The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:
1900 H.M. Caldwell Co. Remarque Edition
This 1900 H.M. Caldwell Co. Edition is from their ‘Remarque Edition of Literary Masterpieces’ series (this is #11).
As I understand/guess, the Remarque is the little drawing on the bottom left (looks like a ghost/cloaked person) of the art page in the beginning of the book. The others from the series would also have some such drawing. This is based on the publisher edition info at the end of the book plus the meaning of Remarque. I am not sure what ‘uniform with this volume’ means, though.
My copy of this 1900 Rubaiyat edition is really showing its age unlike some other copies I have from the same time period and even earlier. The cover is pretty much falling off. I am intending to try repairing it at some point soon. Update 5/2020: I did repair it! See below.
Update 10/2023: Updated copy as I have a new understanding of what the remarque is.
Publisher: H.M. Caldwell Co. (New York & Boston)
Year: 1900
Introduction(s) by: Andrew Lang (To Omar Khayyam)
The Book Itself
There are a few interesting little touches here and there in this edition. The title page has a fantastic burst of color with an orange typed Edward FitzGerald. Then there’s the Remarque/drawing itself. The cover is also interesting to look at with the leafy design.
Beyond that, the book contains not only the fourth edition text, a biographical preface, and edition notes, but also an ‘intro’ of sorts titled ‘To Omar Khayyam’ by Andrew Lang.
The Poetry
Neatly done typeface. The footer and header are a bit tight against the pages for my liking, but it is condensed and gets the job done.
Repairs
I did the repairs myself with just some archival quality glue from Lineco. I only did what was needed so that the book wasn’t completely falling apart. My focus was thus the spine and the layers of the cover that were splitting apart. I glued the spine down, the crack where the spine met the flyleaf pages, and the pieces of the cover that were tearing apart from each other. The glue worked well, so well that I felt that I didn’t need to do anything more at this point. Success!
History/Information Sourcing
This definition of remarque that was helpfully provided by a visitor helped clear up my understanding of its meaning in this context. That little doodle being included and not removed (as the definition seems to indicate) is why it’s the remarque edition/series…that is what I am guessing, anyway.
Other sources that I looked at:
General searches for the publisher have catalog. info pop up, which basically says this book exists. Nothing exciting besides that and people selling copies from this series that I could find.