Edwards, Richard

Richard Edwards
natal chart (Placidus)
natal chart English style (Equal houses)
natal chart with Whole Sign houses

Name	Edwards, Richard Gender: M
born on	16 March 1768 at 04:00 (= 04:00 AM )
Place	Halifax, England, 53n44, 1w52
Timezone	LMT m1w52 (is local mean time)
Data source	Bio/autobiography Rodden Rating B Collector: Scholfield
Astrology data	26°08' 21°13 Asc. 19°02'

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Biography

English publisher and London bookseller known for commissioning William Blake's 547 watercolour folio illustrations to Edward Young's Night Thoughts and for publishing the first part of the text with 43 engravings by Blake in 1797. This was the largest commission Blake ever received, but the project was a commercial failure and the expensive publishing venture was abandoned by Edwards.

Edwards died on 10 October 1827 of chronic inflammation, aged 59.

Because the principal evidence of Blake's work on these illustrations was the comparatively short series of engravings, art history has been slow to recognise the significance of the project within Blake's œuvre. In 1980, the Oxford University Press began publication of a projected five-volume scholarly edition of Blake's version of Night-Thoughts, edited by J. E. Grant et al.; two volumes have so far appeared and the fifth has apparently been abandoned. In 2005, the Folio Society published in two volumes a fine edition facsimile accompanied by a commentary by Robyn Hamlyn. The Folio Society facsimile was the first (and thus far only) time that all 537 of Blake's illustrations have been published together in full colour.

Link to Night-Thoughts: Blake's illustrations of 1795–97

Relationships

• associate relationship with Blake, William (born 28 November 1757)

Events

• Relationship : Marriage 22 January 1793
  chart Placidus Equal_H.

• Death by Disease 10 October 1827 (Chronic inflammation, age 59)
  chart Placidus Equal_H.

Source Notes

Sy Scholfield quotes from "Richard Edwards, Publisher of Church-and-King Pamphlets and of William Blake" by G. E. Bentley, Jr., Studies in Bibliography, Vol. 41 (1988), pp. 283-315: "Richard Edwards, the last of the eight children of William Edwards, was born in Halifax near four o'clock in the morning of 16 March 1768 and baptised by Mr. Ralph at Northgate End Chapel, like the rest of his siblings, on 17 April" (p. 284).

Categories

• Family : Relationship : Marriage more than 15 Yrs (34 years)

• Family : Parenting : Kids more than 3 (At least six)

• Personal : Death : Illness/ Disease

• Vocation : Business/Marketing : Sales (Bookseller)

• Vocation : Writers : Publisher/ Editor