The Life of William Blake

by Alexander Gilchrist

Excerpt from The Life of William Blake
Blake, by James Smetham, republished (by per mission) from' the London Quarterly Review. Its fine qualities and its inaccessibility will, I feel assured, make it welcome here as an important accession to a work which aims to gather to a focus all the light that can be shed on Blake and on the creations of his genius.
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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Literary Criticism, Art, Poetry, Romanticism

504 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2006

Reviews

[Julie]

I am not sure I needed to read this because I had already read 100 other biographies and articles about Blake. I was doing an author portfolio on him and so many of my sources referenced this book and I have an obsessive personality, so I felt compelled to read every word ever written about William Blake and to chase down every cross reference. I don't actually like poetry very much, but I was intrigued by Blake's life and ideas and I have been so immersed in him for 10 weeks that he feels like family. This book kind of put him on the map way back when and called him out of obscurity and for that it has value. My portfolio is done (29 pages, phew!)and I will actually miss Mr. Blake. I feel quite connected to his life and work at this point. I imagine my friends and family will be happy to stop hearing about him.

[James]

Primarily written mid 19th century to familiarize readers with Blake and dispel rumors of his insanity, Gilchrist's carefully researched biography draws from interviews and correspondence to draw a vivid picture of Blake the man. Originally accompanied by an edition of Blake's poetry heavily edited by Dante Gabriel Rosetti.

[Suzanne Hess]

If you are already acquainted with The Complete Works of William Blake, This text along with William Blake by Kathleen Raine offers a complete study of the artist and visionary.

[Steve]

Not easy to read because of when it was written. Focuses more on his artistic/engraving work (which paid the bills) than on his literary work. He lived and died very modestly, with little recognition during his lifetime. Still one of my favorite creatives.

[Vivian Zenari]

Gilchrist doesn't have much to say about the poetry, which interested me most.

[Chris]

flawed, dated and responsible for many of the misconceptions in Blake Studies. Yet, indispensable.