Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (Fitzgerald)

Like Ps.S.5d (from Canada), this copy testifies to the global reach of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in the early 20th Century. I bought it in April 2018 at Kookaburra Books in Battery Point, Hobart, Tasmania, and it contains an owner’s autograph connected with an address just 200 metres from the shop: ‘Mollie Craske / Xmas. ’27 / 32 Mona Street, Battery Pt, Hobart.’ The date and address are a source of mystery, though, as Isabel Mary (‘Mollie’) Ward only married William Craske in 1939. A daughter was born to them, at 32 Mona Street, in 1941 (and the occupant of the house, before 1938, was Mr J.G. Turner who had been there for decades). Therefore, it seems that the autograph, written in blue ink, must have been inserted retrospectively. Luckily, the other marks in the book, made in black ink, can be more definitely ascribed to the year 1935, though it is unclear who made them. Firstly, the front free endpaper carries one of the Rubaiyat’s most celebrated quatrains, copied out in a cursive hand:

Ah, my Belovéd fill the cup that clears
Today of past regret and future fears
Tomorrow—why, Tomorrow we may be
As Dust, with yesterday’s seven thousand years.
                                                                Also See p.48

The final note refers to the lines beginning ‘Myself when young did eagerly frequent / Doctor and Saint…’, which appear on p.48 alongside one of the book’s colour illustrations by Frank Brangwyn. And here the black-ink user has dated their reading ‘Jan. 1935 Hobart’. The character of the markings suggests a gift, with the annotator addressing the recipient with ‘Ah, my Belovéd’, and inviting them to ‘Also See p.48’—but who was the giver, and who the recipient, is hard to judge.