Description
Very Good+ dust jacket, illustrated, tiny tear at head of spine. Near Fine binding is rust colored cloth over boards, line illustration on front, brown lettering on spine. Illustrated end papers, small stain at upper right corner on front free end paper. The binding is tight and pages are clean. The book measures 9.1″ tall x 6.3″ wide.
About the book (from the dust jacket)
“Don’t mind him. He’s only the mad man who painted the ghost of a flea,” a young student of the Royal Academy’s antique class said when Blake had departed after talking with 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.
About the author (from the dust jacket)
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.
