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The Art of Omar Khayyam: Illustrating FitzGerald's Rubaiyat

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THE ART OF OMAR KHAYYAM: ILLUSTRATING FITZGERALD'S RUBAIYAT

Of course, Fitzgerald's translations were among the earliest and best and remain so, and the poem is riveting and the base of many ancient sayings used today by those who do not know their origins, for instance, the term "wine, women and song" was derived from the essence of the poem which ridicules what Omar believes to be hypocritical misconveyances by the clergy of his religion. Omar Khayyam was at once a poet and political agitator and some believe a member of a group of intellectual, and revolutionary assassins. Khayyam sets forth a philosophy of wine, sex and joy, more I believe to taunt the clergy with their often ridiculous views of anything men and women appear to desire, so Omar taunts the Organized Religious establishment of his era, of the 13th century with words which remain as true and effective now as then.

However, since it is a book about the ILLUTRATIONS, it behooves the publisher to tell us more about them.

The poem can be purchased anywhere for under $10-$15 dollars, so the price justification is for the four color printing of the many illustrations. As a collector of art books, I know who the market is for this book, it is mostly artists and those who love ART.

I am a painter Illustrator and have read Omar Khayyam since early childhood, and have a collection of various volumes of it with various illustrators, now my main interest is the illustrations. Therefore, I would only be interested in this book if I knew the following about it:

How many of the 300 illustrations are in full color?

Whose illustrations, which are the illustrators, at least a few of the more famous besides Brangwyn?

How large are the illustrations? If they are thumbnails, they are of little use to an artist buyer.

I, like the largest share of this book's market would only buy the book if it contained many large illustrations in color. Since I am a professor of art, I constantly seek reference books for my students to buy, but cannot recommend such books unless I see the illustrations.

Just a marketing tip!

Thanks