Publications

The William Blake Archive is pleased to announce the publication of a digital edition of To the Public, dated “October 10, 1793.” It first came to light in Gilchrist’s Life of Blake, 1863, where it was introduced with a brief heading that described “a characteristic Prospectus issued by Blake.” It had been transcribed from an “original…in engraved writing printed in blue on a single leaf about 11 x 7 ½ inches…obtained only at the last moment” from a “Mr. Frost”-perhaps William Edward Frost, a painter, member of the Royal Academy, and sometime collector of engravings by Blake’s friend Thomas Stothard (Bentley, Blake Books Supplement, page 142). Like several of Blake’s letters, then, his 1793 prospectus is known only from the transcription of unknowable accuracy from Gilchrist’s biography.

The William Blake Archive is pleased to announce the publication of nineteen separate prints designed and etched or engraved by Blake. The original works are housed in seven collections, including the Bodleian Library, British Museum, Robert N. Essick collection, Fitzwilliam Museum, Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and National Gallery of Art, Washington. These separate prints join two others, Deaths Door and George Cumberland’s Card, and four series of prints, all previously published, to complete this important category of Blake’s endeavors as a printmaker.

The William Blake Archive is pleased to announce the publication of digital editions of For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise Copies B, F, and K. They join Copy D of For Children: The Gates of Paradise and Copy D of For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise—the revised and augmented version of For Children—already available in the Archive. The Archive is also publishing color printed impressions of Plates 1 and 7 of Visions of the Daughters of Albion.

The William Blake Archive is pleased to announce the republication of our Blake Biography and essay on Illuminated Printing as digital exhibitions, an ideal form for such extensively illustrated works. They join our recently published first installment in this new wing, the multi-gallery presentation of Blake’s painting and engraving of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury pilgrims. They can be accessed through our About Blake section or Archive Exhibitions, lower left and upper right, respectively, on the Archive’s home page. 

The William Blake Archive is pleased to announce the publication of digital editions of Blake’s receipts.

The William Blake Archive is pleased to announce the opening of a new wing of the Archive: a digital exhibition space that allows for curated presentations of selected works and/or special topics dealing with Blake’s oeuvre. Archive Exhibitions can be accessed through the drop-down at the upper right of the Archive’s home page. 

The William Blake Archive is pleased to announce the publication of digital editions of Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion Copy A, from the British Museum, and Copy I, from the Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress. In addition to these two copies, the Archive is publishing thirty-one miscellaneous impressions of Jerusalem.

The William Blake Archive is pleased to announce the publication of a digital edition of forty-three pencil drawings produced by Blake during his first decade as an independent artist, 1779-1790.

The William Blake Archive is pleased to announce the publication of a digital edition of Blake’s Notebook, based on fresh digital photography from the British Library and presented in Preview mode—with enlargements and basic bibliographical information but without transcriptions. Usually works in Preview mode lack illustration descriptions as well, but in this case the minutely detailed descriptions for each illustration in the Notebook are available and fully searchable.