William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British
textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British
Arts and Crafts Movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditional British
textile arts
Textile arts are arts and crafts that use plant, animal, or synthetic fibers to construct practical or decorative objects.
Textiles have been a fundamental part of human life since the beginning of civilization. The methods and materials u ...
and methods of production. His literary contributions helped to establish the modern fantasy genre, while he helped win acceptance of
socialism
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
in ''
fin de siècle
() is a French term meaning "end of century,” a phrase which typically encompasses both the meaning of the similar English idiom "turn of the century" and also makes reference to the closing of one era and onset of another. Without context, ...
'' Great Britain.
Morris was born in
Walthamstow,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
, to a wealthy middle-class family. He came under the strong influence of
medievalism
Medievalism is a system of belief and practice inspired by the Middle Ages of Europe, or by devotion to elements of that period, which have been expressed in areas such as architecture, literature, music, art, philosophy, scholarship, and variou ...
while studying
Classics
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
at
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, there joining the
Birmingham Set
The Birmingham Set, sometimes called the Birmingham Colony, the Pembroke Set or later The Brotherhood, was a group of students at the University of Oxford in England in the 1850s, most of whom were from Birmingham or had studied at King Edward's ...
. After university, he married
Jane Burden
Jane Morris (née Burden; 19 October 1839 – 26 January 1914) was an English embroiderer in the Arts and Crafts movement and artists' model who embodied the Pre-Raphaelite ideal of beauty. She was a model and muse to her husband William ...
, and developed close friendships with
Pre-Raphaelite
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...
artists
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman ...
and
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...
and with
Neo-Gothic
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
architect
Philip Webb
Philip Speakman Webb (12 January 1831 – 17 April 1915) was a British architect and designer sometimes called the Father of Arts and Crafts Architecture. His use of vernacular architecture demonstrated his commitment to "the art of commo ...
. Webb and Morris designed
Red House in Kent where Morris lived from 1859 to 1865, before moving to
Bloomsbury, central London. In 1861, Morris founded the
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. decorative arts firm with Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Webb, and others, which became highly fashionable and much in demand. The firm profoundly influenced interior decoration throughout the
Victorian period
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian ...
, with Morris designing tapestries, wallpaper, fabrics, furniture, and stained glass windows. In 1875, he assumed total control of the company, which was renamed Morris & Co.
Morris rented the rural retreat of
Kelmscott Manor
Kelmscott Manor is a limestone manor house in the Cotswolds village of Kelmscott, in West Oxfordshire, southern England. It dates from around 1570, with a late 17th-century wing, and is listed Grade I on the National Heritage List for Engla ...
,
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
, from 1871 while also retaining a main home in London. He was greatly influenced by visits to Iceland with
Eiríkur Magnússon, and he produced a series of English-language translations of Icelandic Sagas. He also achieved success with the publication of his epic poems and novels, namely ''
The Earthly Paradise'' (1868–1870), ''
A Dream of John Ball'' (1888), the Utopian ''
News from Nowhere
''News from Nowhere'' (1890) is a classic work combining utopian socialism and soft science fiction written by the artist, designer and socialist pioneer William Morris. It was first published in serial form in the ''Commonweal'' journal begin ...
'' (1890), and the fantasy romance ''
The Well at the World's End
''The Well at the World's End'' is a high fantasy novel by the British artist, poet, and author William Morris. It was first published in 1896 and has been reprinted repeatedly since, most notably in two parts as the 20th and 21st volumes of th ...
'' (1896). In 1877, he founded the
Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) (also known as Anti-Scrape) is an amenity society founded by William Morris, Philip Webb, and others in 1877 to oppose the destructive 'restoration' of ancient buildings occurring in ...
to campaign against the damage caused by architectural restoration. He was influenced by anarchism in the 1880s and became a committed revolutionary socialist activist. He founded the
Socialist League in 1884 after an involvement in the
Social Democratic Federation (SDF), but he broke with that organisation in 1890. In 1891, he founded the
Kelmscott Press
The Kelmscott Press, founded by William Morris and Emery Walker, published fifty-three books in sixty-six volumes between 1891 and 1898. Each book was designed and ornamented by Morris and printed by hand in limited editions of around 300. Many ...
to publish limited-edition,
illuminated
Illuminated may refer to:
* "Illuminated" (song), by Hurts
* Illuminated Film Company, a British animation house
* ''Illuminated'', alternative title of Black Sheep (Nat & Alex Wolff album)
* Illuminated manuscript
See also
* Illuminate (disambi ...
-style print books, a cause to which he devoted his final years.
Morris is recognised as one of the most significant cultural figures of
Victorian Britain
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
. He was best known in his lifetime as a poet, although he posthumously became better known for his designs. The
William Morris Society
The William Morris Society was founded in 1955 in London, England. The Society's office and museum are located at Kelmscott House, Hammersmith, where Morris lived from 1879 until his death in 1896.
The Society aims to make more well-known th ...
founded in 1955 is devoted to his legacy, while multiple biographies and studies of his work have been published. Many of the buildings associated with his life are open to visitors, much of his work can be found in art galleries and museums, and his designs are still in production.
Early life
Youth: 1834–1852
Morris was born at Elm House in
Walthamstow,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
, on 24 March 1834. Raised into a wealthy middle-class family, he was named after his father, a financier who worked as a partner in the Sanderson & Co. firm, bill brokers in the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
. His mother was Emma Morris (née Shelton), who descended from a wealthy bourgeois family from
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
. Morris was the third of his parents' surviving children; their first child, Charles, had been born in 1827 but died four days later. Charles had been followed by the birth of two girls, Emma in 1829 and Henrietta in 1833, before William's birth. These children were followed by the birth of siblings Stanley in 1837, Rendall in 1839, Arthur in 1840,
Isabella
Isabella may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Isabella (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Isabella (surname), including a list of people
Places
United States
* Isabella, Alabama, an unincorpor ...
in 1842, Edgar in 1844, and Alice in 1846. The Morris family were followers of the
evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
form of Christianity, and William was
baptised
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...
four months after his birth at
St. Mary's Church, Walthamstow.
![William Morris Gallery-001 crop](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/William_Morris_Gallery-001_crop.JPG)
As a child, Morris was kept largely housebound at Elm House by his mother; there, he spent much time reading, favouring the novels of
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...
. Aged 6, Morris moved with his family to the
Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...
mansion at
Woodford Hall,
Woodford, Essex
Woodford is a town in East London, within the London Borough of Redbridge. It is located north-east of Charing Cross. Woodford historically formed an ancient parish in the county of Essex. It contained a string of agrarian villages and was pa ...
, which was surrounded by 50 acres of land adjacent to
Epping Forest
Epping Forest is a area of ancient woodland, and other established habitats, which straddles the border between Greater London and Essex. The main body of the forest stretches from Epping in the north, to Chingford on the edge of the London ...
. He took an interest in fishing with his brothers as well as gardening in the Hall's grounds, and spent much time exploring the Forest, where he was fascinated both by the Iron Age earthworks at
Loughton Camp
Loughton Camp is an Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcol ...
and
Ambresbury Banks and by the Early Modern
Hunting Lodge at
Chingford
Chingford is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The town is approximately north-east of Charing Cross, with Waltham Abbey to the north, Woodford Green and Buckhurst Hill to the east, Walthamstow t ...
. He also took rides through the Essex countryside on his pony, and visited the various churches and cathedrals throughout the country, marveling at their architecture. His father took him on visits outside of the county, for instance to
Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the ...
, the Chiswick Horticultural Gardens, and to the
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...
, where he adored
Blackgang Chine
Blackgang Chine is the oldest amusement park in the United Kingdom, having opened in 1843. Named after a now-destroyed chine (a coastal ravine) in the soft Cretaceous cliffs, it is about 6 miles from Ventnor at the southern tip of the Isle of Wi ...
. Aged 9, he was then sent to Misses Arundale's Academy for Young Gentlemen, a nearby preparatory school; although initially riding there by pony each day, he later began boarding, intensely disliking the experience.
In 1847, Morris's father died unexpectedly. From this point, the family relied upon continued income from the copper mines at
Devon Great Consols, and sold Woodford Hall to move into the smaller
Water House. In February 1848 Morris began his studies at
Marlborough College
Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. Founded in 1843 for the sons of Church ...
in
Marlborough, Wiltshire
Marlborough ( , ) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the England, English Counties of England, county of Wiltshire on the A4 road (England), Old Bath Road, the old main road from London to Bath, Somerset, Bath. Th ...
