Wikipedia:WikiProject Poetry/William Blake/KSU Editathon/Father's Memoirs of His Child

A Father's Memoirs of His Child is an account of the life and death of Malkin's son Thomas Williams Malkin, who along with his brother Benjamin is described as a child prodigy with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. He apparently learned to read as an infant, and taught himself to write at about age two by copying print in books. Malkin insists that he did not push Thomas but followed his lead and taught him subjects such as Latin or mathematics only by request. Thomas also invented an imaginary country called Allestone, including details of its history, geography and monetary system, and an elaborate (for a five-year-old) map. Much of this material is included in the book, partly as proof that Thomas acted independently and was not coerced to achievements.

Background

The book was written in part because of a confrontation with a "medical expert" the day after Thomas' death. It was his stated belief that Thomas had died of so-called "water on the brain", citing Thomas' "large head" and high intelligence as symptomatic of this disease. In effect, he accused Malkin of causing his son's death through having allowed him to overindulge in mental activity. Thus, Malkin includes the medical details of Thomas' final illness. He also ordered an autopsy, which he says proved conclusively that Thomas died of inflammatory bowel disease and peritonitis, and that his brain was perfectly normal. Malkin's grief and frustration are expressed vividly in this part of the text.

Blake biography

The book is notable for containing a brief biographical sketch of the poet, artist and engraver William Blake, including a poem from Blake's first published collection of poetry, Poetical Sketches, and the first typographic reproduction of several poems from the illuminated books, Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Malkin's biographical sketch of Blake is part of a dedicatory letter to Thomas Johnes, 'Lord Lieutenant of the County of Cardigan' and begins on page xviii. Malkin reproduces the following poems from Songs of Innocence and of Experience in the introductory letter.

Poems from Blake's work included the following:

From Songs of Innocence and Experience

• Laughing Song
• Holy Thursday
• The Divine Image
• The Tyger

From Poetical Sketches, Malkin reproduces

• Song

Blake also supplied the design for the frontispiece to book. This was the first engraving project that Blake and Robert Cromek collaborated on. The second project was the 1808 publication of Robert Blair's The Grave. In the dedicatory letter to Thomas Johnes, Malkin identifies Blake as the of "the ornamental device, round the portrait in this book" While Malkin does not identify the artist responsible for the portrait of his son that occupies Blake's "ornamental device", it was engraved by Cromek. According to Blake's Victorian biographer, Alexander Gilchrist Blake originally designed and engraved the frontispiece "but it was erased before the appearance of the work, and the design re-egraved by Cromek". Dennis M. Read discovered proofs of Cromek's engraving in the British Museum verifying Gilchrist's account.