Blake, William.
A Letter from William Blake [to Thomas Butts, dated Jany. 10, 1802].
- $275
Northampton (MA): Gehenna Press, 1964. Slim 12mo, [16]pp. With 6 wood-engravings, 4 printed on Japan tissue, all being versions of Blake's face. Original marbled wrappers, printed label on upper cover. Backstrip somewhat worn, and chipped, with fading and shelfwear to edges and tips. § Limited to 500 copies (but surely fewer than that) this copy unnumbered. There were also 25 de luxe copies with an extra suite of the plates. Only two copies are recorded as having sold in the last 30 years and this is the only copy we have ever seen. The letter is classic Blake to his great patron: "I hear a voice you cannot hear, that says I must not stay, I see a hand you cannot see, that beckons me away. Naked we came here, naked of Natural things, & naked we shall return; but while clothed with the Divine Mercy, we are richly clothed in Spiritual & suffer all the rest gladly."Bentley, Blake Books, 94.
More from John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller
William Blake.
Tate Publishing, 2019. 4to, 26.9 x 22.8 cm, 219 pp. With 200 color illustrations. Teal cloth with inset illustration to upper cover. § Step into the world of William Blake with this richly illustrated hardback catalogue created to accompany the William Blake exhibition at Tate Britain.This book presents Blake as a visual artist for the twenty-first century, celebrating the first major survey of William Blake's work to be held since 2000. Beginning with a comprehensive overview of his work as a printmaker, poet and painter this beautiful exhibition catalogue foregrounds his relationship with the art world of his time and tells the story behind some of the most iconic images in the history of British art. The chronological narrative and biographical focus helps bring together the life and the historical forces at work, and provides a framework for presenting scholarship with an emphatically art historical (rather than literary) focus.The catalogue contains rich and exciting new research and newly commissioned texts detailing Blake's life and work, including an original piece by British writer Alan Moore.William Blake (1757 ? 1827) was an English poet and artist. He had a career in etching, engraving and illustration although he received little recognition in his lifetime. Since his death his heroic story has inspired and invigorated generations, his personal struggles, technical innovation, vision and political commitment, are perhaps never more pertinent.Martin Myrone is Lead Curator, pre-1800 British Art at Tate. Songs of Innocence. Color Facsimile of the First Issue with 31 Color Plates. [with] Songs of Experience. Facsimile Reproduction with 26 Plates in Full Color.
Blake, William. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1971. 2 vols. 12mo, 55pp. 31 plates and 12mo, 42 pp. 26 plates. Illustrated wrappers. Light shelf wear. Very good. § First Dover edition. Pleasant little editions, with brief forewords and the text in letterpress at the end. Bentley, BB, 168.- $10
- $10
A Briefe And Accurate Treatise Of Tobacco; In Which, The Immoderate, Irregular, & Unreasonable Use Thereof Is Reprehended, And The True Nature And Best Manner Of Using It, Perspicuously Demonstrated.
Venner, To[bias] San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1931. Slim large 4to, [1], 27, [1] pp., title in red and black. Quarter morocco and decorated paper boards, Backstrip partly perished and restored. Internally fine. § One of 200 copies printed at the Windsor Press by the Johnson Brothers. A very attractive book typographically, in a notoriously fragile binding. Magee 40, Arents IV 2867.- $75
- $75
William Blake.
Raine, Kathleen. London: Longmans Green for the British Council and the National Book League, [1951]. 8vo, 40 pp. Frontispiece portrait of Blake and four plates, illustrations in the text. Original printed wrappers, very good. § First edition of this study. Bentley, Blake Books, 2491: "not remarkable for accuracy." Kathleen Raine (1908-2003), was a mystical poet, scholar, and critic of Yeats, Coleridge, and Blake. "A visionary poet whose work probed the intersection of science and mysticism, Raine bridged elements of Jungian psychology and neo-Platonism in her work." (Poetry Foundation).- $15
- $15
Innocence.
Daimler, Harriet [pseud. Iris Owens]. Paris: The Olympia Press, 1957. 8vo, 172 pp. Original publisher's stiff green wrappers. A near fine copy with sharp corners and clean pages; light spotting to top text block edge. § Number 33 in the Traveller's Companion series, with "Francs 1.200", and "Francs 900" blacked out on lower cover. Iris Owens wrote five erotic novels in three years for Maurice Girodias's Olympia Press under the pseudonym of Harriet Daimler. ("Daimler struggles against her impossible tendency to write more explicitly than the courts will tolerate," Girodias wrote approvingly in the Olympia catalogue of 1957.) Owens later gave her pseudonym to the protagonist of the first of two books published under her own name. A dark and intriguing figure - no feminist but a survivor - her work has been reappraised since the reissue in 2010 of her novel "After Claude". Her papers are now at Columbia University. The Naked Lunch.
Burroughs, William. Paris: The Olympia Press, 1959. 8vo. Original publisher's stiff green wrappers, without the illustrated dust-jacket. A near fine copy with sharp corners and clean pages; moderate spotting to top text block edge and a small, faint stain on the lower wrapper. § First edition, first printing with original price "Francs 1.500" and "Not to be sold in U.S.A. or U.K." on the lower wrapper. Published in Paris as number 76 of the Olympia Press "Traveller's Companion" series, infamous then and renowned now for publishing erotic and avant-garde fiction that other English-language publishers could not touch. A defining novel of the Beat generation, the experimental structure and explicit descriptions of drug addiction and sadomasochism divided critics and outraged U.S. censors. The critic Richard Kostelanetz captured its grotesque greatness when he placed it "among the most horrifying and terrible books ever written", and "perhaps among the greatest literary works of our time." The Pleasure Thieves.
