Author: Alexander Gilchrist (title page) of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-law Author of The Life of William Etty, R.A.
Title: Life of William Blake with Selections from his poems and other writings
Publication Information: London: Macmillan and Co 1880
Call #: PR4146 .G5 v. 1
Book Size: 23.3 cm (H); 16 cm (l); 4.3 cm (spine)
Cover: Blue cloth with gilt embossing - note title on the top of the front cover ("Life and Works of William Blake") graphic of tars, flowers with fairies overhanging a lounging pair (who seem to be laying inside a flower) - all gilt; gilt perimeter; plain blue back cover; spine: title, angel with arms and wings uplifted; Gilchrist towards the bottom of the spine - all gilt.
Inside Book Covers: plain paper
Paper Edges: uneven, not gilded
Illustrations: opposite title page - a portrait of Blake, facsimile of a portrait of Blake painted from the life by John Linnell, 1827, engraved by C.H. Jeens. Table of illustrations included (listing "drawn by" and "engraved by" as appropriate).
Comments:
- Note that the title page states, "A New and Enlarged Edition Illustrated from Blake's Own Works with Additional Letters and a Memoir of the Author. In Two Volumes"
- Preface to the First Edition by Anne Gilchrist May 15 th, 1863, Brookbank, near Hastemere
- Preface to Second Edition by Anne Gilchrist Keats Corner, Well Road, Hampstead Oct. 10 1880
- Contents to Vol. I mostly biography, chapters with numbers and titles.
- Note: "The design on the cover is adapted by Mr. Frederic J. Shields, from a rough sketch in Blake's MS Note-Book, for which a picture was exhibited some years ago at Manchester, but did not find it way to the Burlington Fine Art Club Exhibition of Blake's works. The Angelic figure on the back of the volume is from one of the designs to Young's Night Thoughts."
Pedagogical Uses/Notes:
- 19th-Century British Text Production
- Canon Formation
- Illustration
- Editions
