Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINF Ct jn4 1v nv . a. 1, 1 Q , aunaay, ivovemoer i i, i yD t r The finest pieces of sterlinc and crafted Jewelry are available. Select yours now, for the favorites on your Christmas list. JOHN LEIDY Phone NO 8-6779 * 601 East Liberty MIS Read Daily Classifieds BLAKE'S LETTERS An Edition in Honor of His Centennial THE LETTERS OF WILLIAM BLAKE. Edited by Geoffrey Keynes. New York, 1957: The Macmillan Company 261 pp. 13 plates. $10. By VERNON NAHRGANG Daily City Editor A VERY IMPORTANT concern growing in scholarly circles is u one for surpassing, in an anniver- sary year, the mere commemora- tion of an event, place or person and for devoting more attention to saying or finding something new about the subject, something that may cause the subject to be seen differently or to be opened to greater interpretation. In this way, the anniversary year serves to stimulate the completion of work already begun as well as the be- ginning of untried research. It is not unusual, then, that Wil- liam Blake, who celebrates his two hundredth birthday this month, is the subject of one new volume, IrA The L ter of willia Blake, p1to X The Letters of William Blake. It WILLIAM BLAKE 1807 is unusual that there is so small a .. in an anniversary year, a volume of revealing letters. number of new books on Blake, especially in light of the present many jobs waiting to be finished, and his monetary transactions. In general popularity of paperback more often with not enough pro- writing, he was very outspoken in publications. spective jobs, to keep him and his his affection for these few and The present contribution, how- wife in comfort. Imbedded in these often composed long poems in ever, is a significant one. Goeffrey short writings is -a profound spirit, tribute to them. Keynes, a knighted English sur- educated in the ways of art and geon and authority on Blake, has appreciative of praise and help BUT WHEN Blake was crossed by compiled all locatable letters writ- from friends. one of them, when an ill-chosen ten from 1791 to 1827, both to and word was said, or when he sus- from Blake, plus one letter relating ET THIS SPIRIT of Blake's is pected someone of professional the poet's death. Notes by the edi- one intolerant of severe criti- jealousy, then his ire would mount tor are neither obtrusive nor over- cism and stubborn in its convic- to a scathing height. Blake, in abundant, but helpful where they tions. As Blake tells a close friend January, 1803, writes his brother: occur. To allow uninterrupted in a letter of July 6, 1803: . .. I am now certain of what study of the letters, a Register of Documents at the back of the book I regard Fashion in Poetry os I have long doubted, Viz that contains the necessary descriptive little as I do in Painting; so, I. is jealous as Stothard was and bibliographical information, if both Poets & P a i n t e r s & will be no further My triend should alternately dislike (but than he is compell'd by cir- AN IMPORTANT PART of the I know the majority of them cumstances. The truth is, As a Letters are the thirteen plates will not), I am not to regard Poet he is frighten'd at me & mostly reproductions of Blake' it at all, but Mr. H. approves as a Painter his views & mine englravings For, as the letters in- of My Designs as little as he are opposite; he thinks to turn dicate, Blake was first of all an does of my Poems, and I have me into a Portratt Painter as engraver, an artist, and then a been forced to insist on his he did Poor Romney, but this poet. leaving me in both to my own he nor all the devils in hell Few letters in the collection con- Self Will; for I am determined will never do, tamn no mention of Blake's wonk to be no longer Pester'd with The Letters also reveal Many of them are merely receipts his Genteel Ignorance & Polite Blake's sense of social values and acknowledging business transac- Disapprobation. his attitudes-so often expressed tions, while the majority were Yet while these letters are first in his poetry-toward what he saw obviously written first of all to of all business communications, as the abuses of his time. Included discuss or make some arrangement they are also personally tragic.nh etiny torkeys concerning the engraving business. Blake had a few good, close are papers relating to Blake's trial From these business 1e t t e r s friends whom he admired and for uttering 'words of sedition, comes a picture of a hard-working, thought highly of. With these per- papers that show the poet's out- poetic artist sometimes with too sons he discussed his engravings spoiness that, c bild with his I him some difficulty. t t MAGAZINE Vol. IV, No. 3 Sunday, November 17, 1957 This Is Ann For campus glamour and that just-right look she needs no rings on her fingers or bells on her toes if she wears a shetland cardigan wherever she goes. Why don't YOU have a color wardrobe of cardigans and crew neck pullovers? We have thirteen wonderful colors. CARDIGAN ......10.95 PULLOVER ...... 8.95 Just Show Your I.D. and Charge One Each Month at FOR TOWN AND COLLEGE 302 South Stt. Sftret CONTENTS WILLIAM BLAKE ........Vernon Nahrgang POLISH STUDENTS ..........Rose Perlberg CATULLUS ............. Richard E. Braun AUBREY'S LIVES ........Vernon Nahrgang EMILY DICKINSON ...... Jean Willoughby LITERATURE & PSYCHOLOGY . T. Morrison IGY & THE OBSERVATORY ..... David Tarr J. FRED LAWTON ....... Lane Vanderslice CPH ......................Gerald Lundy BEN SHAHN ...............R. C. Gregory T. S. ELIOT ................ R. C. Gregory ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY..,.James Bow Page 2 Page 4 Page 6 Page 6 Page 7 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 BLAKE, in a letter to George Cumberland in July, 1800, com- ments on the growing employment of engravers and the society which has suddenly come to appreciate Blake a little more: It is very Extraordinary that London in so few years from a City of meer Necessaries or at 1te)ast a commerce of the lowest order of luxuries should have become a City of Mle- gance in some degree & that its once stupid inhabitants should enter into an Emula- tion of Grecian manners. There are now, I believe, as many Booksellers as there are Butchers.. .. Another interesting facet of Blake's letters results from the poet's discussion of several of his engravings and drawings and their meaning and representation. One complex water color of 1808, "The Last Judgment," is explained in some detail in a letter to Ozias Humphry. Other letters indicate his own opinions of his work. The plates included in the Letters are those of "The Last Judgment" and other works discussed by Blake, therefore adding to the reader's appreciation of the man and the artist. Keynes, by collecting all known and extant letters of William Blake and publishing them in an anniversary year, has provided a volume of special interest to all readers interested in the poet Blake on a first-hand basis. This new edition provides a ready and attractive reference as well as a closer look at the man behind the poetry. 4 MAGAZINE EDITOR: Tommy Morrison MAGAZINE PHOTOGRAPHER: Bud Bentley PICTURE CREDITS-Unless specified, photographs are Daily photo- graphs by Bud Bentley. Cover: Observatory photograph courtesy the McMath-Hulbert Observatory; Page 4: Photograph courtesy Maria Zagorska; Page 5: Photograph of Warsaw courtesy Maria Zagorska; Page 8: Photograph by David Tarr, courtesy The Pontiac Press; Page 9: Daily photograph by Fred Shippey; Page 11: Organ and Oppenheimer photographs by Gary Ushman from drawings in BEN SHAHN: HIS GRAPHIC ART; Page 13: Daily map by Robert Snyder; Page 14: Cello photograph by Gary Ushman; Page 15: Drummer photograph by Gary Ushmon; Page 19: Photograph courtesy Maria Zagorska. !'