How you live your life and the people you surround yourself with influence and inspire your work and success. William Blake was a famous artist, printmaker and poet. However, it was not until 1863 that he became famous when Alexander Gilchrist published his biography (Blake, William and Geoffrey Keynes). Blake and his poetry have been compared to Shakespeare (Kathleen Raine). As an artist Blake was equated with Michelangelo. Having been born during the time of the American and French Revolutions, William Blake was against both church and state. Blake was a dualist, believing that the earth was divided in two; good and evil, heaven and hell. He was a visionary and was known by many as a modern day prophet (in the classroom). Blake's visions influenced his writing later in his life. Additionally, he was homeschooled for much of his childhood, which shaped him as a person. William Blake's family life and personal beliefs influenced his substantial body of work. William Blake was born in the Soho district of London, England, on November 28, 1715. He was the son of Catherine Wright, who was married to her second husband, James Blake, a hosier. Blake was one of seven children. Unfortunately, two of his brothers died as infants. His mother Catherine was a member of the Moravian Church. In some of Blake's later poems there are traces of Moravian hymns (blakearchive.org). Overall, William Blake's childhood was atypical. He had strange and unexplained visions from a young age and did not fit into the typical school environment. According to Gilchrist, starting from a young age, Blake would see images and visions. When he was four years old, Blake had a vision of God leaning his head against a window. At the age of nine, he saw that the work of a... paper medium would not be successful, so Cromek asked Thomas Stothard to finish the etching. Blake felt deceived by Stothard and cut off all contact with him. William Blake then opened his own shop where he produced his version of Chaucer's illustration and many other works (Complete Works). Between 1808 and 1818 Blake remained in poverty. After being deceived by Cromek, William was a bitter and angry man. He stopped producing etchings and engravings for commercial use. In 1818, William Blake befriended John Linnell, a twenty-six-year-old landscape painter. Linnell provided Blake with plenty of opportunities to get back to his feet. In 1819, Blake began drawing Visionary Heads for John Varley, an artist and astrologer. The Visionary Heads are pencil and black chalk drawings of famous historical and mythological creatures that Blake created in 1818 for Varley.