William Blake, poet, painter, illustrator, and printer, is one of the most compelling and idiosyncratic figures in the history of British culture. His works, little known until their rediscovery some forty years after his death, have eluded one interpretive category after another, including genre, period, and even conventional distinctions between literature and the graphic arts. In considering Blake's relation to the British tradition of writing for children, the difficulties in classifying his work become even more pronounced, as it remains unclear whether Blake wrote for children at all. Are the Songs of Innocence (1789) and For Children: The Gates of Paradise (1793) books intended for children, parodies of children's books, or sophisticated versions of children's genres aimed primarily at adults? Despite lasting uncertainty regarding the intended audience of these works, Blake has become a crucial presence in modern interpretations of early children's literature as a brilliant adapter and implicit critic...