, where he gained a reputation as an eccentric nicknamed "Crab". He despised his time there, being bullied, bored, and homesick. He did use the opportunity to visit many of the prehistoric sites of Wiltshire, such as
Avebury
Avebury () is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England. One of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in ...
and
Silbury Hill
Silbury Hill is a prehistoric artificial chalk mound near Avebury in the English county of Wiltshire. It is part of the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites UNESCO World Heritage Site. At high, it is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound ...
, which fascinated him. The school was
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
in faith and in March 1849 Morris was confirmed by the
Bishop of Salisbury
The Bishop of Salisbury is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The see is in the City of Salisbury where the bishop's seat ...
in the college chapel, developing an enthusiastic attraction towards the
Anglo-Catholic movement and its
Romanticist
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
aesthetic. At Christmas 1851, Morris was removed from the school and returned to Water House, where he was privately tutored by the Reverend Frederick B. Guy, Assistant Master at the nearby
Forest School Forest School or Forrest School may refer to:
Educational philosophy
* Forest school (learning style), a learner centred outdoor learning approach.
Religious philosophy
* Thai Forest Tradition, a Theravada school of Buddhism in Thailand.
* Sri La ...
.
Oxford and the Birmingham Set: 1852–1856
![William Morris 23](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/William_Morris_23.jpg)
In June 1852 Morris entered
Exeter College at
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, although, since the college was full, he went into residence only in January 1853. He disliked the college and was bored by the manner in which they taught him
Classics
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
. Instead he developed a keen interest in Medieval history and Medieval architecture, inspired by the many Medieval buildings in Oxford. This interest was tied to Britain's growing
Medievalist
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often vo ...
movement, a form of
Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
that rejected many of the values of Victorian
industrial capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...
. For Morris, the Middle Ages represented an era with strong
chivalric values and an organic, pre-capitalist sense of community, both of which he deemed preferable to his own period. This attitude was compounded by his reading of
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy.
Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...
's book ''
Past and Present'' (1843), in which Carlyle championed Medieval values as a corrective to the problems of Victorian society. Under this influence, Morris's dislike of contemporary capitalism grew, and he came to be influenced by the work of
Christian socialists Charles Kingsley and
Frederick Denison Maurice
John Frederick Denison Maurice (29 August 1805 – 1 April 1872), known as F. D. Maurice, was an English Anglican theologian, a prolific author, and one of the founders of Christian socialism. Since World War II, interest in Maurice has exp ...
.
At the college, Morris met fellow first-year undergraduate
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman ...
, who became his lifelong friend and collaborator. Although from very different backgrounds, they found that they had a shared attitude to life, both being keenly interested in Anglo-Catholicism and
Arthurianism.
Through Burne-Jones, Morris joined a group of undergraduates from
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
who were studying at
Pembroke College: William Fulford (1831–1882),
Richard Watson Dixon
Richard Watson Dixon (5 May 1833 – 23 January 1900), English poet and divine, son of Dr James Dixon, a Wesleyan minister.
Biography
He was the eldest son of Dr. James Dixon, a distinguished Wesleyan preacher, by Mary, only daughter of the ...
,
Charles Faulkner, and
Cormell Price. They were known among themselves as the "Brotherhood" and to historians as the
Birmingham Set
The Birmingham Set, sometimes called the Birmingham Colony, the Pembroke Set or later The Brotherhood, was a group of students at the University of Oxford in England in the 1850s, most of whom were from Birmingham or had studied at King Edward's ...
. Morris was the most affluent member of the Set, and was generous with his wealth toward the others. Like Morris, the Set were fans of the poet
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and would meet together to recite the plays of
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
.
![William morris self-portrait 1856](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/William_morris_self-portrait_1856.jpg)
Morris was heavily influenced by the writings of the art critic
John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...
, being particularly inspired by his chapter "On the Nature of Gothic Architecture" in the second volume of ''
The Stones of Venice''; he later described it as "one of the very few necessary and inevitable utterances of the century". Morris adopted Ruskin's philosophy of rejecting the tawdry industrial manufacture of decorative arts and architecture in favour of a return to hand-craftsmanship, raising
artisan
An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art ...
s to the status of artists, creating art that should be affordable and hand-made, with no hierarchy of artistic mediums.
Ruskin had achieved attention in Victorian society for championing the art of a group of painters who had emerged in London in 1848 calling themselves the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The Pre-Raphaelite style was heavily Medievalist and Romanticist, emphasising abundant detail, intense colours and complex compositions; it greatly impressed Morris and the Set. Influenced both by Ruskin and by
John Keats, Morris began to spend more time writing poetry, in a style that was imitative of much of theirs.
Both he and Burne-Jones were influenced by the Romanticist milieu and the Anglo-Catholic movement, and decided to become clergymen in order to found a monastery where they could live a life of
chastity
Chastity, also known as purity, is a virtue related to temperance. Someone who is ''chaste'' refrains either from sexual activity considered immoral or any sexual activity, according to their state of life. In some contexts, for example when mak ...
and dedication to artistic pursuit, akin to that of the contemporary
Nazarene movement
The epithet Nazarene was adopted by a group of early 19th-century German Romantic painters who aimed to revive spirituality in art. The name Nazarene came from a term of derision used against them for their affectation of a biblical manner of c ...
. However, as time went on Morris became increasingly critical of Anglican doctrine and the idea faded. In summer 1854, Morris travelled to Belgium to look at Medieval paintings, and in July 1855 went with Burne-Jones and Fulford across northern France, visiting Medieval churches and cathedrals. It was on this trip that he and Burne-Jones committed themselves to "a life of art". For Morris, this decision resulted in a strained relationship with his family, who believed that he should have entered either commerce or the clergy. On a subsequent visit to Birmingham, Morris discovered
Thomas Malory
Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author of ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', the classic English-language chronicle of the Arthurian legend, compiled and in most cases translated from French sources. The most popular version of ''Le Morte d'Ar ...
's ''
Le Morte d'Arthur'', which became a core Arthurian text for him and Burne-Jones. In January 1856, the Set began publication of ''
The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine
''The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine'' was a periodical magazine of essays, poems, reviews, and stories, that appeared in 1856 as twelve monthly issues.
The magazine was founded by a "set" of seven undergraduate students including William Morris ...
'', designed to contain "mainly Tales, Poetry, friendly critiques and social articles". Funded mainly by Morris, who briefly served as editor and heavily contributed to it with his own stories, poems, reviews and articles, the magazine lasted for twelve issues, and garnered praise from Tennyson and Ruskin.
Apprenticeship, the Pre-Raphaelites, and marriage: 1856–1859
![William Morris 001](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/William_Morris_001.jpg)
Having passed his finals and been awarded a
BA, Morris began an apprenticeship with the Oxford-based
Neo-Gothic
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
architect
George Edmund Street
George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), also known as G. E. Street, was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex. Stylistically, Street was a leading practitioner of the Victorian Gothic Revival. Though mainly an eccl ...
in January 1856. His apprenticeship focused on architectural drawing, and there he was placed under the supervision of the young architect
Philip Webb
Philip Speakman Webb (12 January 1831 – 17 April 1915) was a British architect and designer sometimes called the Father of Arts and Crafts Architecture. His use of vernacular architecture demonstrated his commitment to "the art of commo ...
, who became a close friend. Morris soon relocated to Street's London office, in August 1856 moving into a flat in
Bloomsbury in
Central London with Burne-Jones, an area perhaps chosen for its avant-garde associations. Morris was fascinated by London but dismayed at its pollution and rapid expansion into neighbouring countryside, describing it as "the spreading sore".
William Morris became increasingly fascinated with the idyllic Medievalist depictions of rural life which appeared in the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites, and spent large sums of money purchasing such artworks. Burne-Jones shared this interest, but took it further by becoming an apprentice to one of the foremost Pre-Raphaelite painters,
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...
; the three soon became close friends. Through Rossetti, Morris came to associate with poet
Robert Browning, and the artists
Arthur Hughes,
Thomas Woolner
Thomas Woolner (17 December 1825 – 7 October 1892) was an English sculptor and poet who was one of the founder-members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was the only sculptor among the original members.
After participating in the found ...
, and
Ford Madox Brown
Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his most notable painti ...
