Copyright © 1973 by Morton D. Paley & Morris Eaves
Volume 6, number 1, whole number 21, summer 1972. Published quarterly under the sponsorship of the Department of English of the University of New Mexico. Support for bibliographical assistance is provided by the University of California, Berkeley.
Morton D. Paley, Executive Editor, University of California, Berkeley; Morris Eaves, Managing Editor, University of New Mexico; Michael Phillips, Associate Editor, University of Edinburgh; Jo Ann Kottke, Editorial Assistant, University of New Mexico; Foster Foreman, Bibliographer, University of California, Berkeley.
Manuscripts are welcome. They should be typed and documented according to the forms recommended in The MLA Style Sheet, 2nd ed., rev. (1970). Send two copies with a stamped, self-addressed envelope either to Morton D. Paley, Executive Editor, Blake Newsletter, Department of English, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, or to Morris Eaves, Managing Editor, Blake Newsletter, Department of English, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106.
Subscriptions are $5 for one year, four issues; special rate for individuals, $4 for one year; overseas by air, $8 (U.S. currency if possible). Make checks payable to the Blake Newsletter. Address all subscription orders and related communications to Morris Eaves, Managing Editor.
Some back issues are available. Prices: whole numbers 14, 15, and 16, $2 each; whole numbers 17-18 (combined issue containing Robert Essick’s Finding List of Reproductions of Blake’s Art, 160 pages), $5; whole number 20 (British Museum Blake Handlist), $3. Address Morris Eaves, Managing Editor.
The cover illustration is Blake’s Young woman reclining on a couch, pen and wash, 13 ¼ × 8 ¾ inches, from the collection of David Bindman, who remarks that “this drawing, in common with a number of others, derives from the collection of Richard Johnson, a late nineteenth century Blake collector. Most of his Blake drawings seem to have been bought at the Joseph Hogarth sale in 1854, and no doubt Young Woman reclining was initially one of the enormous number of drawings acquired by Frederick Tatham as Mrs. Blake’s executor. It is undoubtedly early and a date of 1783-1785 can be proposed. The subject is more problematic, and so far it has not been definitely established. The couch upon which the woman reclines is similar to one in watercolours of Queen Katherine’s Dream from Shakespeare’s King Henry VIII, and it is possible that the young woman is Queen Katherine writing her will, leaving all her possessions to her servants just before her death. This suggestion would be compatible with the sense of melancholy she evokes, and the hints of a medieval tomb-figure in the pose. It has been connected with Blair’s Grave, but it does not seem to fit with any passage in the poem. Any suggestions would be welcomed.”[e]