The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:
~1930s Arden Library De Luxe Sullivan Edition
This Rubaiyat edition is a typical Sullivan illustrated copy, this time from the Arden Library/Arden Book Company. The fact that it has an intact dust jacket is amazing to me. It feels unreal that it exists and looks so bold. It feels more recent than it is!
The interior and the Sullivan artwork is nothing new or exciting, though. Still quality and nice, but nothing surprising there.
Based on what info I gleamed this is the only Arden Library Rubaiyat edition, so it’ll stand alone in the Editions by Publisher breakdown but definitely not by Artist!
Publisher: Arden Book Company (New York)
Year: n.d., 1930s est. due to inscription and publisher history
Artist: Edmund J. Sullivan
The Book Itself
The dust jacket! It may be frayed, but it is mostly intact. The book cover itself is in this nice cream tone and has held up incredibly well. It’s a really solid book.
Interestingly, it has three title pages. One at the beginning, the full title page, and another before the introduction.
The Poetry
The Illustrations
History/Information Sourcing
This A Series of Series article dives into the Arden Library and the publishing history of it. It’s a really great read and it illuminates much about this copy. It confirms the 1930s origin and it explains why the interior is the same as other Sullivan books: they were re-using an existing interior. This probably explains other Sullivan copies I have on the website that look exactly the same. And, perhaps, re-usage of the De Luxe edition name as this other 1930s Sullivan edition. The history is fascinating.