. Tired of architecture, Morris abandoned his apprenticeship, with Rossetti persuading him to take up painting instead, which he chose to do in the Pre-Raphaelite style. Morris aided Rossetti and Burne-Jones in painting the
Arthurian murals at the
Oxford Union
The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest ...
, although his contributions were widely deemed inferior and unskilled compared to those of the others. At Rossetti's recommendation, Morris and Burne-Jones moved in together to the flat at Bloomsbury's
No. 17 Red Lion Square by November 1856. Morris designed and commissioned furniture for the flat in a Medieval style, much of which he painted with Arthurian scenes in a direct rejection of mainstream artistic tastes.
Morris also continued writing poetry and began designing illuminated manuscripts and embroidered hangings. In March 1857 Bell and Dandy published a book of Morris's poems, ''The Defence of Guenevere'', which was largely self-funded by the author. It did not sell well and garnered few reviews, most of which were unsympathetic. Disconcerted, Morris would not publish again for a further eight years. In October 1857 Morris met
Jane Burden
Jane Morris (née Burden; 19 October 1839 – 26 January 1914) was an English embroiderer in the Arts and Crafts movement and artists' model who embodied the Pre-Raphaelite ideal of beauty. She was a model and muse to her husband William ...
, a woman from a poor working-class background, at a theatre performance. Rossetti initially asked her to model for him. Controversially both Rossetti and Morris were smitten with her; Morris, however, began a relationship with her and they were engaged in spring 1858; Burden would later admit that she had never loved Morris. They were married in a low-key ceremony held at
St Michael at the North Gate church in Oxford on 26 April 1859, before honeymooning in
Bruges
Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...
, Belgium, and settling temporarily at 41 Great Ormond Street, London.
Career and fame
Red House and the Firm: 1859–1865
![Philip Webb's Red House in Upton](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Philip_Webb%27s_Red_House_in_Upton.jpg)
Morris desired a new home for himself and his daughters resulting in the construction of the
Red House in the Kentish hamlet of Upton near
Bexleyheath
Bexleyheath is a town in south-east London, England. It had a population of 31,929 as at 2011.
Bexleyheath is located south-east of Charing Cross, and forms part of the London Borough of Bexley. It is identified in the London Plan as one of ...
, ten miles from central London. The building's design was a co-operative effort, with Morris focusing on the interiors and the exterior being designed by Webb, for whom the House represented his first commission as an independent architect. Named after the red bricks and red tiles from which it was constructed, Red House rejected architectural norms by being L-shaped. Influenced by various forms of contemporary Neo-Gothic architecture, the House was nevertheless unique, with Morris describing it as "very mediaeval in spirit". Situated within an orchard, the house and garden were intricately linked in their design. It took a year to construct, and cost Morris £4000 at a time when his fortune was greatly reduced by a dramatic fall in the price of his shares. Burne-Jones described it as "the beautifullest place on Earth."
After construction, Morris invited friends to visit, most notably Burne-Jones and his wife
Georgiana, as well as Rossetti and his wife
Lizzie Siddal. They aided him in painting murals on the furniture, walls, and ceilings, much of it based on Arthurian tales, the
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has ...
, and
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...
's stories, while he also designed floral embroideries for the rooms. They also spent much time playing tricks on each other, enjoying games like
hide and seek
Hide-and-seek (sometimes known as hide-and-go-seek) is a popular children's game in which at least two players (usually at least three) conceal themselves in a set environment, to be found by one or more seekers. The game is played by one chose ...
, and singing while accompanied by the piano. Siddall stayed at the House during summer and autumn 1861 as she recovered from a traumatic miscarriage and an addiction to
laudanum; she would die of an overdose in February 1862.
In April 1861, Morris founded a
decorative arts
]
The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. It includes most of the arts making objects for the interiors of buildings, and interior design, but not usual ...
company,
Morris & Co., Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., with six other partners: Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Webb, Ford Madox Brown, Charles Faulkner, and
Peter Paul Marshall. Operating from premises at No. 6
Red Lion Square
Red Lion Square is a small square in Holborn, London. The square was laid out in 1684 by Nicholas Barbon, taking its name from the Red Lion Inn. According to some sources, the bodies of three regicides—Oliver Cromwell, John Bradshaw and He ...
, they referred to themselves as "the Firm" and were intent on adopting Ruskin's ideas of reforming British attitudes to production. They hoped to reinstate decoration as one of the fine arts and adopted an ethos of affordability and anti-elitism. For additional staff, they employed boys from the
Industrial Home for Destitute Boys in
Euston, central London, many of whom were trained as apprentices.
Although working within the Neo-Gothic school of design, they differed from Neo-Gothic architects like
George Gilbert Scott who simply included certain Gothic features on modern styles of building; instead they sought to return completely to Medieval Gothic methods of craftmanship. The products created by the Firm included furniture, architectural carving, metalwork, stained glass windows, and murals. Their stained glass windows proved a particular success in the firm's early years as they were in high demand for the surge in the Neo-Gothic construction and refurbishment of churches, many of which were commissioned by the architect
George Frederick Bodley
George Frederick Bodley (14 March 182721 October 1907) was an English Gothic Revival architect. He was a pupil of Sir George Gilbert Scott, and worked in partnership with Thomas Garner for much of his career. He was one of the founders of Watt ...
. Despite Morris's anti-elitist ethos, the Firm soon became increasingly popular and fashionable with the bourgeoisie, particularly following their exhibit at the
1862 International Exhibition in
South Kensington
South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...
, where they received press attention and medals of commendation. However, they faced much opposition from established design companies, particularly those belonging to the
Neo-Classical school.
![William Morris design for Trellis wallpaper 1862](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/William_Morris_design_for_Trellis_wallpaper_1862.jpg)
Morris was slowly abandoning painting, recognising that his work lacked a sense of movement; none of his paintings are dated later than 1862. Instead he focused his energies on designing wallpaper patterns, the first being "Trellis", designed in 1862. His designs were produced from 1864 by Jeffrey and Co. of
Islington, who created them for the Firm under Morris's supervision. Morris retained an active interest in various groups, joining the
Hogarth Club
The Hogarth Club was an exhibition society of artists, based at 84 Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia, London, UK, which existed between 1858 and 1861. It was founded by former members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood after the original PRB had been d ...
, the Mediaeval Society, and the Corps of Artist Volunteers, the latter in contrast to his later pacifism.
Meanwhile, Morris's family continued to grow. In January 1861, Morris and Janey's first daughter was born: named
Jane Alice Morris, she was commonly known as "Jenny". Jenny was followed in March 1862 by the birth of their second daughter,
Mary "May" Morris. Morris was a caring father to his daughters, and years later they both recounted having idyllic childhoods. However, there were problems in Morris's marriage as Janey became increasingly close to Rossetti, who often painted her. It is unknown if their affair was ever sexual, although by this point other members of the group were noticing Rossetti and Janey's closeness.
Imagining the creation of an artistic community at Upton, Morris helped develop plans for a second house to be constructed adjacent to Red House in which Burne-Jones could live with his family; the plans were abandoned when Burne-Jones's son Christopher died from
scarlet fever
Scarlet fever, also known as Scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'' a Group A streptococcus (GAS). The infection is a type of Group A streptococcal infection (Group A strep). It most commonly affects childr ...
. By 1864, Morris had become increasingly tired of life at Red House, being particularly unhappy with the 3 to 4 hours spent commuting to his London workplace on a daily basis. He sold Red House, and in autumn 1865 moved with his family to No. 26
Queen Square in Bloomsbury, the same building to which the Firm had moved its base of operations earlier in the summer.
Queen Square and ''The Earthly Paradise'': 1865–1870
![George Frederic Watts portrait of William Morris 1870](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/George_Frederic_Watts_portrait_of_William_Morris_1870.jpg)
At Queen Square, the Morris family lived in a flat directly above the Firm's shop. They were joined by Janey's sister
Elizabeth Burden
Elizabeth (Bessie) Burden (13 December 1841 – ?) was an English embroiderer and teacher. She was a member of the Arts and Crafts Movement, and worked for the embroidery department of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. She was the sister of Ja ...
and a number of household servants. Meanwhile, changes were afoot at the Firm as Faulkner left, and to replace him they employed a business manager, Warrington Taylor, who would remain with them till 1866. Taylor pulled the Firm's finances into order and spent much time controlling Morris and ensuring that he worked to schedule. During these years the Firm carried out a number of high-profile designs; from September 1866 to January 1867, they redecorated the Armoury and Tapestry Room in
St James's Palace, in the latter year also designing the Green Dining Room at the
South Kensington Museum (it is now the Morris Room at the Victoria and Albert Museum). The Firm's work received increasing interest from people in the United States, resulting in Morris's acquaintance with
Henry James
Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
and
Charles Eliot Norton
Charles Eliot Norton (November 16, 1827 – October 21, 1908) was an American author, social critic, and Harvard professor of art based in New England. He was a progressive social reformer and a liberal activist whom many of his contemporaries c ...
