“A Visit to William Blake’s Inn” by Nancy Willard: now in Cambridge (En)

This precious gem from my past has finally reached me.

I vividly remember when Dad brought me a selection of magazines called “America” (from the US embassy: it was 1989, and he was invited to see the Ambassador), and it was weird and wonderful—brief columns about computer science, a long read about a cowboy family in Texas (their horses looked like they came from fairy tales), glam and snazzy photoshoots with gorgeous looking young women on the beach, short novellas (one of them was called “Amulets”: I still remember) and fragments from this charming book by Nancy Willard, illustrated by the legendary Provensens duo (I discovered Martin Provensen’s works much later in life, but this first introduction was indeed fabulous).

Like most of my Soviet counterparts, I didn’t speak English at all, but I learned a few introductory lines from the book—and I still remember them and can quote them by heart, after more than 30 years:

This inn belongs to William Blake

and many are the beasts he’s tamed

and many are the stars he’s named

and many those who stop and take

their joyful rest with William Blake. ©

...And now I have it on my bookshelf.