The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:
1912 Arthur C. Fifield Simple Life Series Edition

This 1912 copy is from Arthur C. Fifield’s Simple Life Series. As you can tell, it is in abysmal condition. It feels more like a glorified pamphlet than a proper book.

It also feels like a weird time capsule. The new book ads on the back side of the cover page is really something, with its ads for ‘No Rheumatism: How to Cure Rheumatism, Gout and Lumbago, by natural means, and prevent their recurrence’ and ‘“No Votes for Women”: A Reply to Anti - Suffrage Arguments.’

The publisher Arthur C. Fifield has history involving Tolstoy’s works and Tolstoyism in general. Which tracks with the contents of the Simple Life Series…

It also has a drawing of a clown (?) on the initial title page and other writings/scribblings that I haven’t posted to this page. It’s a very lived in copy.

I liked this quote in the ‘Note to the Present Edition’: “It is pretty generally admitted, however, that Fitzgerald’s first rendering was the best.”

This is a really fascinating edition. Like the Rubaiyat itself, it is a gateway to a rabbit hole of history.

This edition is part of a greater collection from Barbara Campbell that I purchased a portion of.