It is during this time, at the age of twenty-five (1782), that Blake married his lifelong companion and wife, Catherine Boucher. He taught her to read, write, and help him with his work. They never had any children. It is true that his wife actually helped him produce an edition Blake's Songs of Innocence. For this edition and various other projects, Blake engraved the plates while Catherine made the impressions, helped hand-colored them, and bound the books together.
John Flaxman helped Blake set up his own print shop at 27 Broad Street in 1784. The business was an eventual failure. Blake continued to contract his skills to others while producing his major works with his wife. During this time, he produced An Island in the Moon (1784-5), All Religions Are One and There is No Natural Religion (1788), The Book of Thel (1789), and Songs of Innocence (1789). The year 1789 marked the beginning of tremendous creativity for Blake as he published his major works in the relatively short period to follow- The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93), The French Revolution (1791), America: A Prophecy (1793), Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793), The Book of Urizen (1794), the Songs of Experience (1793-4), Europe: A Prophecy (1794) The Book of Los (1795) and The Four Zoas (1795-1804).
Blake and his wife left London for the southern coastal town of Felpham between 1800 and 1803. It is in Felpham where Blake evicted a drunken soldier from urinating in his garden who later accused him of making seditious remarks. A jury acquitted him but the event would surface in some of Blake's later works including one of his masterpieces, Jerusalem (1804-20).
After 1818 and until his death on August 12, 1827, Blake produced no more poetry but continued his engravings including the twenty-one plates of the Book of Job and illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy. Blake continued his creative vision until his death having lived in London, with the exception of his time in Felpham, his entire life.