William Blake
1 book in the library
William Blake (1757–1827) was an English poet, painter and printmaker, born in Soho, London, the son of a hosier. He had little formal schooling, was apprenticed to an engraver at fourteen and later studied at the Royal Academy schools. In 1782 he married Catherine Boucher, who worked beside him for the rest of his life. He developed his own method of relief etching, which he called illuminated printing, to produce books of hand-coloured text and images, among them Songs of Innocence (1789), The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Songs of Experience (1794) and the long prophetic books Milton and Jerusalem. The preface to Milton contains the lines now sung as the hymn “Jerusalem”. Visionary and radical, he lived mostly in poverty and obscurity, and in 1804 was tried for sedition and acquitted. His late works include engravings for the Book of Job and illustrations to Dante. He died in London in 1827, and his reputation grew greatly after his death.
