Life of William Blake, "Pictor Ignotus." With Selections from his Poems and Other Writings

[Blake, William]; Alexander Gilchrist; Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Published by Macmillan and Co, London, 1863

About this Item

First edition, first printing. xiv, [2], 389, [1]; viii, 268 pp. Additional 38 photolithographic plates reproducing Blake's engravings bound in at rear of second volume. Bound in publisher's maroon pebbled cloth with decorative gilt stamping to front boards and lettering to spines. Complete in two volumes. Near Fine with fading and slanting to spines, light rubbing to extremities, and slight bumping to corners. Front hinges starting, front joints starting at head of spine, L-shaped split to top of rear joint of Volume I advancing across the spine panel, and Volume II binding exposed at page 268. The binding by Burn & Co. (their ticket to Volume II back pastedown) is an unusually attractive example of High Victorian design, and the gilt remains bright against the maroon cloth. Alexander Gilchrist's biography and selected works of William Blake established Blake's place in the Western canon and remains a standard reference work. The artist and poet, a peripheral figure at the time of his death in 1827, was taken up by the pre-Raphaelites, several of whom completed the second volume of Gilchrist's work after he died suddenly of a fever. Chief among the secondary authors was Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who had purchased Blake's annotated sketchbook at the age of nineteen and added his own pages. An important work with a powerful influence on the art and literature of the late 19th century.

Seller Inventory # 140947684

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Life of William Blake, "Pictor Ignotus." With Selections from his Poems and Other Writings
• Publisher: Macmillan and Co, London
• Publication Date: 1863
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Near Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Art
  • Literature
  • Literature Before 1900
  • Poetry