Early Artists of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 1914-1929

Last year, Danton O’Day published a series of books under the title of The Golden Age of Rubaiyat Illustration 1884-1913 – see https://omarkhayyamrubaiyat.wordpress.com/2017/03/20/the-golden-age-of-rubaiyat-art-1884-1913-a-complete-catalog/.  He also produced a volume on Artists of the Omar Khayyam Club of London 1892-1929 – see https://omarkhayyamrubaiyat.wordpress.com/2017/07/25/artists-of-the-omar-khayyam-club-of-london/.  Now Danton has moved on to cover more of the illustrators of the Rubaiyat  in the period during and after the first world war.  He has sent us the following information about his new book.

Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is arguably the most published book of poetry ever written. It is also one of the most illustrated. My new, intensely illustrated, book focuses on the era from 1914-1929 that followed the Golden Age of Rubáiyát Art, 1884-1913. It reveals the work of 16 illustrators who produced two or more pictures to illustrate the poems and 9 other artists who embellished the poetry with page decorations, title page adornments and unique frontispiece images.

In these pages, the identity of a previously anonymous artist is revealed. New decorators are discovered. Tables and graphic timelines put all the work into perspective as multiple images—many published here for the first time in 90-100 years—reveal the often-unparalleled talent of artists who took their pens, inks and paints to the task of illustrating FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát.

This book completes the five-book documentation of first artists of FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam from 1884 to 1929.

The softcover trade version is available from online booksellers including www.abebooks.com

Early Artists of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 1914-1929 by Danton H. O’Day, 141pp, Emeritus Books, ISBN 978-1-38-873374-2

Limited numbers of signed, hardcover photo-quality versions of the books in the series are available directly from the author. Inquire for pricing at danton.oday@utoronto.ca.

Danton has also produced a YouTube video which provides a useful introduction to material from the book.  Here the work of 16 artists who took their pens, inks and paints to illustrate the poems as translated by Edward FitzGerald is summarized.   This video can be accessed on https://youtu.be/7ADb6t36xaU .