William Blake (28 November 1757 - 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His visual artistry led one contemporary art critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced." Although he lived in London his entire life except for three years spent in Felpham he produced a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God," or "Human existence itself." This edition includes the "Songs of Innocence and Experience" as well as "The Book of Thel."