The core of William Blake's vision, his greatness as one of the British Romantics, is most fully expressed in his Illuminated Books, masterworks of art and text intertwined and mutually enriching. In 1949 the William Blake Trust was founded to bring these rare, in some cases unique, works to a wider general audience through the publication of superbly produced facsimiles of each book. By the late 1980's these facsimiles had themselves become rare books. The Trust accordingly resolved to initiate a collected edition that would publish accurate reproductions of all the Illuminated Books to be accompanied by notes and commentaries by leading Blake scholars. Songs of Innocence and of Experience, one of the best known of the books, is now reproduced in paperback for the first time from the King's College, Cambridge copy--sometimes known as "Blake's own copy." The poems have been edited with introduction, notes, commentaries, and bibliography.

The core of William Blake's vision, his greatness as one of the British Romantics, is most fully expressed in his Illuminated Books, masterworks of art and text intertwined and mutually enriching. Made possible by recent advances in printing and reproduction technology, the publication of new editions of Jerusalem and Songs of Innocence and of Experience in 1991 was a major publishing event. Now these two volumes are followed by The Early Illuminated Books and Milton, A Poem. The books in both volumes are reproduced from the best available copies of Blake's originals and in faithfulness and accuracy match the acclaimed standards set by Jerusalem and Songs. These two volumes are uniform in format and binding with the first two volumes. The Early Illuminated Books comprises All Religions Are One and There Is No Natural Religion; Thel; Marriage of Heaven and Hell; and Visions of the Daughters of Albion. Milton, A Poem, second only to Jerusalem in extent and ambition, is accompanied by Laocon, The Ghost of Abel, and On Homer's Poetry.

The last volumes in the series of William Blake's Illuminated Books reveal the writer and artist as a prophet driven by a sense of apocalyptic urgency. Blake conceived and executed The Continental Prophecies and The Urizen Books in the early 1790s, capturing the intellectual and spiritual turmoil of the American and French revolutions. Here, for the first time, the general reader will encounter Blake's most intense vision in reproductions that do justice to the originals, accompanied by texts, comprehensive notes and commentaries, and detailed interpretations of the designs. The Urizen Books, made up of "Urizen," "The Book of Los," and "Ahania," describes the dissemination of the autocratic mythology of Urizen, Blake's inflexibly rationalist and myopic law-giver. These books stand as the author's sensible and considered response to the events of his time. The illuminated text of "Urizen" and the ten full-page illustrations from copy D in the British Museum, never before reproduced, represent a tour de force in Blake's specialist process of color printing.
These volumes complete the six-part series of William Blake's Illuminated Books, including Jerusalem, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, The Early Illuminated Books, and Milton, A Poem, all published by Princeton University Press.

The last volumes in the series of "William Blake's Illuminated Books" reveal the writer and artist as a prophet driven by a sense of apocalyptic urgency. Blake conceived and executed "The Continental Prophecies" and "The Urizen Books" in the early 1790s, capturing the intellectual and spiritual turmoil of the American and French revolutions. Here, for the first time, the general reader will encounter Blake's most intense vision in reproductions that do justice to the originals, accompanied by texts, comprehensive notes and commentaries, and detailed interpretations of the designs. "The Continental Prophecies", which comprises "America", "Europe", and "The Song of Los", presents Blake's critical reckoning with the history of his own times. Marked by a particularly close integration of word and image, the books form a mythical plot from historical events and criticize the intricate structure of social oppression that the author attributes to organized state religion. Each of the three books attempts to point a way toward the process of millennial liberation.
These volumes complete the six-part series of "William Blake's Illuminated Books", including "Jerusalem", "Songs of Innocence and of Experience" (now available in paperback), "The Early Illuminated Books", and "Milton, A Poem", all published by Princeton University Press.

The core of William Blake's vision, his greatness as one of the British Romantics, is most fully expressed in his "Illuminated Books", masterworks of art and text intertwined and mutually enriching. Made possible by recent advances in printing and reproduction technology, the publication of new editions of "Jerusalem" and "Songs of Innocence and of Experience" in 1991 was a major publishing event. Now, these two volumes are followed by "The Early Illuminated Books and Milton, A Poem". The books in both volumes are reproduced from the best available copies of Blake's originals and in faithfulness and accuracy match the acclaimed standards set by "Jerusalem" and "Songs". These two volumes are uniform in format and binding with the first two volumes. "The Early Illuminated Books" comprises "All Religions Are One" and "There Is No Natural Religion"; "Thel"; "Marriage of Heaven and Hell"; and "Visions of the Daughters of Albion". "Milton, A Poem", second only to "Jerusalem" in extent and ambition, is accompanied by "Laocoon", "The Ghost of Abel", and "On Homer's Poetry".

The nature of William Blake's genius and of his art is most completely expressed in his Illuminated books. In order to give full and free expression to his vision Blake invented a method of printing that enabled him to create works in which words and images combine to form pages uniquely rich in content and beautiful in form. It is only through the pages as originally conceived and published by the poet himself that Blake's meaning can be fully experienced.

In 1949 the William Blake Trust was founded to bring Blake's rare Illuminated Books to a wider general audience through the publication of superbly produced facsimiles. Recent advances in printing and reproduction technology now enable the Trust to fulfill its mandate. The originals have been newly and meticulously photographed and the best modern technology has been applied to ensure that the plates are reproduced as faithfully as possible.