More than a century and a half after his death, William Blake (1757-1827) remains a remarkable and controversial figure. Equally gifted as poet and painter, he produced work as arresting for its beauty as for its strangeness. For some he is an inspiring genius, a source of creativity and insight. For others he is an unsettling eccentric. William Vaughan explores the contradictions of character that stand in the way of an easy understanding of the artist's work. Through an enlightening examination of Blake's unfolding career, he presents an artist with radical and utterly individual vision, deeply concerned with the social, political, and religious issues of his age.