Blake, William.

The [First] Book of Urizen.

1958. London: Trianon Press, 1958.

4to, 27 plates, 5pp. text, plus the extra materials. Full red morocco, slipcase, very good.


§ De luxe copy V of 20 with a suite of progressive states of one plate, an original guide-sheet and stencil etc. The de luxe copy is very hard to come by. Limited to 526 copies including 20 de luxe copies numbered I-XX, 480 regular copies numbered 1-240 for the United Kingdom and 241-240 for the United States, and 26 regular copies lettered A-Z reserved for the Library of Congress, Mr. Lessing Rosenwald, the Trustees of the William Blake Trust, and the publishers. Even the trade edition is one of the more difficult Trianon Press books to find. Bentley, BB, 40.

“The poem is in many respects a heterodox rewriting of Genesis, one in which the creation of the universe is seen as a fall into materiality and its abstract laws. The process is initiated by Urizen when he separates himself from his fellow “Eternals” and thereby creates difference, absence, and self-consciousness. As Urizen falls into this void of his own making, Los reacts by building a material and temporal base below which Urizen cannot descend. Through this narrative of ultimate origins, Blake explores fundamental epistemological and ontological issues.” (Blake Archive, noting nine copies including one untraced). Bentley, BB, 40. “Blake’s most ambitious production thitherto... seven copies and a few scattered pages have been located... intended to be the first of a series dealing with activities in the supernatural world which caused the creation of the natural world and the early history of mankind.” (Damon, Blake Dictionary). Item #110403

Price: $3,750.00