William Morris

This page is about William Morris, the writer, designer and socialist. For other meanings, see William Morris (disambiguation).

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William Morris, socialist and innovator in the arts & crafts movement

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William Morris, publisher

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"David's Charge to Solomon" (1882), a stained-glass window by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris in Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts.

William Morris (March 24, 1834 – October 3, 1896) was one of the principal founders of the British Arts and Crafts Movement and is best known as a designer of wallpaper and patterned fabrics, a writer of poetry and fiction, and an early founder of the socialist movement in Britain.

1 Overview
2 Early life
3 Business career
4 Social work
5 The Kelmscott Press
6 Literary works
- 6.1 Notes
7 Morris today
8 See also
9 External links

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Overview

The tragic conflict in Morris' life was his unfulfilled desire to create affordable — or even free — beautiful things for common people, whereas the real-life result was always the creation of extremely expensive objects for the discerning few. (In one of his best-known works, the utopian novel News from Nowhere, everybody works for pleasure only, and beautifully handcrafted things are given away free to those who simply appreciate.)

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Early life

Morris was born in Walthamstow near London. His family was wealthy, and he went to school at Marlborough College and then to Oxford University (Exeter College), where he became influenced by John Ruskin and met his life-long friends and collaborators, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown and Philip Webb. He also met his wife, Jane Burden, a working-class woman whose pale skin, languid figure, and abundant coppery hair were considered by Morris and his friends the epitome of beauty.

These friends formed an artistic movement, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. They eschewed the tawdry industrial manufacture of decorative arts and architecture and favoured a return to hand-craftsmanship, raising artisans to the status of artists.

Morris had two daughters, Jane (called Jenny) and Mary (called May).

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Business career

Morris left Oxford to join an architecture firm, but soon found himself drawn more and more to the decorative arts. He and Webb built Red House at Bexleyheath in Kent, Morris' wedding gift to Jane. It was here his design ideas began to take physical shape. (In honour of Morris' connection with Bexleyheath, a bust of Morris was added to an original niche in the brick clocktower in the town centre in 1996.)

In 1861, he founded the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. with Gabriel Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Madox Brown and Philip Webb. Throughout his life, he continued to work in his own firm, although the firm changed names. Its most famous incarnation was as Morris and Company. His designs are still sold today under licences given to Sanderson and Sons and Liberty of London.

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Social work

In 1877, he founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. His preservation work resulted indirectly in the founding of the National Trust.

Morris and his daughter May were amongst Britain's first socialists, working directly with Eleanor Marx and Engels to begin the socialist movement. In 1883, he joined the Social Democratic Federation, and in 1884 he organised the Socialist League. This side of Morris' work is well-discussed in the biography (subtitled 'Romantic to Revolutionary') by E. P. Thompson.

Morris and Rossetti rented a country house, Kelmscott Manor at Kelmscott, Oxfordshire, as a summer retreat, but it soon became a retreat for Rossetti and Jane Morris to have a long-lasting affair. To escape the discomfort, Morris often travelled to Iceland, where he researched Icelandic legends that later became the basis of poems and novels. At his death in 1896 he was interred in the Kelmscott village churchyard .

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The Nature of Gothic by John Ruskin, printed by Kelmscott Press. First page of text, with typical ornamented border.

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The Nature of Gothic by John Ruskin, printed by Kelmscott Press. Last page of text, with Kelmscott Press device.

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The Kelmscott Press

In January 1891, Morris founded the Kelmscott Press at Hammersmith, London, in order to produce examples of improved printing and book design. He designed clear typefaces, such as his roman 'golden' type, which was inspired by that of the early Venetian printer Nicolaus Jenson, and medievalizing decorative borders for books that drew their inspiration from the incunabula of the 15th century and their woodcut illustrations. Selection of paper and ink, and concerns for the overall integration of type and decorations on the page made the Kelmscott Press the most famous of the private presses of the Arts and Crafts movement. It operated until 1898, producing 53 volumes, and inspired other private presses, notably the Doves Press.

Among book lovers, the Kelmscott Press' edition of The Canterbury Tales is considered one of the most beautiful books ever produced.

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Literary works

The Defence of Guinevere, and other Poems (1858)
The Life and Death of Jason (1867)
The Earthly Paradise (1868–70)
Love is Enough, or The Freeing of Pharamond (1872)
The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Nibelungs (1876)
A Dream of John Ball (1886)
The House of the Wolfings (1888)
The Roots of the Mountains (1889)
News from Nowhere (1890)
The Story of the Glittering Plain (1890)
The Well at the World's End (1892)
The Wood Beyond the World (1895)
The Water of the Wondrous Isles(1896)
The Sundering Flood(1898)

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Notes

Morris also translated large numbers of mediaeval and classical works, including collections of Icelandic sagas such as Three Northern Love Stories (1875), Virgil's Aeneid (1875), and Homer's Odyssey (1887).
Morris' book, The Wood Beyond the World, is considered to have heavily influenced C. S. Lewis' Narnia series, while J. R. R. Tolkien was inspired by Morris' reconstructions of early Germanic life in 'The House of the Wolfings' and 'The Roots of the Mountains'.
Editor and fantasy scholar Lin Carter credits William Morris with originating the imaginary-world fantasy with The Well at the World's End and other fantasy novels
After the death of Tennyson in 1892, Morris was offered the Poet Laureateship, but declined.