. However, despite its success, the Firm was not turning over a large net profit, and this, coupled with the decreasing value of Morris's stocks, meant that he had to decrease his spending.
Janey's relationship with Rossetti had continued, and by the late 1860s gossip regarding their affair had spread about London, where they were regularly seen spending time together. Morris biographer
Fiona MacCarthy
Fiona MacCarthy (23 January 1940 – 29 February 2020) was a British biographer and cultural historian best known for her studies of 19th- and 20th-century art and design.
Early life and education
Fiona MacCarthy was born in Sutton, Surrey in ...
argued that it was likely that Morris had learned of and accepted the existence of their affair by 1870. In this year he developed an affectionate friendship with Aglaia Coronio, the daughter of wealthy Greek refugees, although there is no evidence that they had an affair. Meanwhile, Morris's relationship with his mother had improved, and he would regularly take his wife and children to visit her at her house in
Leyton
Leyton () is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the River L ...
. He also went on various holidays; in the summer of 1866 he, Webb, and Taylor toured the churches of northern France.
![Morris by Rossetti](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Morris_by_Rossetti.jpg)
In August 1866 Morris joined the Burne-Jones family on their holiday in
Lymington
Lymington is a port town on the west bank of the Lymington River on the Solent, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England. It faces Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, to which there is a car ferry service operated by Wightlink. It is within the ...
, while in August 1867 both families holidayed together in Oxford. In August 1867 the Morrises holidayed in
Southwold
Southwold is a seaside town and civil parish on the English North Sea coast in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk. It lies at the mouth of the River Blyth within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town is ...
,
Suffolk, while in the summer of 1869 Morris took his wife to
Bad Ems
Bad Ems () is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Rhein-Lahn rural district and is well known as a spa on the river Lahn. Bad Ems is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' (administrative community) Ba ...
in
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
, central Germany, where it was hoped that the local health waters would aid her ailments. While there, he enjoyed walks in the countryside and focused on writing poetry.
Morris had continued to devote much time to writing poetry. In 1867 Bell and Dandy published Morris's epic poem, ''The Life and Death of Jason'', at his own expense. The book was a retelling of the ancient Greek myth of the hero
Jason
Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea. He w ...
and his quest to find the
Golden Fleece
In Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece ( el, Χρυσόμαλλον δέρας, ''Chrysómallon déras'') is the fleece of the golden-woolled,, ''Khrusómallos''. winged ram, Chrysomallos, that rescued Phrixus and brought him to Colchis, where ...
. In contrast to Morris's former publication, ''The Life and Death of Jason'' was well received, resulting in the publishers paying Morris a fee for the second edition.
From 1865 to 1870, Morris worked on another epic poem, ''
The Earthly Paradise''. Designed as a homage to Chaucer, it consisted of 24 stories, adopted from an array of different cultures, and each by a different narrator; set in the late 14th century, the synopsis revolved around a group of Norsemen who flee the
Black Death
The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...
by sailing away from Europe, on the way discovering an island where the inhabitants continue to venerate the ancient Greek gods. Published in four parts by
F. S. Ellis, it soon gained a cult following and established Morris's reputation as a major poet.
Kelmscott Manor and Iceland: 1870–1875
![KelmscottManor1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/KelmscottManor1.JPG)
By 1870, Morris had become a
public figure
A public figure is a person who has achieved notoriety, prominence or fame within a society, whether through achievement, luck, action, or in some cases through no purposeful action of their own,
In the context of defamation actions (libel and ...
in Britain, resulting in repeated press requests for photographs, which he despised. That year, he also reluctantly agreed to sit for a portrait by establishment painter
George Frederic Watts
George Frederic Watts (23 February 1817, in London – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. He said "I paint ideas, not things." Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical work ...
. Morris was keenly interested in Icelandic literature, having befriended the Icelandic theologian
Eiríkur Magnússon. Together they produced prose translations of the
Eddas
"Edda" (; Old Norse ''Edda'', plural ''Eddur'') is an Old Norse term that has been attributed by modern scholars to the collective of two Medieval Icelandic literary works: what is now known as the ''Prose Edda'' and an older collection of poems ...
and Sagas for publication in English. Morris also developed a keen interest in creating handwritten illuminated manuscripts, producing 18 such books between 1870 and 1875, the first of which was ''A Book of Verse'', completed as a birthday present for Georgina Burne-Jones. 12 of these 18 were handwritten copies of Nordic tales such as ''
Halfdan the Black
Halfdan the Black (Old Norse: ''Halfdanr Svarti''; fl. c. 9th century) was a king of Vestfold. He belonged to the House of Yngling and was the father of Harald Fairhair, the first king of a unified Norway.
In sagas
According to ''Heimskringla'' ...
'', ''
Frithiof the Bold'', and ''The Dwellers of Eyr''. Morris deemed
calligraphy to be an art form, and taught himself both Roman and italic script, as well as learning how to produce gilded letters. In November 1872 he published ''Love is Enough'', a poetic drama based on a story in the Medieval Welsh text, the ''
Mabinogion''. Illustrated with Burne-Jones woodcuts, it was not a popular success. By 1871, he had begun work on a novel set in the present, ''The Novel on Blue Paper'', which was about a love triangle; it would remain unfinished and Morris later asserted that it was not well written.
By early summer 1871, Morris began to search for a house outside London where his children could spend time away from the city's pollution. He settled on
Kelmscott Manor
Kelmscott Manor is a limestone manor house in the Cotswolds village of Kelmscott, in West Oxfordshire, southern England. It dates from around 1570, with a late 17th-century wing, and is listed Grade I on the National Heritage List for Engla ...
in the village of
Kelmscott
Kelmscott is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in West Oxfordshire, about east of Lechlade in neighbouring Gloucestershire. Since 2001 it has absorbed Little Faringdon, which had been a separate civil parish. The 2011 Census reco ...
,
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
, obtaining a joint tenancy on the building with Rossetti in June. Morris adored the building, which was constructed ''circa'' 1570, and would spend much time in the local countryside. In contrast, Rossetti was unhappy at Kelmscott, and eventually suffered a mental breakdown. Morris divided his time between London and Kelmscott, however when Rossetti was there he would not spend more than three days at a time at the latter. He became fed up with his family home in Queen Square, deciding to obtain a new house in London. Although retaining a personal bedroom and study at Queen Square, he relocated his family to Horrington House in Turnham Green Road, West London, in January 1873. This allowed him to be far closer to the home of Burne-Jones, with the duo meeting on almost every Sunday morning for the rest of Morris's life.
Leaving Jane and his children with Rossetti at Kelmscott, in July 1871 Morris left for Iceland with Faulkner, W. H. Evans, and Eiríkur. Sailing from the Scottish port of
Granton aboard a Danish
mail boat
Mail boats or postal boats are a boat or ship used for the delivery of mail and sometimes transportation of goods, people and vehicles in communities where bodies of water commonly separate or separated settlements, towns or cities often where b ...
, they proceeded to the island via
Tórshavn
Tórshavn (; lit. "Thor's harbour"), usually locally referred to as simply ''Havn'', is the capital and largest city of the Faroe Islands. It is located in the southern part on the east coast of Streymoy. To the northwest of the city lies the ...
in the
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...
before arriving at
Reykjavík
Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...
, where they disembarked. There they met the President of the
Althing
The Alþingi (''general meeting'' in Icelandic, , anglicised as ' or ') is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at (" thing fields" or "assemb ...
,
Jón Sigurðsson
Jón Sigurðsson (17 June 1811 – 7 December 1879) was the leader of the 19th century Icelandic independence movement.
Biography
Born at Hrafnseyri, in Arnarfjörður in the Westfjords area of Iceland, he was the son of Þórdís Jónsdótti ...
