WILLY POGANY'S RUBAIYAT, FINELY ILLUSTRATED AND BOUND

(POGANY, Willy) KHAYYAM, Omar. Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Presented by Willy Pogany. Philadelphia: David McKay, (1942). Quarto, original three-quarter brown morocco gilt, raised bands, top edge gilt. $1100.

Later edition to be illustrated by Willy Pogany, with 20 full-page black-and-white plates, decorative initials, calligraphy and page borders by Pogany.

Composed in 12th-century Persia and rendered into English by Edward FitzGerald (his first version appeared in 1859), these stanzas express "the desire to snatch the utmost of pleasurable sensation from the irretrievable passing moment… [but also] more sober thoughts of the Power that has created beauty and in man a capacity to appreciate beauty but has cursed him with transience… In words and cadences of haunting loveliness a desolating message was communicated to numberless hearts" (Baugh et al., 1417-18). Illustrator William Andrew (Willy) Pogany was "gifted with myriad styles from which he selected the appropriate (or created a new) one for each book he illustrated. And he illustrated literally a hundred or more… each designed and executed completely by him, from the covers and endpapers to the calligraphed text to the pen and ink, pencil, wash, and color" (Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.). This popular illustrated gift volume was first issued in 1909 with 24 color plates, 20 of which are here rendered in black-and-white. Ink gift inscription, in German, dated 1947.

Only occasional faint marginal spotting, binding handsome and fine. A lovely illustrated edition of this timeless classic.