The books in this section are usually hardcover and in decent condition, though we'll sometimes offer hard-to-find books in lesser condition at a reduced price. Though we often put images of the book with their original dust jackets, the copies here won't always (or even often) have them. If that is important to you, please call ahead or say so in the order comments!
"Don't mind him. He's only the madman who painted the ghost of a flea," a young student of the Royal Academy's antique class said when Blake had departed after talking to the group. "Madman—perhaps. Madman and genius—who will be remembered long, long after all of us are forgotten," their teacher said prophetically.
But James Daugherty would have understood Blake and his dreams. He writes of him as if they had been lifelong friends. He tells of the childhood, steeped in Biblical lore and affected by visions so graphic he could describe the most minute details; how young Blake haunted Westminster Abbey, drinking in the beauty of the stained-glass windows, the sculptured forms, and making careful drawings of Gothic carvings and architectural details; and how he later worked entirely from his colorful imagination, saying, "Any fool can copy nature."
Liberal quotations from Blake's poetry show clearly the interrelation of the verse and the engravings he made to illustrate them. Blake illustrated many works not his own and, though living always on the verge of poverty, he was appreciated by the discerning of his time and enjoyed a happy home life with his own family and his devoted wife Kate.
For the twenty-one drawings for the Book of Job reproduced here, Mr. Daugherty has written an interpretation and appreciation as an artist sees them.
—from the dust jacket
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