William Blake

I was born in 1757 into a family of seven children. I was taught at home, never having gone to school. Showing an early interest in drawing and sculpting and poetry, I was apprenticed to the engraver James Basire. When my term was finished, I went on to become a student at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. My arrogance and my open dislike of detailed imitation of nature and "idiotic" generalizations displayed in art at the time won me a few adversaries, none of whom understood the true reason for my contempt.
I then married my wife Catherine, and settled down and started publishing my writing. In addition, I made illustrations for works such as the Book of Job, The Divine Comedy by Dante, Paradise Lost by Milton, and Original Stories from Real Life by Wollstonecraft.
The spiritual element in my works, along with my radical political and social viewpoints early on characterized the classic "Romantic personality" and propelled the start of the Romantic movement in British Literature.