, with Morris being sympathetic to the
Icelandic independence movement
The Icelandic Independence movement (Icelandic: ''Sjálfstæðisbarátta Íslendinga'') was the collective effort made by Icelanders to achieve self-determination and independence from the Kingdom of Denmark throughout the 19th and early 20th ...
. From there, they proceeded by
Icelandic horse along the south coast to
Bergþórshvoll Bergþórshvoll ( Modern Icelandic: ; Old Norse: ; usually anglicized as ''Bergthorsknoll'') is an area in Vestur-Landeyjar in Rangárvallasýsla, Iceland.
Bergþórshvoll is an important setting in the Icelandic saga '' Njál's saga'', the home a ...
,
Þórsmörk,
Geysir
Geysir (), sometimes known as The Great Geysir, is a geyser in southwestern Iceland. It was the first geyser described in a printed source and the first known to modern Europeans. The English word ''geyser'' (a periodically spouting hot spring) ...
,
Þingvellir
Þingvellir (, anglicised as ThingvellirThe spelling ''Pingvellir'' is sometimes seen, although the letter "p" is unrelated to the letter "þ" (thorn), which is pronounced as "th".) was the site of the Alþing, the annual parliament of Iceland ...
, and then back to Reyjkavík, where they departed back to Britain in September. In April 1873, Morris and Burne-Jones holidayed in Italy, visiting
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
and
Siena
Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.
The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...
. Although generally disliking the country, Morris was interested in the Florentine Gothic architecture. Soon after, in July, Morris returned to Iceland, revisiting many of the sites he had previously seen, but then proceeding north to
Vatna glacier and
Fljótsdalur
Fljótsdalur () is a valley in east Iceland, formed by the Lagarfljót River. Lake Lagarfljót and the city of Egilsstaðir
Egilsstaðir () is a town in east Iceland on the banks of the Lagarfljót river.
It is part of the municipality of M ...
. His two visits to the country profoundly influenced him, in particular in his growing leftist opinions; he would comment that these trips made him realise that "the most grinding poverty is a trifling evil compared with the inequality of classes."
Morris and Burne-Jones then spent time with one of the Firm's patrons, the wealthy
George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle and his wife Rosalind, at their Medieval home in
Naworth Castle
Naworth Castle, also known or recorded in historical documents as "Naward", is a castle in Cumbria, England, near the town of Brampton. It is adjacent to the A69, about east of Brampton. It is on the opposite side of the River Irthing to, and ...
,
Cumberland. In July 1874, the Morris family then took Burne-Jones's two children with them on their holiday to
Bruges
Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...
, Belgium. However, by this point Morris's friendship with Rossetti had seriously eroded, and in July 1874 their acrimonious falling out led Rossetti to leave Kelmscott, with Morris's publisher
F.S. Ellis taking his place. With the company's other partners drifting off to work on other projects, Morris decided to consolidate his own control of the Firm and become sole proprietor and manager. In March 1875, he paid £1000 each in compensation to Rossetti, Brown, and Marshall, although the other partners waived their claims to financial compensation. That month, the Firm was officially disbanded and replaced by
Morris & Co
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. (1861–1875) was a furnishings and decorative arts manufacturer and retailer founded by the artist and designer William Morris with friends from the Pre-Raphaelites. With its successor Morris & Co. (1875–194 ...
, although Burne-Jones and Webb would continue to produce designs for it in future. This accomplished, he resigned his directorship of the Devon Great Consols, selling his remaining shares in the company.
Textile experimentation and political embrace: 1875–1880
Now in complete control of the Firm, Morris took an increased interest in the process of textile dyeing and entered into a co-operative agreement with
Thomas Wardle
Sir Thomas Edward Wardle (born 1912 in West Leederville, Western Australia, died in 1997) was a businessman and supermarket proprietor from Western Australia. He was best known for his "Tom the Cheap" supermarket chain as well as revolutionisi ...
, a silk dyer who operated the Hencroft Works in
Leek, Staffordshire
Leek is a market town and civil parish in the county of Staffordshire, England, on the River Churnet. It is situated about north east of Stoke-on-Trent. It is an ancient borough and was granted its royal charter in 1214.
It is the administra ...
. As a result, Morris would spend time with Wardle at his home on various occasions between summer 1875 and spring 1878. Deeming the colours to be of inferior quality, Morris rejected the chemical
aniline
Aniline is an organic compound with the formula C6 H5 NH2. Consisting of a phenyl group attached to an amino group, aniline is the simplest aromatic amine. It is an industrially significant commodity chemical, as well as a versatile starti ...
dyes which were then predominant, instead emphasising the revival of organic dyes, such as
indigo
Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...
for blue, walnut shells and roots for brown, and
cochineal
The cochineal ( , ; ''Dactylopius coccus'') is a scale insect in the suborder Sternorrhyncha, from which the natural dye carmine is derived. A primarily sessile parasite native to tropical and subtropical South America through North Americ ...
,
kermes, and
madder
''Rubia'' is the type genus of the Rubiaceae family of flowering plants, which also contains coffee. It contains around 80 species of perennial scrambling or climbing herbs and subshrubs native to the Old World. The genus and its best-known ...
for red. Living and working in this industrial environment, he gained a personal understanding of production and the lives of the proletariat, and was disgusted by the poor living conditions of workers and the pollution caused by industry; these factors greatly influenced his political views. After learning the skills of dyeing, in the late 1870s Morris turned his attention to weaving, experimenting with silk weaving at Queen's Square.
In the Spring of 1877, the Firm opened a store at No. 449 Oxford Street and obtained new staff who were able to improve its professionalism; as a result, sales increased and its popularity grew. By 1880, Morris & Co. had become a household name, having become very popular with Britain's upper and middle classes. The Firm was obtaining increasing numbers of commissions from aristocrats, wealthy industrialists, and provincial entrepreneurs, with Morris furnishing parts of
St James's Palace and the chapel at
Eaton Hall. As a result of his growing sympathy for the working-classes and poor, Morris felt personally conflicted in serving the interests of these individuals, privately describing it as "ministering to the swinish luxury of the rich".
Continuing with his literary output, Morris translated his own version of
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...
's ''
Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan_War#Sack_of_Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to ...
'', titling it ''The Aeneids of Vergil'' (1876). Although many translations were already available, often produced by trained Classicists, Morris claimed that his unique perspective was as "a poet not a pedant". He also continued producing translations of Icelandic tales with Magnússon, including ''Three Northern Love Stories'' (1875) and ''Völuspa Saga'' (1876). In 1877 Morris was approached by
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
and offered the largely honorary position of Professor of Poetry. He declined, asserting that he felt unqualified, knowing little about scholarship on the theory of poetry.
In summer 1876 Jenny Morris was diagnosed with
epilepsy
Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrica ...
. Refusing to allow her to be societally marginalised or institutionalised, as was common in the period, Morris insisted that she be cared for by the family. When Janey took May and Jenny to
Oneglia
Oneglia ( lij, Inêia or ) is a former town in northern Italy on the Ligurian coast, in 1923 joined to Porto Maurizio to form the Comune of Imperia. The name is still used for the suburb.Roy Palmer Domenico, ''The regions of Italy: a reference g ...
in Italy, the latter suffered a serious seizure, with Morris rushing to the country to see her. They then proceeded to visit a number of other cities, including
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
,
Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
, and
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...
, with Morris attaining a greater appreciation of the country than he had on his previous trip. In April 1879 Morris moved the family home again, this time renting an 18th-century mansion on
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
...
's Upper Mall in West London that was owned by the novelist
George MacDonald
George MacDonald (10 December 1824 – 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author, poet and Christian Congregational church, Congregational Minister (Christianity), minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of modern fantasy literature a ...
. Morris names it Kelmscott House and re-decorated it according to his own taste. In the House's grounds he set up a workshop, focusing on the production of hand-knotted carpets. Excited that both of his homes were along the course of the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
, in August 1880 he and his family took a boat trip along the river from Kelmscott House to Kelmscott Manor.
![William Morris by Sir William Blake Richmond retouched](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/William_Morris_by_Sir_William_Blake_Richmond_retouched.jpg)
Morris became politically active in this period, coming to be associated with the
radicalist current within British
liberalism
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...
. He joined the
Eastern Question Association (EQA) and was appointed the group's treasurer in November 1876. EQA had been founded by campaigners associated with the centre-left
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
who opposed Prime Minister
Benjamin Disraeli
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation o ...
