Gilchrist on Blake

The Life of William Blake by Alexander Gilchrist

Richard Holmes

• Publisher: HarperPress
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9780007306572
• eBook ISBN:
  9780007362479
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Artist Biographies
• Index: Literature

LIVES THAT NEVER GROW OLD

Part of a radical series – edited by Richard Holmes – that recovers the great classical tradition of English biography. Gilchrist's 'The Life of William Blake' is a biographical masterpiece, still thrilling to read and vividly alive.

This was the first biography of William Blake ever written, at a time when the great visionary poet and painter was generally forgotten, ridiculed or dismissed as insane. Wonderfully vivid and outspoken (one chapter is entitled 'Mad or Not Mad'), it was based on revealing interviews with many of Blake's surviving friends.

Blake conversed with spirits, saw angels in trees, and sunbathed naked with his wife 'like Adam and Eve'. Gilchrist adds detailed descriptions of Blake's beliefs and working methods, an account of his trial for high treason and fascinating evocations of the places in London, Kent and Sussex where he lived. The book ultimately transformed and enhanced Blake's reputation.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Epigraph
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Select Chronology
• One Preliminary
• Two Childhood, 1757-71
• Three Engraver's Apprentice 1771-78 [ÆT. 14-21]
• Four A Boy's Poems 1768-77 [ÆT. 11-20]
• Five Student and Lover 1778-82 [ÆT. 21-25]
• Six Introduction to the Polite World 1782-84 [ÆT. 24-27]
• Seven Struggle and Sorrow 1782-87 [ÆT. 25-30]
• Eight Meditation: Notes on Lavater 1788 [ÆT. 30-31]
• Nine Poems of Manhood 1788-89 [ÆT. 31-32]
• Ten Books of Prophecy 1789-90 [ÆT. 32-33]
• Eleven Bookseller Johnson's 1791-92 [ÆT. 34-35]
• Twelve The Gates of Paradise, America, ETC. 1793 [ÆT. 36]
• Thirteen The Songs of Experience 1794 [ÆT. 37]
• Fourteen Productive Years 1794-95 [ÆT. 37-38]
• Fifteen At Work for the Publishers 1795-99 [ÆT. 38-42]
• Sixteen A New Life 1799-1800 [ÆT. 42-43]
• Seventeen Poet Hayley and Felpham 1800-1801 [ÆT. 43-44]
• Eighteen Working Hours 1801-3 [ÆT. 44-46]
• Nineteen Trial for High Treason 1803-4 [ÆT. 46-47]
• Twenty Adieu to Felpham 1804 [ÆT. 47]
• Twenty-One South Molton Street 1804 [ÆT. 47]
• Twenty-Two A Keen Employer 1805-7 [ÆT. 48-50]
• Twenty-Three Gleams of Patronage 1806-1808 [ÆT. 49-51]
• Twenty-Four The Designs to Blair 1804-8 [ÆT. 47-51]
• Twenty-Five Appeal to the Public 1808-10 [ÆT. 51-53]
• Twenty-Six Engraver Cromek 1807-1812 [ÆT. 50-55]
• Twenty-Seven Years of Deepening Neglect 1810-17 [ÆT. 53-60]
• Twenty-Eight John Varley and the Visionary Heads, 1818-20 [ÆT. 61-63.]
• Twenty-Nine Opinions: Notes on Reynolds 1820 [ÆT. 63]
• Thirty Designs to Phillips' Pastorals 1820-21 [AElig;T. 63-64]
• Thirty-One Fountain Court, 1821-25 [ÆT. 64-68]
• Thirty-Two Inventions to the Book of Job 1823-25 [ÆT. 66-68]
• Thirty-Three Hampstead; and Youthful Disciples, 1825-27 [Æt. 68-70]
• Thirty-Four Personal Details
• Thirty-Five Mad or Not Mad
• Thirty-Six Declining Health: Designs to Dante 1824-1827 [Æt 67-70]
• Thirty-Seven Last Days, 1827 [Æt. 69-70]
• Thirty-Eight Posthumous 1827-31
• Appendix
• Further Reading
• Index
• Classic Biographies By
• Copyright
• About the Publisher