William Blake was born on the 28th November 1757, on Broad Street in London. He was the third child out of seven. Two of his siblings died when they were in infancy. William attended school for short amount of time, so he could read and write, he was only ten years old. His mother, Catherine Wright Armitage Blake taught him from then at his home. His father was a hosier, he use to sell garments worn directly on the feet and legs. William started drawing Greek antiquities. He started to read on subjects of his choosing. In this time he started to learn poetry out of things he had been reading.
On the 4th August 1772, he became an engraver of great Queen Street, for seven years. At the end of this time, William was 21; he was going to become a professional engraver. On the 8th October 1779, William Blake became an exclusive student at the royal Academy, in old Somerset house. When he was at the academy there was a president elicited for their class, was Joshua Reynolds. Over time William started to hate this "Class President". One thing he hated about Joshua was that he liked oil paintings but William liked classical paintings. William became friends with lots of boys when he went to the Academy, they were called: John Flaxman, Thomas Stoddard and George Cumberland. This group of boys shared their opinions on most things.
William Blakes first Biographer was Alexander Gilchrist. This Biographer in June 1780 recorded William walking towards Basire's shops when a rampaging group of people swept him of his feet and stormed towards Padgate Prison, in London. The group attacked the prison gates with huge, heavy metal shovels and sharp miniature axes. The group eventually got the prisoners out of there pit. The biographer says this is when the very first police force was created.
[He met a lovely lady called Catherine Boucher in 1782, at the time William was recovering from a previous relationship, which ended when William asked they young lady would she marry him, and then she refused him. William Blake asked Catherine a simple question
"Do you take pity on me?"
She answered
"Yes"
He declared he loved her; he wasted no time and married her on the 18th August 1782, at St Marys Church, Battersea. William trained his new wife to become an engraver. This would provide William with a helper for his work.
William Blakes first collection of poems was prated around about 1783, this was after a tragic death of his father. William and his former assistant James Parker opened a fantastic printing shop in 1784.They started working with the popular publisher Joseph Johnson. Joseph's house was a place was the leading people meet. This is where in 1784 he published a poem called An Island in the moon. William Illustrated "original stories from real life" By Mary Wollstonecraft.
In 1789, he published songs of praise, also songs innocence and the experience showing the two contrary states of the human soul was published in the very same year. William also illustrated classical poems. His next piece of writing was called Heaven and Hell; this was written around the same time to.Amugost William writing his poetry, William earned some extra money by doing excellent, brilliant drawing lessons to his friend’s sons. Thomas Butts kept William out of the horrible povity for years.
William was not that famous then, he won a patronage Lady Caroline Lamb. After that he was finically better off in his life. His special engravings won suburb prizes and got praised by lots of authors and publishers. He was happy with the praise from all the authors and especially younger artists. His ordinary poetry was not recognised until after Coleridge became popular.
After several years of FAILING HEALTH, he uses to have terrible fits in 1824 on symptoms of gallstones. William died happy on the 12th August 1827 he sang to his wife saying he could see heaven.