's alliance with the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
; the Association highlighted
the Ottoman massacre of Bulgarians and feared that the alliance would lead Disraeli to join the Ottomans in
going to war with the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
. Morris took an active role in the EQA campaign, authoring the lyrics for the song "Wake, London Lads!" to be sung at a rally against military intervention. Morris eventually became disillusioned with the EQA, describing it as being "full of wretched little personalities". He nevertheless joined a regrouping of predominantly working-class EQA activists, the
National Liberal League, becoming their treasurer in summer 1879; the group remained small and politically ineffective, with Morris resigning as treasurer in late 1881, shortly before the group's collapse.
However, his discontent with the British liberal movement grew following the election of the Liberal Party's
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...
to the Premiership in 1880. Morris was particularly angered that
Gladstone's government did not reverse the Disraeli regime's
occupation of the Transvaal, introduced the
Coercion Bill, and oversaw the
Bombardment of Alexandria
The Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt by the British Mediterranean Fleet took place on 11–13 July 1882.
Admiral Beauchamp Seymour was in command of a fleet of fifteen Royal Navy ironclad ships which had previously sailed to the harbor of ...
. Morris later related that while he had once believed that "one might further real Socialistic progress by doing what one could on the lines of ordinary middle-class Radicalism", following Gladstone's election he came to realise "that Radicalism is on the wrong line, so to say, and will never develope
icinto anything more than Radicalism: in fact that it is made for and by the middle classes and will always be under the control of rich capitalists".
In 1876, Morris visited the
Church of St John the Baptist, Burford, where he was appalled at the
restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
conducted by his old mentor, G. E. Street. He recognised that these programs of architectural restoration led to the destruction or major alteration of genuinely old features in order to replace them with "sham old" features, something which appalled him. To combat the increasing trend for restoration, in March 1877 he founded the
Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) (also known as Anti-Scrape) is an amenity society founded by William Morris, Philip Webb, and others in 1877 to oppose the destructive 'restoration' of ancient buildings occurring in ...
(SPAB), which he personally referred to as "Anti-Scrape". As he adopted the role of honorary secretary and treasurer, most of the other early members of SPAB were his friends, while the group's program was rooted in Ruskin's ''
The Seven Lamps of Architecture
''The Seven Lamps of Architecture'' is an extended essay, first published in May 1849 and written by the English art critic and theorist John Ruskin. The 'lamps' of the title are Ruskin's principles of architecture, which he later enlarged upon i ...
'' (1849). As part of SPAB's campaign, Morris tried to build connections with art and antiquarian societies and the custodians of old buildings, and also contacted the press to highlight his cause. He was particularly strong in denouncing the ongoing restoration of
Tewkesbury Abbey
The Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin, Tewkesbury–commonly known as Tewkesbury Abbey–is located in the English county of Gloucestershire. A former Benedictine monastery, it is now a parish church. Considered one of the finest examples of No ...
and was vociferous in denouncing the architects responsible, something that deeply upset Street. Turning SPAB's attention abroad, in Autumn 1879 Morris launched a campaign to protect
St Mark's Basilica in
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
from restoration, garnering a petition with 2000 signatures, among whom were Disraeli, Gladstone, and Ruskin.
Later life
Merton Abbey and the Democratic Federation: 1881–1884
![L L Pocock Pond at Merton Abbey](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/L_L_Pocock_Pond_at_Merton_Abbey.jpg)
In summer 1881, Morris took out a lease on the seven-acre former silk weaving factory, the
Merton Abbey Works, next to the River Wandle on the High Street at
Merton, Southwest London (not to be confused with the adjacent
Merton Abbey Mills
__NOTOC__
Merton Abbey Mills is a former textile factory in the parish of Merton in London, England near the site of the medieval Merton Priory, now the home of a variety of businesses, mostly retailers.
The River Wandle flowing north towards W ...
, home of the Liberty Print Works.) After he moved his workshops to the site, the premises were used for weaving, dyeing, and creating stained glass; within three years, 100 craftsmen were employed there. Working conditions at the Abbey were better than at most Victorian factories. However, despite Morris's ideals, there was little opportunity for the workers to display their own individual creativity. Morris had initiated a system of
profit sharing among the Firm's upper clerks, however this did not include the majority of workers, who were instead employed on a
piecework
Piece work (or piecework) is any type of employment in which a worker is paid a fixed piece rate for each unit produced or action performed, regardless of time.
Context
When paying a worker, employers can use various methods and combinations of ...
basis. Morris was aware that, in retaining the division between employer and employed, the company failed to live up to his own egalitarian ideals, but defended this, asserting that it was impossible to run a socialist company within a competitive capitalist economy. The Firm itself was expanding, opening up a store in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
in 1883 and holding a stand at that year's Foreign Fair in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
.
Janey's relationship with Rossetti had continued through a correspondence and occasional visits, although she found him extremely paranoid and was upset by his addiction to
chloral
Chloral, also known as trichloroacetaldehyde or trichloroethanal, is the organic compound with the formula Cl3CCHO. This aldehyde is a colourless oily liquid that is soluble in a wide range of solvents. It reacts with water to form chloral hydrate ...
. She last saw him in 1881, and he died in April the following year. Morris described his mixed feelings toward his deceased friend by stating that he had "some of the very greatest qualities of genius, most of them indeed; what a great man he would have been but for the arrogant misanthropy which marred his work, and killed him before his time". In August 1883, Janey was introduced to the poet
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (17 August 1840 – 10 September 1922), sometimes spelt Wilfred, was an English poet and writer. He and his wife Lady Anne Blunt travelled in the Middle East and were instrumental in preserving the Arabian horse bloodlines ...
, with whom she embarked on a second affair, which Morris might have been aware of.
In January 1881 Morris was involved in the establishment of the
Radical Union, an amalgam of radical working-class groups which hoped to rival the Liberals, and became a member of its executive committee. However, he soon rejected
liberal radicalism completely and moved toward
socialism
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
. In this period, British socialism was a small, fledgling and vaguely defined movement, with only a few hundred adherents. Britain's first socialist party, the
Democratic Federation (DF), had been founded in 1881 by
Henry Hyndman
Henry Mayers Hyndman (; 7 March 1842 – 20 November 1921) was an English writer, politician and socialist.
Originally a conservative, he was converted to socialism by Karl Marx's '' Communist Manifesto'' and launched Britain's first left-wing ...
, an adherent of the socio-political ideology of
Marxism
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
, with Morris joining the DF in January 1883. Morris began to read voraciously on the subject of socialism, including
Henry George
Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era. He inspired the eco ...
's ''
Progress and Poverty
''Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth: The Remedy'' is an 1879 book by social theorist and economist Henry George. It is a treatise on the questions of why pover ...
'',
Alfred Russel Wallace's ''Land Nationalisation'', and
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
's ''
Das Kapital
''Das Kapital'', also known as ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' or sometimes simply ''Capital'' (german: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie, link=no, ; 1867–1883), is a foundational theoretical text in materialist phi ...
'', although admitted that Marx's economic analysis of capitalism gave him "agonies of confusion on the brain". Instead he preferred the writings of
William Cobbett
William Cobbett (9 March 1763 – 18 June 1835) was an English pamphleteer, journalist, politician, and farmer born in Farnham, Surrey. He was one of an agrarian faction seeking to reform Parliament, abolish "rotten boroughs", restrain foreign ...
and
Sergius Stepniak, although he also read the critique of socialism produced by
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...
.
In May 1883, Morris was appointed to the DF's executive, and was soon elected to the position of treasurer. Devoting himself to the socialist cause, he regularly lectured at meetings across Britain, hoping to gain more converts, although was regularly criticised for doing so by the mainstream press. In November 1883 he was invited to speak at
University College, Oxford
University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...
, on the subject of "Democracy and Art" and there began espousing socialism; this shocked and embarrassed many members of staff, earning national press coverage. With other DF members, he travelled to
Blackburn, Lancashire
Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north- ...
in February 1884 amid the great cotton strike, where he lectured on socialism to the strikers. The following month he marched in a central London demonstration commemorating the first anniversary of Marx's death and the thirteenth anniversary of the
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...
.
Morris aided the DF using his artistic and literary talents; he designed the group's membership card, and helped author their manifesto, ''Socialism Made Plain'', in which they demanded improved housing for workers, free compulsory education for all children, free school meals, an
eight-hour working day, the abolition of national debt, nationalisation of land, banks, and railways, and the organisation of agriculture and industry under state control and co-operative principles. Some of his DF comrades found it difficult to reconcile his socialist values with his position as proprietor of the Firm, although he was widely admired as a man of integrity. The DF began publishing a weekly newspaper, ''
Justice
Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...
