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William Blake

Carr reported that he started his series of small books with John Clare, Andrew Marvell and William Blake (1757-1787), a painter, printer and poet. Clare was published in 1964, but I don't think that Carr published Marvell and Blake until 1967.

In the History of the QTP in 1987 Carr reported that he had published eight editions, but there are probably ten, including two issued after 1987. There are at least five cover designs.

Carr said that Blake was one of his best sellers. If each edition was of 3,000 copies, then he sold 30,000 copies of the poems of William Blake.

Carr assigned three ISBNs to books of poems by Blake: 0900847239, Poems, which is not dated in the ISBN database; 0900847301, 12 poems, which is dated April 1972; and 0900847387, 12 poems, which is dated May 1974. My assesment of which editions have ISBNs is pure guess work.

There are copies of this small book in the British Library and in the USA in the Library of Congress, Brigham Young University, the University of Vermont and the University of Tulsa.

(Last updated on 6/11/2020)

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Rear and front covers (click to enlarge)

Last page of text inside the rear cover (click to enlarge)

Content: The first line of each poem: And did those feet in ancient times; Is this a holy thing to see; I wander thro' each chartered street; I went to the garden of love; Never pain to tell thy love; How sweet I roam'd from field to field; I was angry with my friend; To see a world in a grain of sand; Tyger! Tyger! burning bright; He who binds himself to joy; He who mocks the infant's faith; My mother bore me in the southern wild; I travel'd thro' a land of men; quotation. Facsimile of Blake's handwriting on the rear cover.

Notes: The subtitle on the first page is England awake! awake! awake!. It was printed by the Dalkeith Press, one of the first printers that Carr used, and does not have a colophon, so may hve been publshed before one was designed. Unlike the first impression of John Clare it was not published by the Northants Campaigner, but by J.L. Carr. Carr gave up teaching in 1967 but he continued to edit the Northants Campaigner, the N.U.T. magazine, until 1970.

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Rear and front covers (click to enlarge)

Inside rear cover (click to enlarge)

Content: Brief information about where Blake was born and buried. Subtitle. Brief biography. Poems: And did those feet in ancient times; Is this a holy thing to see; I wander thro' each chartered street; I went to the garden of love; Never pain to tell thy love; How sweet I roam'd from field to field; I was angry with my friend; To see a world in a grain of sand; Tyger! Tyger! burning bright; He who binds himself to joy; He who mocks the infant's faith; My mother bore me in the southern wild; I travel'd thro' a land of men. Quotation. Inside rear cover: colophon and name of printer. Facsimile of Blake's handwriting on the rear cover.

Notes: This could be the second edition as it has a similar cover design to the first but is a drawingof a bust of Blakerather than the photo of a bust. I think it was the first edition of Blake to be given an ISBN. It has a colophon but no other titles are listed, so it is early. The book was issued in a Florin Poets series, according to ISBN searches, with at least three other titles: Marvell 2, D.G. Rossetti and Tennyson's Lincolnshire Verse. A florin was a coin of 2 shillings, now 10 pence, which existed as currency only until February 1971, though Carr may have used the title nostaligically, of course. The price of these books after decimalisation was 10 pence each (see Barnes 1.)

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Rear and front covers (click to enlarge)

Inside rear cover (click to enlarge)

Content: Brief information about where Blake was born and buried. Subtitle. Brief biography. Poems: And did those feet in ancient times; Is this a holy thing to see; I wander thro' each chartered street; I went to the garden of love; Never pain to tell thy love; How sweet I roam'd from field to field; I was angry with my friend; To see a world in a grain of sand; Tyger! Tyger! burning bright; He who binds himself to joy; He who mocks the infant's faith; My mother bore me in the southern wild; I travel'd thro' a land of men. Quotation. Inside rear cover: colophon and name of printer. Facsimile of Blake's handwriting on the rear cover.

Notes: I guess this to be the third impression because only 10 other titles are listed. It has the same content as the second edition. The earlier editions did not list any other titles and the next impresion states that there are 20 other books.

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Rear and front covers (click to enlarge)

Inside rear cover (click to enlarge)

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Rear and front covers (click to enlarge)

Inside rear cover (click to enlarge)

Content: Life events. Alternative biography. Poems: And did those feet in ancient times; Is this a holy thing to see; I wander thro' each chartered street; I went to the garden of love; Never pain to tell thy love; How sweet I roam'd from field to field; I was angry with my friend; To see a world in a grain of sand; Tyger! Tyger! burning bright; He who binds himself to joy; He who mocks the infant's faith; The sword sang on the barren heath; My mother bore me in the southern wild; I travel'd thro' a land of men. Quotation. List of Carr's novels inside rear cover; name of printer. Facsimile of Blake's handwriting on the rear cover.

Notes: This impression states that there are 20 poets in the series, so comes after the impression above and before the one below. The text also lists three novels, the last of which, Steeple Sinderby, was published in May 1975. This impression has a new cover design, by Christoper Fiddes, although he is not credited, which was used for at least three subsquent impressions, which also stated a printing history. So this is probably the impression of December 1976 according to the ISBN, although this is not stated in the book.

