THE WAY OF A PAPERMAKER WITH A POET: Joshua Gilpin, William Blake, and the Arts in 1796.

The article focuses on Joshua Gilpin, a Quaker papermaker, his account of poet William Blake and the arts in 1796. Gilpin was a traveler of extraordinary energy and patience. After a thirty-three hour stagecoach journey from Edinburgh, Scotland he arrived in London, England on December 14, 1795. Gilpin was in London at a time of remarkable cultural vitality, and he saw much of what was best and most remarkable. From Gilpin's interest in the arts, especially in those of publishing, it seems very likely that the "Blake the Engraver" is William Blake the poet and painter. Gilpin had an enormous amount of information about the latest technological developments in Blake's profession, the manufacture of paper, the qualities of copper, etc.