William Blake was born in 1757, the third son of a London hosier. Blake lived in or near to London, a city which dominates much of his work, whether as the nightmare 'London' of the Songs of Experience, or the London which Blake saw as the 'New Jerusalem', the kingdom of God on earth. As the son of a hosier, a generally lower middle class occupation in late eighteenth century London, he was brought up in a poor household, a preparation for the relative poverty inwhich he would live for most of his life. He also received little formal schooling, which is allthe more remarkable given both the depth and range of his reading of the Bible, of Miltonand Greek and Latin classic literature, evident throughout his work. His intellectual andpsychological growth, however, was dominated by the influence of his brother, Robert, whodied of consumption at the age of 20. Blake, witnessing his brother's death, remarked thathe saw his brother's soul "ascend heavenward clapping its hands for joy", and continued,from that point on, to feel Robert's inspirational influence over his work. Blake, who hadalready testified to seeing visions - (at the age of ten he tried to convince his father that hehad seen hosts of angels in a tree in Peckham Rye) - retained this strong faith in the spiritworld throughout his life, affirming that he often spoke with the apparitions, angels, devilsand spirits which populate his work. It was this psychical interest which also brought him intocontact with that strange world of late eighteenth century London psychics, visionaries, andvarious other Christian and progressive free-thinking writers and intellectuals such asEmanuel Swedenborg. Blake's subsequent career as an artist was inaugurated by his apprenticeship, in 1771, toJames Basire, a noted Engraver, after which he enrolled as a student at the Royal Academy(1797), an Academy then dominated by the influence of its Principal, Sir Joshua Reynolds.From 1779 he was employed a...
