Born November 28, 1757, in London. Died several times since, *inter alia* on August 12, 1827. Lifelong Londoner with the exception of 3 years Slumber by the Banks of the Ocean at Felpham, 1800-1803, where I was charged with Seditious Utterance for ejecting a drunken Soldier from my Garden, when he had been impertinent with my Wife Catherine.
I was educated at Par's Drawing school, 1767-72, and apprenticed to my Master, James Basire, an Antiquarian Engraver, from 1772-1779. I learned to love the Gothic during this Apprenticeship, while drawing Tomb Sculptures in Westminster Abbey. I also learned much Mythography and Lore of all Nations, while engraving for Jacob Bryant's *A New System, or, an Analysis of Ancient Mythology*.
Once on my own and married to Catherine, I developed a Method of "Illuminated Printing," in which Text and Design were etched in Relief on Copper Plates, then printed. No two Pulls of any of my Books are identical: all Copies of my famous *Songs of Innocence and of Experience*, for instance, vary One from the Other--in the Order of the Pages, the Number of Pages, and the actual Appearance of each Page.
I used this Method throughout my Life, from *There Is No Natural Religion* and *All Religions Are One* through *Jerusalem*. I also did Engraving, Watercolour Painting, Fresco Painting, Tempera, individual Prints, and many Drawings. I detest Oil Painting and its Blotting and Blurring.
Among my non-Illuminated Works, many prefer my Illustrations to *Job*, to Dante's *Commedia*, and to the Poetry of John Milton.
Although neglected in later Life, as a young Man I was part of the radical Printer Joseph Johnson's Circle, where I associated with Tom Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, and many others. I counted as early personal Friends Henry Fuseli and John Flaxman (principal Designer for Josiah Wedgwood), and late in my life I was admired by my young followers "The Ancients" (Samuel Palmer and Edward Calvert). John Constable wrote, within Hours of my Death, a Letter, intended to raise Funds to alleviate my Widow Catherine's financial Distress.
I admired the Art of Michelangelo, Raphael, Giulio Romano, and Albrecht Durer, and despised the disorganized Vagueness of Oil Painters such as Rembrandt, Titian, Rubens, and Correggio. I preferred the techniques of the Fresco Painters, and proposed enormous, Wall-Sized, portable Frescoes be used as Public Monuments. Imagine the Type of a Londoner waking up of a Morning to find all the Public Artworks were in different Places!
I loathed the "Classical"--stolen Imitations--despising the Greeks and Romans as Men in Love with War--and revered the Gothic in Art, and the Biblical in Literature.
I was born a Soho Cockney, to a Father who was a Hosier (he sewed socks in Golden Square). Catherine and I were rich in Spiritual Things, but poor by the Account of This World.
My vile Corporeal Body was buried in an unknown Grave in Bunhill Fields. Its Ground was never consecrated (by the Authorities), and it is a Cemetery popular with Nonconformists, where John Bunyan, Isaac Watts, George Fox, and George Whitehead were buried. There is now a Stone commemorating Catherine and me in Bunhill Fields.
