WRIGHT, Thomas (1859-1936)

Life of William Blake

Olney, Bucks: Thomas Wright, 1929. 2 volumes, quarto. (10 7/8 x 8 1/2 inches). 135 plates and illustrations, including color frontispieces.

Publisher's green cloth

Provenance: John Slocum (inscribed to him by Albert Kornfeld on the front endpaper)

Lovely set of the first edition of this work by the founder of the Blake Society.

Born in Olney, Buckinghamshire, England, Thomas Wright was educated at Buxton College and founded Cowper School in Olney in 1882 at the age of 23. He was quite an eccentric scholar, as he had no further education past his boarding school years but spent considerable time studying at the library of the British Museum, reading the works of Emerson, Carlyle, and Washington Irving. Throughout his life, he self-published a number of works, though he is best known for his biographies which include "The Life of William Cowper" (1892), "The Life of Daniel Defoe" (1894), "The Life of John Payne" (1919), and this work, "The Life of William Blake" (1929). Wright founded the William Cowper Society in 1899, the John Payne Society in 1905, and the Blake Society in 1912.

Item #36233

Price: $250.00