Volume 90, Number 1 - California Historical Society

58
notes
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
In late 1903 or early 1904, Miller was asked to pose for photographer
Adelaide Marquand Hanscom’s (1875–1931) illustrated
version of the classic selection of poems, the Rubáiyát
of Omar Khayyám (left).
In a 1906 interview, Hanscom described waiting for Miller’s
reply: “We had about given up on hope, thinking he had
ignored us entirely, when one day a tall, long bearded, long
haired and long coated old man came into our studio and,
without waiting to introduce himself, extended both his
hands above our heads and said, ‘Bless you, my children,
bless you.’ He then took each in turn by the hand, bowed
low, and kissed the fingertips. It is a ceremony, we soon
learned, that he seldom omits.”
California History • volume 90 number 1 2012
The poet Charles Keeler (1871–1937) also posed for Hanscom
(right). Keeler, she recalled, “hazarded his life by sitting upon
the edge of an upturned circular table pouring, or imagining he
was pouring, bubbles from a huge, heavy brass bowl. It was the
only available thing I could make to represent this big, round
earth of ours.”
Courtesy of Michael Shreve; www.michaelshreve.com