William Blake

William Blake was born in London; he studied at Pars' Drawing School (1767) and was apprenticed to James Basire (1772-79) for whom he did antiquarian illustrations. Blake briefly studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in London (1778) before pursuing a successful career as a commercial illustrator and engraver. He was less successful as a painter, though he did exhibit at the Royal Academy. His unorthodox religious beliefs and unique method of producing his books limited his readership during his lifetime.

TEXT RECORDS:

1783An Imitation of Spencer.
1783To Morning.
1783To the Evening Star.
1783[Poems on the Seasons.]

PUBLICATIONS:

Poetical sketches. 1783
The book of Thel. 1789.
Songs of innocence. 1789.
The French revolution, a poem, in seven books: book the first. 1791.
For children: the gates of paradise. 1793.
The marriage of Heaven and Hell. ca. 1793.
Visions of the daughters of Albion. 1793.
America: a prophesy. 1793.
The first book of Urizen. 1794.
Songs of innocence and experience. 1794.
Europe: a prophecy. 1794.
The book of Ahania. 1795.
The book of Los. 1795.
Jerusalem: the emanation of the giant Albion. 1804.
Milton: a poem in 2 books. 1804.
Writings, ed. Geoffrey Keynes. 3 vols, 1925.
Letters, ed. Geoffrey Keynes. 1956.
Poetry and prose, ed. David Eerdman. 1965.
The illuminated Blake, ed. David Eerdman. 1974.
The complete graphic works, ed. David Bindman. 1977.
Writings, ed. G. E. Bentley, Jr. 2 vols, 1978.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican
Dissenter

no formal education

artisan
painter
poet

John Flaxman
Henry Fuseli
William Hayley
Thomas Paine

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; DLB.

Biographia Dramatica (1812); Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816); "Nativity of Mr. Blake, the Mystical Artist" Urania, or The Astrologer's Chronicle 1 (1825) 70-72; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); obituary in Literary Gazette (18 August 1827) 540-41; "William Blake" Literary Chronicle 9 (1 September 1827) 557-58; obituary in New Monthly Magazine NS 21 (December 1827) 535-36; obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 97 (October 1827) 377-78 [from Literary Gazette]; Allan Cunningham, Lives of the most eminent British Painters (1830); "Visions of Blake the Artist" The Casket [Philadelphia] NS 3 (May 1830) 231-32 [from Cunningham]; The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Alexander Gilchrist, Life of William Blake: Pictor Ignotus (1863); Mary Abigail Dodge, "Pictor Ignotus" Atlantic Monthly 13 (1864); Algernon Charles Swinburne, William Blake, a Critical Essay (1868); Charles Eliot Norton, "Blake's Songs and Poetical Sketches" North American Review 108 (1869); Henry Crabb Robinson, Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence (1870); Henry G. Hewlett, "Imperfect Genius: William Blake" Contemporary Review 28 (1876); Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature, 3rd ed. (1876); Horace E. Scudder, "William Blake, Painter and Poet" Scribner's Monthly 20 (1880); The English Poets, ed. Thomas Humphry Ward (1880); Alfred T. Story, William Blake, his Life, Character, and Genius (1893); William Butler Yeats, "Academy Portraits" The Academy 51 (1897); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Frederick E. Pierce, "Blake and some Seventeenth-Century Authors" Modern Language Notes 39 (1924) 150-53; Denis Saurat, Blake and Milton (1924); Mona Wilson, The Life of Blake (1927); Hoxie Neale Fairchild, "Some unpublished References to Blake by Hayley and Lady Hesketh" Studies in Philology 25 (1928) 1-10; S. Foster Damon, "Some American References to Blake before 1863" Modern Language Notes 45 (1930) 365-70; T. O. Mabbott, "More American References to Blake before 1863" Modern Language Notes 47 (1932) 87-88; Northrop Frye, Fearful Symmetry: a Study of William Blake (1947); David Erdman, Prophet against Empire (1954); Renwick, OHEL (1963); Samuel Foster Damon, A Blake Dictionary: the Ideas and Symbols of William Blake (1965); Robert F. Gleckner, "Blake's Seasons" SEL 5:533-51 (1965); Kathleen Raine, Blake and Tradition, 2 vols (1968); G. E. Bentley, Jr., Blake Records (1969); Morton D. Paley, Energy and Imagination: a Study of the Development of Blake's Thought (1970); John E. Grant and Robert E. Brown, "Blake's Vision of Spenser's Faerie Queene: A Report and an Anatomy" Blake Newsletter 8 (1974-75) 56-85; Blake: the Critical Heritage, ed. G. E. Bentley, Jr. (1976) Robert F. Gleckner, Blake's Prelude: Poetical Sketches (1982); Robert F. Gleckner, Blake and Spenser (1985); Spenser Encyclopedia, "Blake" (1990) 94-96; Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for William Blake:

1.	1811  Robert Southey, 24 July 1811; Henry Crabb Robinson, Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence (1870; 1872) 1:176.
2.	1812  William Wordsworth, 24 May 1812; Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson (1927) 1:24.
3.	1824  Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton, 15 May 1824; Works of Charles Lamb, ed. Lucas (1903-05) 7:642-43.
4.	1824  Thomas Frognall Dibdin, in Library Companion (1824; 1825) 2:742 & n.
5.	1825  Henry Crabb Robinson, 17 December 1825; Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence (1870; 1872) 2:11.
6.	1827  Anonymous, "William Blake" The Literary Chronicle 9 (1 September 1827) 557-58.
7.	1830  Mary Howitt to Zilla Wiffen Watts, 18 February 1830; Alaric Alfred Watts, Alaric Watts, a Narrative of his Life, by his Son (1884) 2:6-7.
8.	1830  Bernard Barton to John Linnell, April 22, 1830; E. V. Lucas, Bernard Barton and his Friends (1893) 121-22.
9.	1832  Felicia Hemans, 3 February 1832; Memorials of Mrs. Hemans, ed. Chorley (1836) 2:267.
10.	1837  Walter Savage Landor, 1837; in John Forster, Landor, a Biography (1869) 508-09.
11.	1848  Anna Brownell Jameson, in Sacred and Legendary Art (1848) 1:85.
12.	1862  Thomas Arnold, in A Manual of English Literature (1862; 1885) 451-52.
13.	1868  George Macdonald, in England's Antiphon (1868; 1890) 301.
14.	1880  J. Comyns Carr, in The English Poets: Selections with Critical Introductions, ed. Thomas Humphry Ward (1880) 3:596-600.
15.	1882  Margaret Oliphant, in The Literary History of England (1882) 2:293-94.
16.	1882  Epes Sargent, in Harper's Cyclopaedia of British and American Poetry (1882) 249-50.
17.	1896  George Saintsbury, in History of Nineteenth-Century Literature (1896) 13.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for William Blake:

1.	1812  Stephen Jones, in Biographia Dramatica; or, A Companion to the Playhouse (1812) 1:770.
2.	1816  Anonymous, in Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816) 29.
3.	1827  Anonymous, Obituary in Literary Gazette (18 August 1827) 540-41.
4.	1829  Allan Cunningham, in Lives of the most eminent British Painters (1829-33; 1879) 1:392-427.
5.	1832  William Clarke and Robert Shelton Mackenzie, in The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most eminent Persons who have flourished in Great Britain (1832-34) 4:113-15.
6.	1876  Robert Carruthers, in Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature, 3rd ed. (1876; 1879) 5:122-23.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1825  William Wordsworth:   William Blake, 10 December 1825; in Henry Crabb Robinson, Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence (1870; 1872) 2:9.