Issue of Abo Underrnttelser
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i • : ft \ ST —-ir-1 r v*^fr^ ; f >-il —■ •■in I zr% v.> ' >«"v'--. Hake ^Newsletter 3 2 On the cover is a drawing by Bo Lindberg of the Blakes in Abo, Finland, in 1824. Lindberg had this to say about the drawing: In 1974 the oldest surviving Finnish newspaper, Abo Underrnttelser (published in Swedish, formerly the language of the Finnish intelligensia, and still spoken by many Finns), celebrated its 150th anniversary. The editor asked me to make a drawing of Abo in 1824, showing people reading the first copies of the Abo Underrnttelser, and, in the background, the Cathedral, the old town center, and the bridge across the River Aura with the small kiosk on it--from this kiosk the newspaper was sold. None of the buildings except the Gothic Cathedral survived the great fire of 1827. The Abo of the early 19th century was "a most infamous pit, a pestified place, having a poisoned atmosphere, poor pavements and the worst 'esprit public' in the world," wrote Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt about 1800. Since Blake was in the habit of visiting infamous places such as Babylon and Hell, he must have made a spiritual journey to Abo--and, since a spirit is not a cloudy vapour or a nothing, his spirit must have had a solid body, resembling his mortal body. Further, it is well known that Catherine partook in her husband's visions. Therefore I put William Blake and his wife among the readers of the first issue of Abo Underrnttelser. Their clothes are more or less right for 1824. Lindberg had this to say about himself: Name. Bo Lindberg, called Ossian. I'm an artist, ethnological draughtsman and art historian, born in Abo in 1937, at present working at the University of Lund, Sweden. In 1973 my Ph.D. thesis, William Blake's Illustrations to the Book of Job, was published in the Acta Aaademiae Aboensis. I've published a few papers about Blake, Bosch, the Cathedral of Abo, etc. I've translated part of Blake's poetry into Swedish, but so far only The Mental Traveller has appeared in print. I've modernised Satan's Holy Trinity: Darwin, Marx and Einstein, and the prophet of the tripartite God is Freud. I believe that art and science are the foundation of empire. Hitler, Stalin, Roosevelt, etc., attend upon and follow scientists, writers and prophets like Darwin, Marx, Einstein, etc., which shows that Blake was right again. I like Blake because his philosophy is too compli• cated and too truthful for political, economic and bureaucratic leaders to use it and misuse it. In this world it is a great merit merely to be harmless. Most of the illustrations in this issue are from Blake's contributions to the extra-illustrated Shakespeare folio compiled by the Rev. Joseph Thomas. The volume was sold by his descendants to Alexander Macmillan in 1880, from whose family it was acquired by the British Museum in 1880. The pictures are reproduced here by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum. Cover: Blakes in Abo, Finland, around 1824, a drawing by Bo Lindberg. See description elsewhere on these pages. Pp. 108-09: detail from p. 112, below. P. 112: Richard III and Ghosts (undated), 8" x 5 7/8." Richard III. P. 115: detail from p. 112, above. P. 116: Queen Katherine's Dream (1809), 8 3/4" x 6 1/8." Henry VIII. P. 119: Allegorical subject (?) or, The Horse of Inspiration (1809), 9" x 6 3/4." Pp. 120-21: detail from cover. P. 124: Caesar's Ghost Appearing to Brutus (1806), 10" x 6 1/2." Julius Caesar. P. 126: from Blake's fob illustrations. P. 128: detail from p. 112, above. P. 130: detail from p. 124, above. P. 131: detail from p. 124, above. P. 133: see caption. P. 137: detail from p. 112, above. P. 138: detail from p. 119, above. P. 142: detail from p. 119, above. P. 144: detail from p. 116, above. P. 145: detail from p. 116, above. Pp. 146-47: detail from p. 116, above. The Blake Newsletter, An Illustrated Quarterly, is published News 104 four times a year under the sponsorship of the Department of English of the University of New Mexico. Newsletter Subscriptions, Newsletter Reprints, Blake at the 1974 MLA Seminar, Blake Poster, MLA Blake Seminar Editors: Morris Eaves, Univ. of New Mexico, and Morton D. 1975, Blake Conference at Santa Barbara, Works in Progress Paley, Univ. of California, Berkeley. Reviews Associate Editor for Great Britain: Frances A. Carey, Asst. Curator, Dept. of Prints & Drawings, British Museum. Thomas A. Vogler, on The Incarnate Word by Cary Nelson 108 Irene Chayes, on The Awakening of Albion by Thomas Frosch 114 Bibliographer: Ron Taylor, Univ. of California, Berkeley. Karl Kroeber, on Blake's Night by David Wagenknecht 116 W.J.T. Mitchell, on Blake's Human Form Divine by Editorial Assistants: Judith Wallick Page, Donna Rix, Anne Kostelanetz Mellor 117 David Schnur, Sharon Stell, Univ. of New Mexico. Editorial Simone Pignard, on William Blake, Smerveillement et assistant for subscriptions, Deborah Sackett, Univ. of profanation by Jacques Blondel 120 New Mexico. Claude Jannoud, on Pierre Leyris' translation of Blake's poetry into French [from he Figaro, translated by Manuscripts are welcome. Send two copies, typed and docu• Katharyn Gabriel!a] 121 mented according to the forms suggested in the MLA Style Paul Miner, on the festschrift for Sir Geoffrey Keynes Sheet, to either of the editors: Morris Eaves, Dept. of edited by Morton Paley and Michael Phillips, and the English, Univ. of N.M., Albuquerque, N.M. 87131; Morton 2nd ed. of Keynes' Blake Studies 122 Paley, Dept. of English, Univ. of Ca., Berkeley, Ca. 94720. G. E. 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The Thomas Gray Bicentenary Conference at Carleton University edited by James Downey and Ben Jones 141 The International Standard Serial Number of the Blake Newsletter Jean H. Hagstrum, on Blake and Visionary Art and is 0006-453X. The Romantic Rebellion by Kenneth Clark, and British Romantic Art by Raymond Lister 143 Design and layout for this issue: David Schnur and Sharon Stell, University of New Mexico. A Checklist of Recent Blake Scholarship, compiled by Ron Taylor 146 Copyright ©1975 by Morris Eaves and Morton D. Paley Slake Jfaufikttcr 32 An 3UuHtrateb QitoarterlB. Spring 1975 llolumc 8 Number 4 04 scholarly journals--subscription by the volume. Our New Subscription System Every subscription will begin with the summer issue (the issue with which Newsletter volumes begin) and end with spring. All renewal notices will be sent out at the same time every year. 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