Mark Crosby, ed., “William Blake’s Manuscripts,” Huntington Library Quarterly 80.3 (autumn 2017)

The autumn 2017 special issue of Huntington Library Quarterly, edited by Mark Crosby, is devoted to manuscript studies of the works of William Blake. Several of these studies were originally presented at a 2013 symposium at the Huntington Library, which, as Blake scholars know, houses one of the world’s finest Blake collections. Taken together, the essays demonstrate the variety of ways in which the close study of Blake’s manuscripts and prints can yield significant new discoveries about his engraving techniques, his working habits, and his influences. Or, as Crosby puts it in his introduction, “the eight essays … range in methodological approach from considering the materiality of Blake’s manuscripts to more conceptual concerns, with particular attention given to discussing the instability of long-term preservation” (363).