William Blake was born on November 28, 1757 in London, the third of five children. His father James was a hosier, and could only afford to give William enough schooling to learn the basics of reading and writing, though for a short time he was able to attend a drawing school run by Henry Par.

William worked in his father's shop until his talent for drawing became so obvious that he was apprenticed to engraver James Basire at age 14. He finished his apprenticeship at age 21, and set out to make his living as an engraver.

Blake married Catherine Boucher at age 25, and she worked with him on most of his artistic creations.

Blake's first printed work, 'Poetical Sketches' (1783), is a collection of apprentice verse, mostly imitating classical models. The poems protest against war, tyranny, and King George III's treatment of the American colonies. He published his most popular collection, 'Songs of Innocence', in 1789 and followed it, in 1794, with 'Songs of Experience' .

Blake engraved the words and pictures on copper plates (a method he claimed he received in a dream), and Catherine coloured the plates and bound the books. 'Songs of Innocence' sold slowly during Blake's lifetime, indeed Blake struggled close to poverty for much of his life. More successful was a series of copperplate engravings Blake did to illustrate the Book of Job for a new edition of the Old Testament.

Blake did not have a head for business, and he turned down publisher's requests to focus on his own subjects. In his choice of subject Blake was often guided by his gentle, mystical views of Christianity. 'Songs of Experience' (1794) was followed by 'Milton' (1804-1808), and 'Jerusalem' (1804-1820).

Blake was a nonconformist who associated with some of the leading radical thinkers of his day, such as Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft. In defiance of 18th-century neoclassical conventions, he privileged imagination over reason in the creation of both his poetry and images, asserting that ideal forms should be constructed not from observations of nature but from inner visions. Works such as 'The French Revolution' (1791), 'America, a Prophecy' (1793), 'Visions of the Daughters of Albion' (1793), and 'Europe, a Prophecy' (1794) express his opposition to the English monarchy, and to 18th-century political and social tyranny in general. Theological tyranny is the subject of The Book of 'Urizen' (1794). In the prose work 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell' (1790-93), he satirized oppressive authority in church and state, as well as the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish philosopher whose ideas once attracted his interest.

In 1800 Blake gained a patron in William Hayley, who commissioned him to illustrate his Life of Cowper, and to create busts of famous poets for his house in Felpham, Suurey.

Blake poured his whole being into his work. The lack of public recognition sent him into a severe depression which lasted from 1810-1817, and even his close friends thought him insane.

Unlike painters like Gainsborough, Blake worked on a small scale; most of his engravings are little more than inches in height, yet the detailed rendering is superb and exact. Blake's work received far more public acclaim after his death, and his poem 'Jerusalem' was set to music, becoming a sort of unofficial Christian anthem of English nationalism in the 20th century.

Blake's final years, spent in great poverty, were cheered by the admiring friendship of a group of younger artists who called themselves the Ancients. In 1818 he met John Linnell, a young artist who helped him financially and also helped to create new interest in his work. It was Linnell who, in 1825, commissioned him to design illustrations for Dante's 'Divine Comedy' (see dante's inferno [phrases]), the cycle of drawings that Blake worked on until his death in 1827. he is buried in an unmarked grave at Bunhill Fields, London.