PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. IN I 878 thirty-four autograph
letters from William Blake to Hayley were sold by Messrs. Sotheby
and Wilkinson. Thanks to the courtesy of the gentlemen into whose
possession a large proportion of the letters ultimately passed,
-Mr. Frederick Locker and Mr. Alexander Macmillan, -these, and a
few more obtained from the same source one by the British Museum
and the others by Mr. Kirby, are now incorporated in the Biography,
and carry on the narrative of Blakes life during the two years
immediately succeeding his return from Felpham. In the same way the
letters to Mr. Butts, generously placed in my hands by his
grandson, Captain Butts, just before the appearance of the first
edition, and there printed in Vol. II., are now put in their place,
making the Felpham chapters mainly autobiographical. The two
friends whose labour of love wrought so largely to give
completeness to the first issue of this book have revised and,
especiaIly in the case of the Annotated Catalogue, brought up to
date their work whilst another friend, Mr. Fredcric J. Shields, out
of the same warmth of admiration for Blakes genius and character,
has freely rendered precious service with pen and pencil further to
enrich the new edition. He has supplied a vigorous translation into
words of the more pregnant among the large and important series of
Designs by Blake to Youngs Nzkht Tho bgAt, which has lately come to
light, and is now in the pos session of Mr. Bain, of the
Haymarket-the series of which a very small portion only was
engraved by BTake for Edwardss edition of I 797. Mr. Shields has
also drawn, from original pencil sketches by Blake, two new
portraits of Mrs. BIake and the head of BIalceby himself, which was
somewhat roughly given in the first edition. Lastly, he has adapted
a fairy design of Blakes own to the cover, From America has come
help in the shape of some admirable examples of engravers work,
four of which are from designs by Bfake never before reproduced,
and two are from the G ave. These were executed to illustrate an
article on Blake, by Mr, Horace Scudder, in Sc dnws Wagazzize J,
une, 1880 and to the courtesy of Messrs. Scribner Co., of New York,
we are indebted for the use of the blocks. Of additional
illustrations there remain to be specified a newly discovered
design to Nanzdet from a copy of the Second Folio Shakespeare
containing also several other designs by Blake, and now in
possession of Mr. Macmillan another plate from the e usa c m t he
Phillips portrait of Blake, which Sdliavonetti engraved for Blairs
Grave a view of BInRes Cottage at Fe ham and of his Work Room and
Death Room in Fountain Court, both drawn by Herbert H. Gilchrist
and, last not least, the I ventiuns to the Book of 706 executed
anew by the recently discovered photo-intaglio process, In Vol. 11.
will also now be found an Essay on BZake, by James Smetham,
republished by per mission from the London Quarter Rmi w. Its fine
qualities and its inaccessibility will, I feel assured, make it
welcome here as an important accession to t a work which aims to
gather to a focus all the light that can be shed on Blake znd on
the creations of his genius. KEATS CORYER, WELL ROAD, HAMPSTEAD,
act. 10, 1880...
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