Exhibit:

Past Remnants of The Soul's Rubáiyát

Preview of images

Fire altars whence the sacred flame has fled; Round them no more, the reverent feet shall tread. Ahurâ-Mazda, Persia’s ancient god; What planets now revere his lifted rod? Publishing title page of the book, title listed and publishing information is as well Poem that appears before the start of book, listed in description box Flower and dash styled lines that appear throughout the book Deity/godess standing, she is wearing an elaborate outfit
drawings at the beginning of book back of the book brown color front of book zoomed out
Fourth stanza in Truesdell Peom
two images drawn in the style of Persian art title page of the poem that showcases the author, illustrator and publisher single page that lists the printing company
black and white image of 1920s san francisco

Part of Group:

ENG 470/570: Archive Fever

"Past Remnants of The Soul's Rubáiyát" examines Amelia Woodward Truesdell's edition of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam. The topics of the virtual exhibit include physical descriptions and a close reading of a stanza.

Images in this Exhibit

Description of Edition
Fire altars whence the sacred flame has fled; Round them no more, the reverent feet shall tread. Ahurâ-Mazda, Persia’s ancient god; What planets now revere his lifted rod? Publishing title page of the book, title listed and publishing information is as well Poem that appears before the start of book, listed in description box Flower and dash styled lines that appear throughout the book Deity/godess standing, she is wearing an elaborate outfit

The Soul’s Rubáiyát was published in 1911 and was written by Amelia Woodward Truesdell and illustrated by Marion De Lappé (Figure 3). The illustrations are in black and white. There are 31 pages total, with additional 5 preliminary pages. It was published in San Francisco by AM Robertson and belongs to The Dr. Sigurd H. Peterson Memorial Collection at Oregon State University’s Valley Library. The book is a light brown leather, and the spine is worn, but still somewhat intact. It smells like an “old book” and has minimal water and other stains. On one of the pages, there is a 25c...
Gift Books and Orientalism
drawings at the beginning of book back of the book brown color front of book zoomed out

A key section in Barbara Black’s On Exhibit argues that FitzGerald’s translation and the eventual distribution of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám helped contribute to the fetishization of Eastern culture. The distribution of the Rubáiyát was very popular during the 19th and 20th centuries, it made a lot of money, which made it a part of the culture at the time. For example, quarto-sized books were often sold for under fifteen dollars. Concerning the text, she states that his translation showcases that he was not interested in highlighting Persian culture, but...
Close Reading of Text
Fourth stanza in Truesdell Peom

Throughout the novel, Amelia Truesdell’s The Soul’s Rubáiyát does not have a lot of illustrations, as mentioned before (see Description of Edition). The images pictured do not match the text of the poem and do not enhance the context of the poem. The fourth stanza (see Figure 1) of both Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám and ...
How This Edition Was Made
two images drawn in the style of Persian art title page of the poem that showcases the author, illustrator and publisher single page that lists the printing company

Overall, the information about the publisher is not widely available on the internet and it's challenging to find a concrete timeline of A.M. Robertson.  The only resource about the publisher is a non-digitized collection in the UC Berkley Library with photographs and articles detailing the start of A.M. Robertson's business.

 

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Archival Speculation
black and white image of 1920s san francisco

Dearest friend,

As we approach 1925, I’ve found myself rediscovering an old favorite book I’ve had for a while and found that it would be best to send it on so intellectual readers such as yourself can enjoy it. Amelia Woodward Truesdell is known for publishing excellent books and is a well known female academic, which is a title we need more women to share!

When the earthquake hit San Francisco hit all those years ago, I found myself searching for a purpose, for community. I needed to see beyond the rubble that surrounded my city.

That’s where The Soul’s...