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There Is a Happiness That Morning Is

This play by Mickle Maher, running at the Theater Oobleck in Chicago until 22 May, is a "comedy in rhymed verse told via two lectures on the poetry of William Blake: one given in the morning by Bernard, a middle-aged, barely published poet of scant scholarship, on the Songs of Innocence, and the other in the afternoon by his lover, Ellen, a reputable Ph.D., on the Songs of Experience. Having engaged the evening before in a highly inappropriate display of public affection on the main lawn of their rural New England campus, the two undergraduate lecturers must now, in class, either apologize for their behavior or effectively justify it if they want to keep their jobs."

Blake's Printing Techniques

Michael Phillips now has a web site, The Illuminated Books of William Blake Re-created:

Blake and Popular Music

Chris Andrechek, a student of Suzanne Matheson at the University of Windsor, has been working on a web site of musical settings of Blake in twentieth-century popular music. He has found that "London" is the most performed of the Songs and that Scandinavian musicians seem especially drawn to Blake.

Blake Digitized

The Houghton Library (Harvard) has digitized its Thel, Visions, and Songs for the use and enjoyment of all. See the announcement, which contains links to the works themselves.

Cowper and Newton Journal

The Cowper and Newton journal, published by the trustees of the Cowper and Newton Museum in Olney, will debut with the spring 2011 issue. For more details and for submission guidelines, see the museum's web site.

Is This Yours?

Blake's tempera on canvas of The Christ Child Asleep on a Cross (Butlin #410) from the collection of the late George Goyder has been given to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Because its provenance is uncertain—Butlin gives it as "acquired from a bombed house in 1940 by Rimell"—the museum is not accessioning the painting for a year in case someone should claim it with clear evidence that they have title.

William Blake's America, 2010

An article by Mark Edmundson in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Exhibition at the Tate

The Tate's Romantics exhibition (9 August 2010 to 31 July 2011) includes works by Blake, Constable, Fuseli, Palmer, and Turner.

Blake Journal Seeks Submissions

The Blake Journal, an annual publication of the UK's Blake Society, seeks submissions of photography, poetry, articles, fiction, and creative nonfiction for future issues. Our mission is to explore Blake's ideas and work in old and new contexts, transgressing the boundaries of traditional scholarship. Past issues have featured G. E. Bentley, Jr., on the legions of William Blakes in the world, Susanne Sklar on Jerusalem’s embrace, and reviews of Blake-related performances by Patti Smith and Richard Ramsbotham; upcoming issues will feature an exploration of Blake's principles in conjunction with corporate governance and a virtual tour of South Molton Street as it was during Blake's residence at no. 17.
We accept original submissions of up to 5,000 words (for prose). Reviews of Blake-related books, albums, films, plays, and other media are also welcomed. Please submit manuscripts electronically, if possible, at journal@blakesociety.org. Hard copies should be sent to: The Blake Society at St. James's, 197 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9LL, UK.
Paige Morgan and Angus Whitehead, editors.

Upcoming Reviews

Books and exhibitions slated for review in the journal:

Hazard Adams. Blake's Margins: An Interpretive Study of the Annotations. McFarland, 2009.

Magnus Ankarsjö. William Blake and Religion: A New Critical View. McFarland, 2009.

G. E. Bentley, Jr. William Blake's Conversations. Edwin Mellen P, 2008.

Blake Intempestif/Unruly Blake, a special issue of Interfaces: Image Text Language (2010).

Steve Clark and Masashi Suzuki, eds. The Reception of Blake in the Orient. Continuum, 2006.

Steve Clark and David Worrall, eds. Blake, Nation and Empire. Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Tom Dunne and William L. Pressly. James Barry, 1741-1806: History Painter. Ashgate, 2010.

Sibylle Erle. Blake, Lavater and Physiognomy. Legenda/MHRA, 2010.

Robert N. Essick, ed. William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, 2008.

Glen Robert Gill. Northrop Frye and the Phenomenology of Myth. U of Toronto P, 2006.

Sarah Haggarty and Jon Mee, eds. Blake and Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Mary Lynn Johnson and John E. Grant, eds. Blake's Poetry and Designs. 2nd ed. W. W. Norton & Co., 2008.

Karen Mulhallen, ed. Blake in Our Time: Essays in Honour of G. E. Bentley, Jr. U of Toronto P, 2010.

Hatsuko Niimi. Blake's Dialogic Texts. Keio UP, 2006.

Michael Phillips and Catherine de Bourgoing, eds. William Blake: Le Génie visionnaire du romantisme anglais. Paris Musées, 2009.

Laura Quinney. William Blake on Self and Soul. Harvard UP, 2010.

James Rovira. Blake and Kierkegaard: Creation and Anxiety. Continuum, 2010.

Mei-Ying Sung. William Blake and the Art of Engraving. Pickering & Chatto, 2009.

Jason Whittaker and David Worrall, eds. Blake, Modernity and Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

William Blake: "I still go on / Till the Heavens and Earth are gone." Exhibition at Tate Britain, November 2007 to June 2008.

Paul Yoder, with a foreword by Nelson Hilton. The Narrative Structure of William Blake's Poem Jerusalem: A Revisionist Interpretation. Edwin Mellen P, 2010.

If you would like to submit a Blake-related item for inclusion in this section, please contact Sarah Jones (sjns@mail.rochester.edu).

Last modified: Wednesday, 18-May-2011 08:04:40 EDT