Alexander Gilchrist

Life of William Blake Alexander Gilchrist

Publisher Marketing: This classic biography - originally published in 1863 - was the first full-length study of Blake. The author offers thoughtful critical commentary on the poets works, from his childhood poetry to such later masterpieces as "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, The Book of Urizen, Inventions to the Book of Job" and many more. The book covers the facts of Blake's life: his childhood, years as an engraver's apprentice and student life, relationships with patrons and employers, his trial for treason, his "madness, " neglect by the public, declining health and ultimately death. Publisher Marketing: Life of William Blake By AlexanderGilchrist Despite the flow of books on William Blake, the first full-length life, published in 1863, remains essential to those who would understand one of the greatest of Englishmen, for the author, Alexander Gilchrist, had one advantage which has been denied to his successors - he could still find people who had known Blake, in his room looking out over the Thames or on Hampstead Heath, and who could report later, in the words of George Richmond: "I felt like I was walking on air, and as if I had been talking to the Prophet Isaiah." These personal reminiscences give the book an actuality which few of the later ones have touched. The second and best edition of Gilchrist's biography, upon which this edition is based, originally appeared in 1880, and has long been out of print and obtainable only at a price which placed it out of the reach of the general reader and ordinary student. Modern research, which has done so much to throw light on certain aspects of the life of William Blake, has also shown that Gilchrist was sometimes in error in the facts he recorded these have been corrected and, for the benefit of the student, the editor has supplied a section of notes amplifying the text (including some information not previously published) which should also act as a guide to those who wish to proceed further. The many quotations have been brought into line with the standard text of Blake's writings edited by Mr. Geoffrey Keynes, and the book is illustrated with Blake's woodcuts to Virgil, executed in 1821, which are generally accounted among his finest works. Altogether this new edition of the standard Life of Blake should prove a fitting testament to the great man and his work.