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Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
Khayyam, Omar (1048-1131) & Edward Fitzgerald, trans. (1809-1883) Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, William Bell Scott's annotated copy.
London: Bernard Quaritch, 1859.
First edition, octavo; with the early misprint "Lightning" on page 4; William Scott Bell's inked ownership inscription to front pastedown, with his annotations in ink to title and in pencil throughout; rebound in contemporary rose buckram, spine gilt-lettered (scattered minor stains; spine sunned, fading to edges of boards, offsetting from glue to endpapers); housed in a red cloth chemise and gilt-decorated polished calf slipcase; 8 x 6 1/8 in.
Painter and poet William Bell Scott was a close friend and collaborator of the Pre-Raphaelite artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Algernon Swinburne, both of whom played a key role in saving Fitzgerald's influential poem from complete obscurity. The first edition was published without crediting Fitzgerald as the translator, and few copies made it off Quaritch's shelves. By 1861, it had been relegated to the remainder bin, where it was graciously rescued by the Celtic scholar and lawyer Whitley Stokes. Stokes passed the poem on to Rossetti, who, along with Swinburne, sung its praises to his fellow Pre-Raphaelites. Their efforts, together with support from other prominent literary figures such as John Ruskin and Oscar Wilde, helped elevate the poem to cult status in Victorian England. The present copy is a rare example of the neglected first edition, made all the more desirable by the meticulous annotations of one who contributed to the poem's preeminent status.
