POSTED FOR INFORMATION AND INTEREST...
The image here is of the last page of verse from a Whitcombe and Tombs edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. It is believed to be the exact same edition as that found and associated with the body of the man on the beach at Somerton on December 1st. 1948.
The cover image below was published in 1949:
Notice that it is slim and was made to readily fit into a pocket. Of particular note, based on this image above, the aspect ratio, width to height, is .58. This varies in comparison to the .78 aspect ratio found in the images of other ROKs on the web that claimed to be the correct versions.
Having said that, the dimensions of the Code page said to have been found on the back of the book handed in to the Police, match those of the Courage and Friendship version.
The book was published in a variety of soft colours and shades with each book having two colours namely the page surround and the space within which the quatrains were printed.
1. The code page dimensions according to the image held by the Adelaide Advertiser are Width: 11.44 cms X Height: 9.14 cms
2. The Dimensions of the Whitcomb and TOmbs, Courage and Friendship edition as per the download available here, is: Width 11.25 cms X Height 9.0 cms
As you can see, they compare closely in dimensions.
The orientation of the code page provides further confirmation as you will find in the links below showing earlier posts, a close fit. Note that the first posts here were in 2016:
https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/2016/06/somerton-man-books-code-page-aspect.html
https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/2020/04/what-do-we-know-about-code-page-part-1.html
ABOUT THE BOOK
Whilst many have commented on the book, not too many have focused on its precise edition. Just to confirm that edition was 'Courage and Friendship' and its shape was that of a slim booklet.The cover image below was published in 1949:
Notice that it is slim and was made to readily fit into a pocket. Of particular note, based on this image above, the aspect ratio, width to height, is .58. This varies in comparison to the .78 aspect ratio found in the images of other ROKs on the web that claimed to be the correct versions.
Having said that, the dimensions of the Code page said to have been found on the back of the book handed in to the Police, match those of the Courage and Friendship version.
The book was published in a variety of soft colours and shades with each book having two colours namely the page surround and the space within which the quatrains were printed.
DIMENSIONS
The question is what size was the book versus what size was the code page and was there a difference:1. The code page dimensions according to the image held by the Adelaide Advertiser are Width: 11.44 cms X Height: 9.14 cms
2. The Dimensions of the Whitcomb and TOmbs, Courage and Friendship edition as per the download available here, is: Width 11.25 cms X Height 9.0 cms
As you can see, they compare closely in dimensions.
The orientation of the code page provides further confirmation as you will find in the links below showing earlier posts, a close fit. Note that the first posts here were in 2016:
https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/2016/06/somerton-man-books-code-page-aspect.html
https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/2020/04/what-do-we-know-about-code-page-part-1.html
https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-somerton-man-rubaiyat-some-answers.html
There are some minor differences between the posts as you might expect over the time period involved but the bottom line seems to be that the copy of the book published in the newspapers of the day is not the version that was handed to the Police.
Some question marks still remain but I thinks that within the information and linked posts above, many of the answers are supplied.