The Works of William Blake Poetic, Symbolic, and Critical. Edited with lithographs of the illustrated "Prophetic Books" and a Memoir and Interpretation by Edwin John Ellis and William Butler Yeats

1893. London: Quaritch, 1893.

3 vols., roy. 8vo, [I] xvi, 420, portrait frontispiece and a folding table at p.280; printed errata to all three volumes loosely inserted in vol. 1, [II] vi, 435, frontispiece life cast of Blake's head, folding table at p.8; [III] ix, 99, frontispiece portrait "Blake by his wife"; followed by facsimiles. Original green cloth with extensive gilt stampings of Blake designs to covers; a very fine copy in bright condition. Ex-library copy with inoffensive rubber stamps in all three volumes; withal one of the finer copies we have ever seen.

§ First edition of one of the most influential works on Blake. “The (truncated) enthusiasm and comprehensiveness of this work are of considerable historical importance” (Bentley 369, who cautions that the scholarly value of the work is at best uneven). The book is also treasured by devotees of gilt-stamped bindings, of which this is a striking example. (Inventory #: 126369)