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Rear and front covers (click to enlarge)

Inside rear cover (click to enlarge)

Content: Life events. Alternative biography. Poems: And did those feet in ancient times; Is this a holy thing to see; I wander thro' each chartered street; I went to the garden of love; Never pain to tell thy love; How sweet I roam'd from field to field; I was angry with my friend; To see a world in a grain of sand; Tyger! Tyger! burning bright; He who binds himself to joy; He who mocks the infant's faith; The sword sang on the barren heath; My mother bore me in the southern wild; I travel'd thro' a land of men. Quotation. Colophon and list of 31 titles inside rear cover, publishing history and name of printer. Woodcut on rear cover.

Notes: I guess this to be the sixth impression and the second to use the cover designed by Chris Fiddes. It is the first impression to state a printing history, and it lists 31 titles, more than the impression shown above and a first edition thus, published in December 1976.

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Rear and front covers (click to enlarge)

Inside rear cover (click to enlarge)

Content: Life events. Alternative biography. Poems: And did those feet in ancient times; Is this a holy thing to see; I wander thro' each chartered street; I went to the garden of love; Never pain to tell thy love; How sweet I roam'd from field to field; I was angry with my friend; To see a world in a grain of sand; Tyger! Tyger! burning bright; He who binds himself to joy; He who mocks the infant's faith; The sword sang on the barren heath; My mother bore me in the southern wild; I travel'd thro' a land of men. Quotation. Colophon and list of 31 titles inside rear cover, publishing history and name of printer. Woodcut on rear cover.

Notes:

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Rear and front covers (click to enlarge)

Inside rear cover (click to enlarge)

Content: Life events. Alternative biography. Poems: And did those feet in ancient times; Is this a holy thing to see; I wander thro' each chartered street; I went to the garden of love; Never pain to tell thy love; How sweet I roam'd from field to field; I was angry with my friend; To see a world in a grain of sand; Tyger! Tyger! burning bright; He who binds himself to joy; He who mocks the infant's faith; The sword sang on the barren heath; My mother bore me in the southern wild; I travel'd thro' a land of men. Quotation. Colophon and list of 31 titles inside rear cover, publishing history and name of printer. Woodcut on rear cover.

Notes: The printing history identifies this as the 4th impression of this edition, so I estimate it to be the 8th edition/impression of Blake's poems, issued in February 1985. It may have been the last to use this cover design, but that cannot be certain.

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Rear and front covers (click to enlarge)

Inside rear cover (click to enlarge)

Content: Alternative biography. Poems: And did those feet in ancient times; Is this a holy thing to see; I was angry with my friend; I went to the garden of love; Tyger! Tyger! burning bright; Never pain to tell thy love; I wander thro' each chartered street; I travel'd thro' a land of men; How sweet I roam'd from field to field; My mother bore me in the southern wild; To see a world in a grain of sand; He who binds himself to joy; He who mocks the infant's faith; The sword sang on the barren heath. Poems continue inside rear cover. Sun face 1964 colophon. Advert for small boos. Number in series and publisher. Quotation on rear cover from Samuel Palmer.

Notes: The cover and order of poems was changed for this edition and more illustrations were added. The rear cover has a quotation from Samuel Palmer. It was probably published after 1987, the date of the History of the QTP, so it's at least the 9th impression of Blake's poetry. Carr probably used a new printer, as none is stated and the printing blocks are new for this edition.

This volume was also given the number 92 in the series, even though Blake was one of the first poets that Carr had published in 1968. A later book of poems by John Clare , was given the number 1 and a volume by Andrew Marvell, the number 3, so why wasn't this edition of Blake given number 2 in the series if it was one of the first three published, rather than 92? The serial number 2 wasn't used. It probably wasn't numbered 92 because it was published in 1992, because editions numbered 99 (G.K. Chesterton) and 100 (George Cruikshank) were the last Carr published perhaps in 1991 or early 1992? Books of poems by Browning, Flecker, Kipling and Omar Khayyam were also numbered 92.

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Rear and front covers (click to enlarge)

Inside rear cover (click to enlarge)

Content: Alternative biography. Poems: And did those feet in ancient times; Is this a holy thing to see; I was angry with my friend; I went to the garden of love; Tyger! Tyger! burning bright; Never pain to tell thy love; I wander thro' each chartered street; I travel'd thro' a land of men; How sweet I roam'd from field to field; My mother bore me in the southern wild; To see a world in a grain of sand; He who binds himself to joy; He who mocks the infant's faith; The sword sang on the barren heath. Poems continue inside rear cover. Sun face 1964 colophon. Advert for small boos. Number in series and publisher. Quotation on rear cover from Samuel Palmer.

Notes: This is a reprint of the 9th impression, or this could be the 9th impression and the one above is the 10th, I don't know. It is different from the impression immediately above: the cover is pink card, which can be seen on the image of inside the rear cover.

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