William Blake

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. What he called his "prophetic works" were said by 20th-century critic Northrop Frye to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". While he lived in London his entire life, except for three years spent in Felpham, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich collection of works, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God", or "human existence itself".

28 November 1757

Born on the same birth day (28 November): Alfonso Cuarón • Alfonso XII • Anton Rubinstein • Brooks Atkinson • Darryl Flahavan • Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen • Lilian, Princess of Réthy • Mouhamadou Dabo • Nao Hibino • Paul Shaffer • Roy Tarpley

Born in the same month (November 1757): Antonio Canova • Heinrich Christian Friedrich Schumacher • Robert Smith (Cabinet member)