Blake was published by Sinclair-Stevenson in 1995. Ackroyd’s biography of William Blake rejected the conventional portrait of Blake as an isolated mystic, arguing instead that Blake was profoundly a Londoner — that his visions were shaped by the specific physical environment of eighteenth-century London, its radical-political culture, its artisanal workshop traditions, and its nonconformist religious communities.
Ackroyd traced Blake’s movements through London with obsessive topographic precision, demonstrating that the streets Blake walked, the neighborhoods he lived in, and the workshops where he practiced his engraving trade were as important to his art as his visionary experiences.
Collecting Blake
First edition (Sinclair-Stevenson, London, 1995): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- UK first edition, fine in jacket: $30–$75
- US first edition (Knopf): $15–$35
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation.
The Visionary Artist
Ackroyd’s biography of William Blake (1757–1827) presents the poet-artist-engraver as a Londoner first: Blake lived his entire life in the city, and Ackroyd argues that his visions were as much a response to London’s streets, workshops, and radical politics as to any transcendent reality. The biography grounds Blake’s mysticism in the material conditions of his life — the engraving trade, the radical circles of Joseph Johnson’s bookshop, the poverty and neglect of his later years.
Frequently Asked Questions
What connects Ackroyd’s biographical subjects? Nearly all are Londoners or London-connected: Wilde, Eliot, Dickens, Blake, More, Shakespeare, Chatterton. Ackroyd sees them as nodes in a continuous London tradition — a chain of imaginative consciousness that links the city’s past to its present.