116 watercolors illustrate 13 best-loved poems by Thomas Gray, including "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" and "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat." First inexpensive full-color reproduction, with complete text of poems.
Blake Books Supplement is a continuation of Blake Books (1977), a bibliographical record of publications covering all aspects of William Blake's life and work - his writings, drawings, and engravings - and works of criticism on them. Most of the information in the Supplement was published inthe period 1972-1992, but there are items newly recorded here which appeared as early as the 1790s. The mass of new material is enormous - the last 20 years have produced almost as many items for inclusion as the preceding 200 years covered in the original Blake Books. Some of the most important discoveries concern newly identified writings and engravings by Blake himself. The work is organizedlike Blake Books, enabling the two volumes to be used side by side.
William Blake's illuminated poems challenge their readers to participate fully in a highly interactive process of reading. The complex interaction of their verbal and visual texts forces the involved reader to assume greater responsibility than usual for formulating meaning. This book examines some of the ways in which Blake's illuminated poems subvert the customary authority of texts and force readers to reassess both their expectations about reading and their customary responses to words and visual images alike.