Daimler, Harriet and Henry Crannach [pseuds. Iris Owens and Marilyn Meeske] Paris: The Olympia Press, 1956. 8vo, 173, (3) pp. Original publisher's stiff green wrappers. A near fine copy with sharp corners and clean pages; light spotting to top text block edge and just a hint of shelfwear to the foot of the spine. § Number 32 in the Olympia Press Traveller's Companion series, with "Francs 900" on lower cover. A pornographic story of two male house burglars who share a women, co-authored by two American women novelists living in Paris. Marilyn Meeske wrote one other book for the Olympia Press (Flesh and Bone, 1957) and also served briefly as an associate editor before the press was shuttered due to censorship legal troubles in 1965. Iris Owens wrote four other erotic novels in three years for the Olympia Press, all under the pseudonym of Harriet Daimler. ("Daimler struggles against her impossible tendency to write more explicitly than the courts will tolerate," the editor Girodias wrote approvingly in the Olympia catalogue of 1957.) Owens later gave her pseudonym to the protagonist of the first of two books published under her own name. A dark and intriguing figure - no feminist but a survivor - her work has been reappraised since the reissue in 2010 of her novel "After Claude". Her papers are now at Columbia University. 2020 Vision: Nineteen Wood Engravers, One Collector, and the Artists Who Inspired Them.
[Design Binding by Dominic Riley]. Hamway, Nigel (compiled and introduced). Lawrence, Peter (editor). Randle, Patrick (preface). Whittington, UK: Nomad Letterpress and The Society of Wood Engravers, 2020. Folio, 325 x 250 mm, 100 pp., printed on Zerkall mould-made paper using Monotype Perpetua (Series 239) cast by Neil Winter at the Whittington Press in an addition of 340 copies. Numerous illustrations in black and white throughout. § § One of 30 copies numbered I-XXX with an extra suite of plates, this is copy XX, in a magnificent design binding by Dominic Riley.Published in 2020 to mark the Centenary of the Society of Wood Engravers. A year on press, this book links past with present, and provides a fitting tribute to the skills of the engravers and the part played by the Society in the history of wood engraving.For 2020 Vision, Nigel Hamway asked nineteen engravers to choose a major artistic influence, write an introduction, and create a new engraving which sits side-by-side in the book with an engraving or illustration by their 'inspirer'. This places the engravings of twentieth century greats ? John Farleigh, John Nash, Monica Poole, Geoffrey Wales, Gertrude Hermes et al. ? alongside today's artists and presents the viewer with a snapshot of the changing nature of the engravers' craft.Featured artists:- Leonard Baskin (1922?2000), George Minne (1969)- Thomas Bewick (1753?1828), The Fieldfare & detail from The Ring Ouzel. Reproduced from pages 116 & 122 of A History of British Birds (Newcastle, 1826 [6th edition]).- Neil Bousfield, The Waves (2019).- Simon Brett, Combined title-page and frontispiece for Amelia (1995).- Harry Brockway, Printing Severn Bore (2019).- Chris Daunt, TBC (2019).- Anne Desmet, Brooklyn Bridge: New Day (2015).- Andy English, Charmouth Beach (2019).- John Farleigh (1900?1965), Park Gate (1956).- Derrick Harris (1919?1960), Frontispiece to Tom Jones (1959).- Gertrude Hermes (1901?1983), Stonehenge (1959).- Gertrude Hermes (1901?1983), Yoke (1954).- Paul L Kershaw, Hackfall View II (2019).- John Lawrence, Scene from The Shepherd's Calendar (1978).- John Lawrence, Three engravings for Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy; The Subtle Knife (1997), Northern lights (1995), The Amber Spyglass (2000).- Peter Lawrence, New Quay (2019).- Simon Lawrence, Insert printed at his Fleece Press, 2019.- Miriam Macgregor, Thorne in August for Midwinter (2013).- Henry Moore (1898?1986), Figures, Sculptures (1931).- Robert Motherwell (1915?1991), In Black With Yellow Ochre (1963). Lithograph in two colours.- Paul Nash (1889-1946), Title-page for Places (1922), printed from reproduced artwork.- Sarah van Niekirk (1934?2018), Jacobs in Shropshire (TBC).- Sarah van Niekirk (1934?2018), Severn Bore (TBC).- Hilary Paynter, Inspired by Henry Moore (2019).- Howard Phipps, Eggardon Hill (2019).- Monica Poole (1921?2003), After the Storm (1988).- Monica Poole (1921?2003), Underwater (TBC).- Eric Ravilious (1903?1942), Downs in Winter (1935). Reproduction of watercolour and pencil painting.- Abigail Rorer, Robert Frost (2019).- Sue Scullard, Into the Woods (2019).- Yvonne Skargon (1931?2010), Boxford Garden (TBC).- Ian Stephens, Dipper on the river Conway (2004) & Swale Dipper (2019).- Reynolds Stone CBE (1909?1979), Bookplate for Edgar Wind, and Apostate Part VI (1926).- George Tute, Dandelion Field (1962).- Geri Waddington, The Little Barn (2019).- Edward Wadsworth (1889?1949), Turret ship in Dry Dock (1918).- Richard Wagener, Umbraculo Series #21 (2018).- Geoffrey Wales (1912?1990), The Waves (1969).
