Excerpt from William Blake's Illuminated Books: A Census

A census of Blake's 'illuminated Books' was included as Section E in my Bibliography of Blake, printed for the Grolier Club Of New York in 1921. I commented then on the fact that to complete the task of tracing all the existing copies was clearly impossible, Since a number of them were certain to have been temporarily lost to view and would only appear again too late for inclusion in my book. In the thirty-two years that have elapsed Since the Bibliography was issued this suggestion has been fully confirmed. Many more copies of the books have come to light, and as they attracted my notice in private hands or passed through the sale rooms I have lost no opportunity of making full descriptions of them, and of recording their provenance. I have also been able to re-examine others, or see them myself for the first time, during visits made to the United States of America. Even SO it was plain, when I formed the project of making a revision of the census, that I could not do this satisfactorily unless I had an expert collaborator in the United States, Since SO large a proportion of the books had found their way over there. I was therefore exceedingly fortunate in being able to interest Edwin Wolf 2nd in the matter and to persuade him to undertake with me the work of revision by dealing with the books on his side of the Atlantic. Mr Wolf was already a Blake scholar by virtue of the work he had done in preparing the catalogue of the great Blake exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1939, where he had the great advantage of being able to compare several copies of many of the books. He also possessed through his natural instincts and his profession a mind attuned to the niceties of accurate bibliography. The preparation of this new census of Blake's work has occupied a number Of years, both Mr Wolf and I having other occupations which could not be denied, he as a bookseller and I as a surgeon; but this did not disturb me, Since I knew from long experience that no bibliographical work will gain by being hurried. The record will always be more nearly complete the longer it takes, and SO it has proved to be in the present instance. In reprinting this section Of the Bibliography as a separate publication it has also seemed to be worth while to include ina revised form the introduction which appeared as part of the Bibliographical Preface in 1921.

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