[BLAKE (William).] & GILCHRIST (Alexander).

Life of William Blake, with Selections from his Poems and other Writings. A New and Enlarged Edition Illustrated from Blake's own Works with additional Letters and a Memoir of the Author [by James Smetham].

Second [and best] edition. Illustrated throughout. Two volumes. 8vo. Original dark blue-green cloth, elaborately lettered and decorated in gilt. London, Macmillan and Co, 1880.

£1,250.00

As in the first edition of 1863, the preface here is by Gilchrist’s widow Anne. She details the additions, including the thirty-four letters from Blake to Hayley, which surfaced at auction in 1879, the two portraits by Frederic J. Shields and his help with the cover design, four new designs from blocks owned by Scribner’s, a newly discovered design to “Hamlet”, another plate from “Jerusalem”, the Phillips portrait of Blake engraved by Schiavonetti for Blair’s “Grave”, a view of “Blake’s Cottage at Felpham” and of his “Work Room and Death Room” in Fountain Court both drawn by Herbert H. Gilchrist; and the “Inventions to the Book of Job” which are “executed anew by the recently discovered photo-intaglio process”. Mrs. Gilchrist pays just tribute to Smetham’s introductory memoir: “Its fine qualities … 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”.

An excellent copy, just a hint of faint spotting to endpapers, with the usual heavy offsetting to half titles and versos of terminal leaves of both volumes, contents otherwise generally clean and unmarked, light shelf wear to extremities with only minor chipping to tips of spines.

Stock No.
255907