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“W illiam Blake is everything, a wonderful example of someone who crosses all boundaries,” said the author and critic Andrew Graham-Dixon, summing up the essence of the radical 18th-century English polymath known for the poem “Jerusalem,” which has morphed into England’s unofficial national anthem.
In front of a full audience at Sotheby’s London, in a recent talk moderated by the academic Shahidha Bari, Graham-Dixon joined John Higgs, the author of William Blake vs the World, and Selby Kiffer, Sotheby’s Senior Vice President of Books & Manuscripts, to discuss why Blake still resonates today, highlighting his magnum opus: Songs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul.
“This is a work of philosophy, a social commentary, a work of not just art but also literature.”
“This is a work of philosophy, a social commentary, a work of not just art but also literature,” said Graham-Dixon in the panel, published on Apple Podcasts. About 24 copies of Songs of Innocence and of Experience are thought to have been created by Blake between 1789-1794 and 1827. The so-called Tulk-Rothschild copy, which will be offered at Sotheby’s New York on 26 June 2024, is an outstanding combined issue of the two poetry cycles, comprising 54 etched plates.
The copy is the first to appear at auction since the Houghton-Garden Ltd. version in 1989, which achieved $1.3 million. Crucially the forthcoming sale is a great opportunity for Blake collectors and also institutions to acquire the piece and “at least reacquaint themselves with the book,” said Kiffer.
“Each one is a unique object merged from two books: Songs of Innocence, first published in 1789, and Songs of Experience, in 1794. Until his death in 1827 we think Blake produced 24 copies,” added Kiffer. “He printed them himself on a relief-printing process that he invented. Blake claimed to have learned this method from his deceased brother, who appeared to him in a vision. The coloring was done by Blake and his wife Catherine in wildly different palettes; this is a soft pastel palette, which is very beautiful.”
The volume stands out for several reasons – as a trailblazing example of an early art book but also as a key children’s book of the era. Readers need to draw back the curtain however. “The songs can be read on a simplistic level and could be read to a child before bedtime, but they’re much deeper than that. Blake felt something was lacking and he went on to write this complementary cycle, Songs of Experience,” said Kiffer.
“If you look too deeply into his work, you may not be the same afterwards.”
The Sotheby’s specialist emphasized how the different copies are all bespoke, stressing that the 54 plates appear in 34 different configurations. “This is a particularly significant copy because the very first typographic edition of Songs of Innocence and of Experience was set using this as a copy text.”
But the Rothschild Songs copy has another claim to fame. It was first owned by Blake’s friend and early patron Charles Augustus Tulk, who loaned the copy to the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1818. When he returned the work, Coleridge included a lengthy letter in which he ranked each of “Blake’s poesies” on a scale of five: “It gave me great pleasure”; “still greater”; “and greater still”; “in the highest degree”; and “in the lowest.” Most of the poems were rated very highly, said Kiffer. (“The Little Black Boy” was one of three poems to receive Coleridge’s highest honors; the letter will be offered for sale with the book.)
So what is Kiffer’s favorite poem? “One of the great joys looking through this book, and comparing it with reproductions and other copies, was discovering this page on ‘The Chimney Sweeper.’ This sweep has a radiant white face and ruddy cheeks; he’s at odds with the poem itself. I wonder what struck Blake or Catherine on that day, to provide this interpretation.” Graham-Dixon singled out meanwhile the poem “London,” which he said has “the force of revolution in it; it anticipates Charles Baudelaire’s flaneur by around 60 years [introduced in The Painter of Modern Life, 1863].”
Blake’s fame surged in the 1960s when the polymath – perceived as the ultimate maverick – became a counterculture icon. “He had his moments during that era when a generation looked at him and saw sexual liberation along with the importance of creative imagination. Allen Ginsberg had an epiphany reading him. There was Blake graffiti on buildings – Blake came up through the cracks at that time,” said John Higgs.
The poet’s influence continues to seep into the public consciousness, even permeating modern technology (his poetry pops up for instance in a 2019 video game The Devil May Cry 5, observed Higgs). The otherworldly aspect of Blake’s canon also appeals – and unsettles. “If you look too deeply into his work, you may not be the same afterwards,” Higgs concluded. “Only now are people catching up with him; the more we learn about him, the more he makes sense.”