'', which soon faced financial losses that Morris covered. Morris also regularly contributed articles to the newspaper, in doing so befriending another contributor,
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
.
His socialist activism monopolised his time, forcing him to abandon a translation of the Persian ''
Shahnameh
The ''Shahnameh'' or ''Shahnama'' ( fa, شاهنامه, Šāhnāme, lit=The Book of Kings, ) is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50 ...
''. It also led to him seeing far less of Burne-Jones, with whom he had strong political differences; although once a
republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
, Burne-Jones had become increasingly conservative, and felt that the DF were exploiting Morris for his talents and influence. While Morris devoted much time to trying to convert his friends to the cause, of Morris's circle of artistic comrades, only Webb and Faulkner fully embraced socialism, while Swinburne expressed his sympathy with it.
In 1884 the DF renamed itself the
Social Democratic Federation (SDF) and underwent an internal reorganisation. However, the group was facing an internal schism between those (such as Hyndman), who argued for a parliamentary path toward socialism, and those (like Morris) who deemed the
Houses of Parliament
The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north ban ...
intrinsically corrupt and capitalist. Personal issues between Morris and Hyndman were exacerbated by their attitude to British foreign policy; Morris was staunchly anti-imperialist while Hyndman expressed patriotic sentiment encouraging some foreign intervention. The division between the two groups developed into open conflict, with the majority of activists sharing Morris's position. In December 1884 Morris and his supporters – most notably
Ernest Belfort Bax
Ernest Belfort Bax (; 23 July 1854 – 26 November 1926) was an English barrister, journalist, philosopher, men's rights advocate, socialist, and historian.
Biography
Ernest Belfort Bax was born on 23 July 1854, in Leamington Spa, son of Danie ...
and
Edward Aveling
Edward Bibbins Aveling (29 November 1849 – 2 August 1898) was an English comparative anatomist and popular spokesman for Darwinian evolution, atheism and socialism. He was also a playwright and actor.
Aveling was the author of numer ...
– left the SDF; the first major schism of the British socialist movement.
Socialist League: 1884–1889
In December 1884, Morris founded the
Socialist League (SL) with other SDF defectors. He composed the SL's manifesto with Bax, describing their position as that of "Revolutionary International Socialism", advocating
proletarian internationalism
Proletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is the perception of all communist revolutions as being part of a single global class struggle rather than separate localized events. It is based on the theory that ...
and
world revolution
World revolution is the Marxist concept of overthrowing capitalism in all countries through the conscious revolutionary action of the organized working class. For theorists, these revolutions will not necessarily occur simultaneously, but whe ...
while rejecting the concept of
socialism in one country
Socialism in one country was a Soviet state policy to strengthen socialism within the country rather than socialism globally. Given the defeats of the 1917–1923 European communist revolutions, Joseph Stalin and Nikolai Bukharin encouraged th ...
. In this, he committed himself to "making Socialists" by educating, organising, and agitating to establish a strong socialist movement; calling on activists to boycott elections, he hoped that socialists would take part in a
proletariat revolution
A proletarian revolution or proletariat revolution is a social revolution in which the working class attempts to overthrow the bourgeoisie and change the previous political system. Proletarian revolutions are generally advocated by socialist ...
and help to establish a
socialist society. Bax taught Morris more about
Marxism
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
, and introduced him to Marx's collaborator,
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels ( ,["Engels"](_blank)
'' International Club
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* International (Kevin Michael album), ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* International (New Order album), ' ...
in
Shoreditch,
East London, however he avoided the recently created
Fabian Society
The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. T ...
, deeming it too middle-class. Although a Marxist, he befriended prominent anarchist activists Stepniak and
Peter Kropotkin, and came to be influenced by their anarchist views, to the extent that biographer Fiona MacCarthy described his approach as being "Marxism with visionary libertarianism".
As the leading figure in the League Morris embarked on a series of speeches and talks on street corners, in working men's clubs, and in lecture theatres across England and Scotland. He also visited
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, there offering his support for
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of c ...
, and formed a branch of the League at his Hammersmith house. By the time of their first conference in July 1885, the League had eight branches across England and had affiliations with several socialist groups in Scotland. However, as the British socialist movement grew it faced increased opposition from the establishment, with police frequently arresting and intimidating activists. To combat this, the League joined a Defence Club with other socialist groups, including the SDF, for which Morris was appointed treasurer. Morris was passionate in denouncing the "bullying and hectoring" that he felt socialists faced from the police, and on one occasion was arrested after fighting back against a police officer; a magistrate dismissed the charges. The
Black Monday
Black Monday refers to specific Mondays when undesirable or turbulent events have occurred. It has been used to designate massacres, military battles, and stock market crashes.
Historic events
*1209, Dublin – when a group of 500 recently arriv ...
riots of February 1886 led to increased political repression against left-wing agitators, and in July Morris was arrested and fined for public obstruction while preaching socialism on the streets.
Morris oversaw production of the League's monthly—soon to become weekly—newspaper, ''
Commonweal
Commonweal or common weal may refer to:
* Common good, what is shared and beneficial for members of a given community
* Common Weal, a Scottish think tank and advocacy group
* Commonweal (magazine), ''Commonweal'' (magazine), an American lay-Cath ...
'', serving as its editor for six years, during which time he kept it financially afloat. First published in February 1885, it would contain contributions from such prominent socialists as Engels, Shaw,
Paul Lafargue
Paul Lafargue (; 15 January 1842 – 25 November 1911) was a Cuban- Haitian revolutionary Marxist socialist, political writer, economist, journalist, literary critic, and activist; he was Karl Marx's son-in-law having married his second dau ...
,
Wilhelm Liebknecht
Wilhelm Martin Philipp Christian Ludwig Liebknecht (; 29 March 1826 – 7 August 1900) was a German socialist and one of the principal founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).Karl Kautsky
Karl Johann Kautsky (; ; 16 October 1854 – 17 October 1938) was a Czech-Austrian philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theorist. Kautsky was one of the most authoritative promulgators of orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels i ...
, with Morris also regularly writing articles and poems for it. In ''Commonweal'' he serialised a 13-episode poem, ''
The Pilgrims of Hope'', which was set in the period of the Paris Commune. From November 1886 to January 1887, Morris's novel, ''
A Dream of John Ball'', was serialised in ''Commonweal''. Set in Kent during the
Peasants' Revolt
The Peasants' Revolt, also named Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Blac ...
of 1381, it contained strong socialist themes, although it proved popular among those of different ideological viewpoints, resulting in its publication in book form by
Reeves and Turner in 1888. Shortly after, a collection of Morris's essays, ''Signs of Change'', was published.
From January to October 1890, Morris serialised his novel, ''
News from Nowhere
''News from Nowhere'' (1890) is a classic work combining utopian socialism and soft science fiction written by the artist, designer and socialist pioneer William Morris. It was first published in serial form in the ''Commonweal'' journal begin ...
'', in ''Commonweal'', resulting in improved circulation for the paper. In March 1891 it was published in book form, before being translated into Dutch, French, Swedish, German and Italian by 1900 and becoming a classic among Europe's socialist community. Combining
utopian socialism
Utopian socialism is the term often used to describe the first current of modern socialism and socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Étienne Cabet, and Robert Owen. Utopian socialism is often de ...
and
soft science fiction
Soft science fiction, or soft SF, is a category of science fiction with two different definitions, defined in contrast to hard science fiction. It can refer to science fiction that explores the "soft" sciences (e.g. psychology, political scienc ...
, the book tells the tale of a contemporary socialist, William Guest, who falls asleep and awakes in the early 21st century, discovering a future society based on
common ownership
Common ownership refers to holding the assets of an organization, enterprise or community indivisibly rather than in the names of the individual members or groups of members as common property.
Forms of common ownership exist in every economi ...
and democratic control of the
means of production
The means of production is a term which describes land, labor and capital that can be used to produce products (such as goods or services); however, the term can also refer to anything that is used to produce products. It can also be used as an ...
. In this society there is no private property, no big cities, no authority, no monetary system, no divorce, no courts, no prisons, and no class systems; it was a depiction of Morris's ideal socialist society.
Morris had also continued with his translation work; in April 1887, Reeves and Turner published the first volume of Morris's translation of
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
's ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...
