William Blake
By Kenneth Lin

William Blake was born in 1757 on Broad Street, the third son of a London hosier. And aside from a brief sojourn in West Sussex, Blake spent most of his life in London, a city that he has referred to as the "nightmare" London, as well as the "New Jerusalem." As the son of a hosier, he was brought up in a poor household, which prepared him for the relative poverty that he would live in for the rest of his life. Moreover, Blake received very little formal school which further highlights the profundity of his meticulous readings of the Ancient Classics, Milton, and the Bible. Blake's prevalent visions of the spirit world were precipitated by the death of his brother, Robert, from consumption at age 20, whereupon Blake noted that he saw his sibling's soul "ascend heavenward clapping its hands for joy." These visions pervaded much of Blake's work, who professed to often speaking with apparitions, angels, devils, and spirits. The first expression of this mysticism appears in Songs of Innocence (1789) and Book of Thea (1789), which explores the constant presence and power of divine love even in the midst of evil. ARer his marriage to Catherine Boucher in 1782, in addition to poetry, Blake soon added engraving and artistry to his repertoire. Between 1789 and 1800, Blake became extremely prolific in his writings, composing such works as: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-1793), The French Revolution (1791), America: a Prophecy (1793), Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793), The Book of Urizen (1794), The Songs of Experience (1793-4), Europe: a Prophecy (1794), The Book of Los (1795), The Four Zoas (1794-1804). Writing in a time of youthful rebellion against the establishment (e.g. the American and French revolutions), Blake saw himself as a radical and a libertarian. Towards the end of his life, Blake produced the extraordinary engravings Milton and Jerusalem, as well as his famous illustrations of Dante and the Book of Job. Blake died in 1827. gourmet S W.\