NEWSLETTER
BLAKE AT THE HUNTINGTON, FALL 1994
Over the last few years, the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, has disbound its superb collection of Blake’s illuminated books. This procedure, required for purposes of long-term conservation, has the happy consequence of permitting the display of individual plates from the Huntington’s copies of All Religions are One, Songs of Innocence, The Book of Thel, Visions of the Daughters of Albion, America, Songs of Experience, The Song of Los, and Milton. An exhibition of these works will be held in the Huntington Art Gallery from 27 September 1994 to 15 January 1995. “William Blake’s Illuminated Prints,” curated by Robert N. Essick, will also include three of Blake’s 1795 color prints: Lamech and His Two Wives, the magnificent impression of Satan Exulting over Eve
on loan from the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the recently cleaned Huntington impression of Hecate.In conjunction with this major exhibition, the Huntington will host a symposium, “William Blake’s Illuminated Books: Images and Texts,” on Saturday, 29 October 1994. W. J. T. Mitchell will deliver the keynote address; the other speakers will be David Bindman, Anne K. Mellor, Tilottama Rajan, and Joseph Viscomi. The presentations will be published in the Huntington Library Quarterly; a special printing of the issue will be available for purchase from the Huntington.
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., will publish Blake at the Huntington in fall 1994. This paperback volume features 64 full-color reproductions of works by Blake in the Library and Art Gallery collections, including a generous selection of plates from the illuminated books and the complete series of water-color illustrations to Milton’s Comus, Nativity Ode, and Paradise Lost. Robert Essick has written an introduction and plate-by-plate commentary for this volume.