Blake Books

This is the most insightful and best means you could ever read to get into and really start to understand the poems and art of William Blake. Why this book is still not in print is beyond me. It was first written and published in I think 1924. Even though it was written over 80 years ago, it does not read like it is an ancient hard to digest read. Foster Damon was a great writer and his work reads as if it was written today and not so long ago. What's good about this book is that Damon breaks down each of Blake's work's and opens up the characters and symbolism. Instead of being put off by the sometimes overwhelming imagery Blake uses, Damon gives us the "End of a golden string", and with it one can start to understand and make sense of Blake and his work. Damon is not a dry bone Scholar or academic. He comes at Blake with an appreciation of Blake's otherworldliness and more hidden ideas. Damon had an interest in mysticism and was also a established poet in his day. He was also an academic at Brown University. So if anyone could gain insight into Blake he was the man.
One idea that Damon prize's from Blake made me nearly fall of the chair when I read it. Not because it, these days, is so hidden or unknown, but this was written in 1924 when these things were not made so explicit. One only has to think of Aleister Crowley or Austin Osman Spare and how they hid in their works ideas and beliefs that in society would have invited great criticism and censor. Damon bravely links the idea of Blake's Mysticism and sexual occultism as being the leaping board to inspired states of mind from which Blake tapped into and created his great poetry and art. I found this book in a second hand book store. Reading this book along with Thames & Hudson's complete illuminated books on Blake and you will have opened the door to the world of Blake and his very Gnostic ideas and beliefs. This book is expensive and I think it should be republished. There is nothing better available to really get an in-depth understanding of Blake.

I can't say enough great things about this deck. It is a revolutionary consideration of Blake's work, taking it out of the purely academic and intellectual level and placing it squarely where Blake's passion lay--the imaginal realm. I ordered this directly from the author, since it is not easy to obtain. Wonderful artwork, thoughtful interpretations. An amazing and transformative way to approach one of the West's great mystics.

I have been trying to understand Blake for four years now. My understanding was that Frye obsessed on Blake for a decade before he felt satisfied with an intial understanding of the poet's vision. I am an amateur Blake enthusiast and as such what proved to be quite frustrating is the consignment of Blake to a very small circle of professionals who converse only amongst themselves it seems having no interest in outsiders. The dilemma I faced was that of being absolutely hooked on Blake's vision, at least the small glimpses I could garner, but being hopelessly lost within the 'prophecies.'

What I desperately needed, having exhausted the Michigan interlibrary loan system, was literally a line by line analysis of Blake's first epic, The Four Zoas. And of course I realized immediately that such a labor of love could not actually exist for who would could have the impossible combination of the requisite knowledge of the insider professional and yet the compassion for the amateurish outsider in need. I was blown away to discover that what I desparately needed was not only provided but for free and on the internet. Dr. Whitmarsh-Knight was a bit of a God-send to me and proved a most excellent guide.

In addition to Frye (Fearful Symmetry) and Bloom (Blake's Apocalypse) and possibly Lincoln (Spiritual History), I would place Whitmarsh-Knight's work as the best of the best of the Blake criticism available. One can't skim through Jerusalem (!!!), but I have purchased this volume and read through it twice to get a view of the 'mountain' and assess how hard the ascent will really be. If anything it appears to surpass the excellence of W-K's previous labors on Vala/Four Zoas. I am still plodding my way through the highlands of the Four Zoas and Milton but with the publication of Jerusalem Explained there is the very real possiblity that Blake's great work might have found its ideal interpreter at last.

I give this work my highest rating. If there are any other Amateur Blake Enthusiasts out there searching desperately for guidance I heartily encourage you to seek out this work for I feel you will find it of great practical use. Not of course to believe it as the only interpretation but to undergo the process of reading it as it should be read....line by line...savoring it and puzzling over it. It is intellectual combat at its finest.

This is a great book for understanding many of William Blake's more obscure references. If A.D. Nuttall had read this, he might have written a better book. The book compares numerous portions of Blake's writings to Nag Hammadi scripts that were recovered. Blake had no way of knowing anything about them, yet his overall thought coincides remarkably with them. Hence the title has "recreation", he manages to do a remarkable job with little source material to work with.

This book is very easy to read, which is a bit strange. Given that the subject matter is probably of more interest to the specialist rather than the layman, unless Blake has recieved a sudden popularity boost, the fact that Sorenson can keep from going off on tangets like Nuttall is pretty amazing. His discussion of Gnosticism is also clear-cut, he doesn't get off track discussing anything unrelated to the subject matter.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand Blake's poetry and writings, or even as an introduction to Gnosticism for those who might not be interested otherwise.

Surpisingly--for a guy who now owns a Blake calendar--I am not that big of a fan of William Blake. I like some of his poetry but often as not I find him strangely both too willfully obtuse in his verse and too much a child of the enlightenment for me not to gag over some of the stuff he says in his poems.

I sure like his pictures though.

And it's been a long sad year for me calendar-wise.

You see, the two years prior to 2005, I had two brilliant calendars. One was a collention of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. The next year was probably my favorite. We had a Maxfield Parrish calendar.

This year though, we have been suffering through a calendar of "Coots"--grotesque charicatures of old men behaving poorly. We bought it because we came to our calendar purchasing late in the game and on a tight budget. NEVER AGAIN!!!

This year, I bought our calendar in October. There will be no repeat of the Coots fiasco.

I'm actually pretty stoked about getting the visual works of Senor Blake up on the wall (the back of my bedroom door actually). This calendar is beautiful. Perhaps its class will wash away some of the Coots calendar's white trash mojo.

Only time will tell.

The first thing I'm doing on New Year's Eve--after I kiss the missus and send the kids off to bed--is to throw the Coots in the trash and put this thing in its righful place.

Happy New Year!!!

An indispenasable book for those interested in the latest research
on William Blake's techniques as an artist.

I read this book expecting to see the same information on Prince William that every other book has printed since that boy was born. But I was wrong. The thing that makes this one stand apart from the rest is its portrayal of him. This is the first book I've read (and I've read quite a few) to show him for what he is: a young man trying to not only figure out who he is but also trying to accept WHAT he is as well, and where he will fit in to the world. It also offers a more realistic picture of what his relationship with his mother was like. I never really bought that whole she was the center of his universe story, and now I see why....it was never that realistic. It had to be more complicated then that. Any teenager will tell you that their relationship with their parents is one that's constantly blowing hot and cold....especially at the age he was when Diana died. I was always worried about how this boy was going to break out of his mother's shadow...especially because he looks so much like her. And, all things considered, he seems to finally be coming into his own. It'll be interesting to see what happens next.

that celebrates flying, hard work, and family. A cast of kooky characters will entertain the reader and bring smiles while the wealth of scientific information will have the reader reaching for an encyclopedia. The young reader should have above average or excellent reading skills and a developing appreciation of science.

This is a volume in the series, with Saul Bellow as general editor, "Chicago in Fiction". For those who are lovers of both the City of Chicago and good literature, this is a definite read. Other titles in the series include: George Ade, ARTIE and PINK MARSH; Frank Harris, THE BOMB; Ben Hecht, ERIK DORN; Sherwood Anderson, WINDY McPHERSON'S SON; and Ring Lardner, GULLIBLE'S TRAVELS, ETC: Five FIVE STORIES.

This is a fantastic collection of poems, short stories, and essays by some truly gifted young people. While the talent exhibited in this book is raw, it is by no means any less potent--indeed, in reading this book, one feels that one is at the creation, witnessing the debut work of some singularly gifted voices.

I highly, highly recommend this book.