The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:
1952 Garden City Books Edmund Dulac Dust Jacket Edition

Okay, this Garden City copy was a rollercoaster to catalog. I was going to combine this with the nearly identical 1952 Garden City edition (which has no dust jacket), as I thought they were the same edition and that my old copy was just missing the jacket. The insides seemed identical! Page counts aligned and such. However, on closer inspection, I did find three key differences between them and so I’m calling these two separate editions as a result.

The differences are:

  • The copyright page in this 1952 Garden City edition just says “Printed in the United States”, whereas the other one also says the press used.
  • The paper the artwork is printed on. The other one is shiny/slick whereas this one is not. It’s matte and not white-tinted. The stock feels completely different.
  • The cover on this edition feels of higher quality/slightly different material. The colors are bolder and the texture feels different. This could be age/wear, but I’m calling it out.

Very interesting that two editions can be from the same year, look nearly identical, but have such differences! I wonder why…

This edition was donated by Bill Cloutier. Thank you!

The Book Itself

The jacket flap feels new with how shiny it is. The covers has rich colors to its designs. It’s pretty much the same as the other 1952 Garden City copy from what I can tell (besides the aforementioned aspects).

The Poetry

The Illustrations

Dulac’s artwork looks great here. Paper stock does not feel shiny/slick.