The Whitcombe & Tombs Rubaiyats

Bob Forrest has sent us the following contribution, which tells about editions of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam published ‘down-under’ in the 1940’s. He is seeking additional information from any readers who possess copies of these books. If you can help with Bob’s enquiry, please comment below and/or send us information via sandrabill@omarkhayyamrubaiyat.com. Bob writes:

In the 1940s the New Zealand firm of Whitcombe and Tombs published a series of Courage and Friendship booklets, #2 of which was The Rubaiyat (FitzGerald’s first edition.) There were two versions of it. Version 1 was certainly first published in 1941, with version 2 probably being first published in 1945. Neither version was actually dated, and nor were their various reprints, which is what makes their chronology difficult to establish. Both versions share a common front cover, the colour scheme varying with reprinting, and both have, or should have, a front inner flap bearing a listing of the Courage and Friendship booklets in print at the time of publication.

Fig. 1

Fig.1 gives the general idea, this one being known to date from 1944 by its imprint and a gift inscription. In version 1, the quatrains are unnumbered, and the final quatrain is as shown in Fig.2. In version 2 the quatrains are numbered, and the final quatrain is as shown in Fig.3. (Note the decorative surround in the latter, not present in the former.)

Fig 2

In an article on my website, I have tried to establish a chronology for the Courage and Friendship series (which seems to have run to 11 titles by 1949), and to use it in dating the Rubaiyats. But this is tentative, and I would be very grateful if readers of this blog who own copies of either version 1 or version 2 (or both) could supply details and images of their copy / copies. Particularly key are the colour scheme of the front cover and the series listing on the front inner flap (as in Fig.1), plus any dated gift inscriptions (or, in the case of ex-library copies, any accession date.)

Fig. 3

The link to my website article is: http://www.bobforrestweb.co.uk/The_Rubaiyat/N_and_Q/Whitcombe_and_Tombs/Whitcombe_and_Tombs.htm. 

The article also deals with other W&T editions of the Rubaiyat, but, to avoid any possible confusion, it seems best to deal with the Courage & Friendship versions first on this blog item, and to tackle the other editions in a future post.