Frank Unger Illustrates the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 1906

"Frank E. Unger illustrates the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 1906" is a beautiful, one-of-a-kind, full color book of one of the most famous poems ever written. This unique book reprises the watercolor work of the artist Frank E. Unger, who privately bound his collection of colorful decorated and embellished verses of Edward FitzGerald's Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. For the first time, every page of Unger's hand-drawn verses is reproduced including an opening title page and a penultimate page with the opening bars from the sheet music for "Moon of My Delight" composed by Liza Lehmann. Two pages of calligraphed text that start his book, one covering introductory content by John Hay and another more profusely decorated one on the Persian poet Omar Khayyám, who wrote the original verses that FitzGerald translated are also included. In this softcover reproduction, Unger's work is discussed in an "Introduction" and a concluding "A Look Back at Unger's Contribution" that put his work into context dealing with issues such as how the artist put his personal spin on this classic poetry collection. Unger's original volume was bound in Moroccan gilt-embossed leather, a design incorporated into this new softcover offering. All told, Frank E. Unger produced a Rubáiyát that is both interesting and unique and is celebrated here in a small book that will appeal to all poetry lovers as well as Rubáiyát enthusiasts. The pages are printed in landscape mode (sideways) for greater detail.