born - 28 November 1757, Soho, London
died - 12 August 1827, Charing Cross, London
Publications
The Life of William Blake, edited by Alexander Gilchrist, published 1863 (533 pp., London: John Lane The Bodley Head) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries View Online
The Poetical Works of William Blake: a new and verbatim text from the manuscript engraved and letterpress originals, , edited by John Sampson, published 1905 (xxxvi + 384 pp., Oxford: Oxford University Press) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries
The Poetical Works of William Blake, Vol. I, by Edwin J. Ellis, published 1906 (551 pp., London: Chatto & Windus) View Online
The Poetical Works of William Blake, Vol. II, by Edwin J. Ellis, published 1906 (492 pp., London: Chatto & Windus) View Online
William Blake, by Arthur Symons, published 1907 (433 pp., New York: K. P. Dutton & Co.) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries View Online
William Blake, by Basil de Selincourt, published 1909 (London: Duckworth & Co.) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries View Online
William Blake, by Osbert Burdett, published 1926 (198 pp., London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd.) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries View Online
Abstract:A major figure of the Romantic Movement, the British artist William Blake (1757-1827) was at once a painter, designer, engraver and poet. He devoted himself to the illustration of his literary works, and his texts developed following the lines of his engravings and fantastic drawings, becoming veritable illuminated manuscripts. Inspired by biblical and prophetical themes (Proverbs of Hell, The Everlasting Gospel and The Gates of Paradise), Blake's art subtly combines the modernity of his time and of the Romantic Revolution with the classicism of the themes that he explored. Gifted with unequalled imagination and originality, the artist played with the diversity of his media in order to better externalise the demons that haunted him, as well as to plunge the viewer or reader into a profound melancholy. In this monograph, Osbert Burdett sheds light on the art and life of this extraordinary artist.
The Life of William Blake, by Mona Wilson, published 1927 (397 pp., London: The Nonesuch Press) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries
William Blake in Sussex, by Kenneth Povey, published 1927 in Sussex County Magazine (vol. I no. 9, article, pp.386-390) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2303][Lib 8326] & The Keep [LIB/500137]
William Blake: Masters of Modern Art, by Philippe Soupault translated by J. Lewis May, published 1928 (61 pp. + 40 plates, London: John Lane) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries
The Case of Rex v Blake, by Kenneth Povey, published 1929 in Sussex County Magazine (vol. III no. 5, article, pp.314-317) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2307] & The Keep [LIB/500139]
Blake's Hayley: the life, works and friendships of William Hayley, by Morchard Bishop, published 1951 (372 pp., London: Gollancz) accessible at: & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries
Abstract:A biography of Willam Hayley and his friendships with William Blake, Cowper, Romney, Gibbon, Anna Seward, Wright of Derby, Lady Hamilton, Mrs Opie - almost every interesting figure who flourished during the last two decades of the eighteenth century and the first two of the ninteenth. "This book will attract anyone interested in Blake and the period which, retrospectively, he dominates: in the by-ways of literature: and, more generally, in the whole pageant of English life".
Blake's Visionary Universe, by John Beer, published 1969 (394 pp., Manchester University Press) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries
William Blake: His life and work, by Jack Lindsay, published 1978 (334 pp., Constable, ISBN-10: 0094620806 & ISBN-13: 9780094620803) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries
William Blake, by Morton D. Paley, published 23 February 1978 (192 pp., Oxford: Phaidon Press Ltd., ISBN-10: 0714817678 & ISBN-13: 9780714817675) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries
William Blake and Felpham (1800-1803), by Norah Owens, published 1986 (booklet, Bognor Regis Local History Society) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 9560]
William Blake: His Life, by James King, published 19 March 1992 (256 pp., Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN-10: 0297812467 & ISBN-13: 9780297812463) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries
Rex v Blake: Sussex Attitudes toward the Military and Blake's Trial for Sedition 1804, by G. E. Bentley, jnr, published 1993 (article) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 12116]
"Rex v Blake": Sussex attitudes toward the Military and Blake's trial for sedition in 1804, by G.E. Bentley, Jr., published 1993 in Huntington Library Quarterly (vol. 56, no. 1, article, pp.83-89)
William Blake, the poet and artist, was tried in Chichester.
Blake, by Peter Ackroyd, published 1995 (399 pp., Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd., ISBN-10: 1856192784 & ISBN-13: 9781856192781) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries
Gilchrist on Blake, by Alexander Gilchrist and edited by Richard Holmes, published 9 January 2006 (320 pp., HarperCollins, ISBN-10: 0007111711 & ISBN-13: 9780007111718) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries
Abstract:Part of a radical new 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.
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.
The butcher Blakes of Littlehampton, by Linda Jackson, published September 2007 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 17 no. 7, article, pp.328-329) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/508991] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.
Preview:Charles Blake was born 1791/2, married Sarah Burcher in 1823 at Lyminster and they had eleven children.
"A fabricated perjury": The [mis]trial of William Blake, by Mark Crosby, published March 2009 in Huntington Library Quarterly (vol. 72, no. 1, article, pp.29-47)
William Blake, the poet and artist, was tried in Chichester for sedition in 1804.
William Blake, by James Fenton, published 5 August 2010 (128 pp., Faber & Faber, ISBN-10: 0571236030 & ISBN-13: 9780571236039) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries
William Blake and Felpham (1800-1803), by Norah Owens, published 1 February 2012 (2nd revised edition, 40 pp., Bognor Regis Local History Society, ISBN-10: 0956647030 & ISBN-13: 9780956647030)