Book Description

A Blake Bibliography was first published in 1964. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. The aim of this book is to list every reference to William Blake published between 1757 and 1863 and every criticism and edition of his works from the beginning to the present. Partly because of the deluge of scholarship in the last forty years, it includes perhaps twice as many titles as Sir Geoffrey Keynes's great bibliography of 1921. An introductory essay on the history of Blake scholarship puts the most significant works into perspective, indicates the best work that has been done, and points to some neglected areas. In addition, all the most important references and many of the less significant ones are briefly annotated as to subject and value. Because many of the works are difficult to locate, specimen copies of all works published before 1831 have been traced to specific libraries. Each of Blake's manuscripts is also traced to its present owner. Two areas which have received relatively novel attention are early references to Blake (before 1863) and important sale and exhibition catalogues of his works. In both areas there are significant number of important entries which have not been noticed before by Blake scholars. The section on Blake's engravings for commercial works receives especially detailed treatment. A few of the titles listed here have not been described previously in connection with Blake.