The Songs of Innocence and of Experience

London: William Pickering, 1839. First letterpress edition of Blake’s best-loved works, which had been available previously only in the poet’s privately printed and unobtainable hand-painted and engraved editions. Edited, with a lengthy (18-page) preface, by the Swedenborgian James John Garth Wilkinson (1812-1899), who used Charles Augustus Tulk’s copy of the illuminated first edition (c.1795-1807) to make his selection. This edition appears in two issues, with and without a poem entitled “The Little Vagabond” at page 71. The poem was reportedly canceled by the editor out of prudishness. It is not present in this copy. No priority between the two issues has been established. Keynes 135; Bentley & Nurmi 161B; Bentley, Blake Books, 171 The English poet and dramatist John Drinkwater’s copy, with his ownership signature dated 1923 on the front free endpaper, and his bibliographical annotations beneath in pencil, and his delightful little gilt embossed leather bookplate on the front endsheet. The book also bears the engraved bookplate of Elizabeth Walbridge on the front endsheet. Elizabeth Walbridge was married to S. Cornell Walbridge, a major figure in the glass industry in Toledo, Ohio (aka “Glass City”), and an avid book collector in the early years of the Twentieth Century. There is also a contemporary ownership signature on the front free endpaper that is difficult to decipher: possibly “Miss Mare or Miss Marie”, and the remnant of a red wax seal beneath the tipped-in Walbridge bookplate. Head and tail of spine very slightly worn, spine faintly sunned, with covers fading slightly toward the margins, otherwise a remarkably attractive and clean copy of this rare and important edition.. 8vo, original plum cloth. Head and tail of spine very slightly worn, spine faintly sunned, with covers fading slightly toward the margins, otherwise a remarkably attractive and clean copy of this rare and important edition.