This paper examines the life and work of William Blake, an extraordinary British poet, painter, visionary mystic and engraver
who illustrated and printed his own books. It discusses how Blake believed in the supremacy of the imagination over the
rationalism and
materialism of the eighteenth century and how this led to misunderstandings that over shadowed his career as a writer and artist. It details his life from his birth in 1757 and his lack of education to his death and burial in an unmarked grave in 1827. It evaluates how Blake's works never became well known in his lifetime, although his influence is apparent in the work of several painters who knew him when he was an old man, particularly Samuel Palmer and how only later generations came to recognize its significance.