Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1909 — The History of a Book. [ARTICLE]

The History of a Book.

Following is the story of the first edition of Fitzgerald’s celebrated translation of “Omar Khayyam.” The book was issued anonymously and found no buyers. Accordingly the author went to Bernard Quaritch’s shop, dropped a heavy parcel of 200 copies of the “Rubaiyat” and said, “Quaritch, I make you a present of these books.” The famous bookseller offered them first at half a crown, then at a shilling, and, again descending, at sixpence, bnt no buyers came. In despair he reduced the book to a penny and put Copies into a box outside his door with a ticket, “All these at 1 penny each. At that price the pamphlet moved. In a few weeks the lot was sold, and in this way one of the* finest gems oN English literature was dispersed among a not overdiscerning public. The legend has it that Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Swinburne and Burton were among those who discovered the “hidden treasure In the penny box.” Years passed, and the once despised volume rose in the market and in 1898 Quaritch bought in for £2l a copy which forty years before he had sold for a penny.—London Queen.