around 1933 by the Illustrated Editions Company, NY. Originally attributed to Persian poet, mathematician, and astronomer Omar Khayyám, the translation was copleted by Edward FitzGerald, a Victorian poet and writer. This particular edition features illustrations from British illustrator Edmund J Sullivan. This gift book features FitzGerald's preface, which precedes a printing of the first version of his translation, each stanza with its own page, facing one of Sullivan's illustrations, with a copy of the fifth version of his translation following the illustrated version.
This gift book upholds the Victorian tradition and value of gift books as it spread to America in the late nineteenth and into the early twentieth centuries. The Rubáiyát was especially popular during this time period, due to its plain language that granted moral depth to the poetry without becoming inaccessible. FitzGerald first... more