"Blake was a visionary, rather than a mystic, and like D. H. Lawrence and Sigmund Freud he hoped to encourage us to exalt our human potential. Perhaps William Blake can best be termed an apocalyptic humanist, who urges us never to forget that all deities reside within the human breast."--Harold Bloom, from the new foreword

Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, William Blake (1757-1827) was a visionary English poet, painter, and printmaker. His wide-ranging influence can be seen in genres from theology and literature to popular music and graphic novels.