discussion
begin page 96 | ↑ back to topSONGS OF INNOCENCE COPY U
On p. 214 of Blake Newsletter 19, Mary Ellen Reisner states that Keynes-Wolf copy U of Songs of Innocence is not at the Houghton Library of Harvard University but is owned by Mrs. Harold White. Unfortunately, Mrs. Reisner was given the same misinformation that I was recently given when I wrote to the Houghton Library to purchase a set of 2″ × 2″ Kodachrome slides of this copy.
Let me try to unscramble this bit of confusion. When Mrs. Reisner and I wrote to Harvard, an unfortunate mixup occurred between K-W copy U of Songs of Innocence (described on p. 18 of Census) and K-W copy U of Songs of Innocence and of Experience (described on p. 63 of the Census). Copy U of Songs of Innocence is actually at Harvard in the Houghton Library. I quote from a letter dated 27 November 1972, from Miss Eleanor M. Garvey of the Houghton Library: “We do have the Keynes-Wolf copy: U, not fully catalogued but finally located.”
Keynes-Wolf copy U of Songs of Innocence and of Experience did once belong to the White family. It was recently donated by Miss Caroline Newton, of Berwyn, Pennsylvania, to Princeton University where it now rests. For an account of this gift see Charles Ryskamp, “Library Notes: Songs of Innocence and of Experience and Miss Caroline Newton’s Blake Collection,” The Princeton University Library Chronicle, 29 (Winter 1968).