'', with the second following in November. Venturing into new territory, Morris also authored and starred in a play, ''The Tables Turned; Or Nupkins Awakened'', which was performed at a League meeting in November 1887. It told the story of socialists who are put on trial in front of a corrupt judge; the tale ends with the prisoners being freed by a proletariat revolution. In June 1889, Morris traveled to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
as the League's delegate to the
International Socialist Working Men's Congress, where his international standing was recognised by being chosen as English spokesman by the Congress committee. The
Second International
The Second International (1889–1916) was an organisation of socialist and labour parties, formed on 14 July 1889 at two simultaneous Paris meetings in which delegations from twenty countries participated. The Second International continued th ...
emerged from the Congress, although Morris was distraught at its chaotic and disorganised proceedings.
At the League's Fourth Conference in May 1888, factional divisions became increasingly apparent between Morris's anti-parliamentary socialists, the parliamentary socialists, and the anarchists; the Bloomsbury Branch were expelled for supporting parliamentary action. Under the leadership of
Charles Mowbray
Charles Wilfred Mowbray (1857 – December 1910) was an English anarcho-communist agitator, tailor, trade unionist and public speaker. Mowbray was an active orator and agitator in the Labour Emancipation League, and then the Socialist League, ...
, the League's anarchist wing were growing and called on the League to embrace violent action in trying to overthrow the capitalist system. By autumn 1889 the anarchists had taken over the League's executive committee and Morris was stripped of the editorship of ''Commonweal'' in favour of the anarchist
Frank Kitz
Frank Kitz (1849 – 8 January 1923) was an English anarchist.
Life
Born in the Kentish Town area of London as Francis Platt, he was illegitimate and grew up in poverty.E. P. Thompson and Peter Linebaugh, ''William Morris: Romantic to Revo ...
. This alienated Morris from the League, which had also become a financial burden for him; he had been subsidising its activities with £500 a year, a very large sum of money at the time. By the autumn of 1890, Morris left the Socialist League, with his Hammersmith branch seceding to become the independent Hammersmith Socialist Society in November 1890.
The Kelmscott Press and Morris's final years: 1889–1896
![Frederick Hollyer Burne-Jones and Morris 1890](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Frederick_Hollyer_Burne-Jones_and_Morris_1890.jpg)
The work of Morris & Co. continued during Morris's final years, producing an array of stained glass windows designed by Burne-Jones and the six narrative tapestry panels depicting the quest for the
Holy Grail
The Holy Grail (french: Saint Graal, br, Graal Santel, cy, Greal Sanctaidd, kw, Gral) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miracu ...
for
Stanmore Hall,
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...
.
Morris's influence on Britain's artistic community became increasingly apparent as the
Art Workers' Guild
The Art Workers' Guild is an organisation established in 1884 by a group of British painters, sculptors, architects, and designers associated with the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The guild promoted the 'unity of a ...
was founded in 1884, although at the time he was too preoccupied with his socialist activism to pay it any attention. Although the proposal faced some opposition, Morris was elected to the Guild in 1888, and to the position of master in 1892. Morris similarly did not offer initial support for the
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society
The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society was formed in London in 1887 to promote the exhibition of decorative arts alongside fine arts. The Society's exhibitions were held annually at the New Gallery (London), New Gallery from 1888 to 1890, and roug ...
, but changed his opinion after the success of their first exhibit, held in
Regent Street in October 1888. Giving lectures on tapestries for the group, in 1892 he was elected president. At this time, Morris re-focused his attentions on preservation campaigning; those causes he championed including the structures of
St. Mary's Church in Oxford,
Blythburgh Church in Suffolk,
Peterborough Cathedral
Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew – also known as Saint Peter's Cathedral in the United Kingdom – is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Peterborough, dedicated to Saint Peter, Saint Pau ...
, and
Rouen Cathedral
Rouen Cathedral (french: Cathédrale primatiale Notre-Dame de l'Assomption de Rouen) is a Roman Catholic church in Rouen, Normandy, France. It is the see of the Archbishop of Rouen, Primate of Normandy. It is famous for its three towers, each i ...
.
Although his socialist activism had decreased, he remained involved with the Hammersmith Socialist Society, and in October 1891 oversaw the creation of a short-lived newsletter, the ''Hammersmith Socialist Record''. Coming to oppose factionalism within the socialist movement, he sought to rebuild his relationship with the SDF, appearing as a guest lecturer at some of their events, and supporting SDF candidate
George Lansbury
George Lansbury (22 February 1859 – 7 May 1940) was a British politician and social reformer who led the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935. Apart from a brief period of ministerial office during the Labour government of 1929–31, he spe ...
when he stood in the
Wandsworth
Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan
The London Plan is the statutory spatial development strategy for the Gre ...
by-election of February 1894. In 1893 the Hammersmith Socialist Society co-founded the Joint Committee of Socialist Bodies with representatives of the SDF and Fabian Society; Morris helped draw up its "Manifesto of English Socialists". He offered support for far-left activists on trial, including a number of militant anarchists whose violent tactics he nevertheless denounced. He also began using the term "
communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
" for the first time, stating that "Communism is in fact the completion of Socialism: when that ceases to be militant and becomes triumphant, it will be communism." In December 1895 he gave his final open-air talk at Stepniak's funeral, where he spoke alongside prominent far-left activists
Eleanor Marx
Jenny Julia Eleanor Marx (16 January 1855 – 31 March 1898), sometimes called Eleanor Aveling and known to her family as Tussy, was the English-born youngest daughter of Karl Marx. She was herself a socialist activist who sometimes worked as a ...
,
Keir Hardie
James Keir Hardie (15 August 185626 September 1915) was a Scottish trade unionist and politician. He was a founder of the Labour Party, and served as its first parliamentary leader from 1906 to 1908.
Hardie was born in Newhouse, Lanarkshire. ...
, and
Errico Malatesta. Liberated from internal factional struggles, he retracted his anti-Parliamentary position and worked for socialist unity, giving his last public lecture in January 1896 on the subject of "One Socialist Party."
In December 1888, the
Chiswick Press
The Chiswick Press was founded by Charles Whittingham I (1767–1840) in 1811. The management of the Press was taken over in 1840 by the founder's nephew Charles Whittingham II (1795–1876). The name was first used in 1811, and the Press continu ...
published Morris's ''
The House of the Wolfings
''A Tale of the House of the Wolfings and All the Kindreds of the Mark'' is a fantasy novel by William Morris, perhaps the first modern fantasy writer to unite an imaginary world with the element of the supernatural, and thus the precursor of muc ...
'', a fantasy story set in Iron Age Europe which provides a reconstructed portrait of the lives of Germanic-speaking Gothic tribes. It contained both prose and aspects of poetic verse. A sequel, ''
The Roots of the Mountains
''The Roots of the Mountains: Wherein is Told Somewhat of the Lives of the Men of Burgdale, Their Friends, Their Neighbors, Their Foemen, and Their Fellows in Arms'' is a fantasy romance novel by William Morris, perhaps the first modern fantasy ...
'', followed in 1889. Over the coming years he would publish a string of other poetic works; ''
The Story of the Glittering Plain'' (1890), ''
The Wood Beyond the World
''The Wood Beyond the World'' is a fantasy novel by William Morris, perhaps the first modern fantasy writer to unite an imaginary world with the element of the supernatural, and thus the precursor of much of present-day fantasy literature. It wa ...
'' (1894), ''
The Well at the World's End
''The Well at the World's End'' is a high fantasy novel by the British artist, poet, and author William Morris. It was first published in 1896 and has been reprinted repeatedly since, most notably in two parts as the 20th and 21st volumes of th ...
'' (1896), ''
The Water of the Wondrous Isles'' (1897) and ''
The Sundering Flood'' (1898). He also embarked on a translation of the Anglo-Saxon tale, ''
Beowulf
''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...
''; because he could not fully understand
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
, his poetic translation was based largely on that already produced by
Alfred John Wyatt. On publication, Morris's archaizing ''Beowulf'' was critically panned. Following the death of the sitting
Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in October 1892, Morris was offered the position, but turned it down, disliking its associations with the monarchy and political establishment; instead the position went to
Alfred Austin
Alfred Austin (30 May 1835 – 2 June 1913) was an English poet who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896, after an interval following the death of Tennyson, when the other candidates had either caused controversy or refused the honour. It was cl ...
.
![KelmscottPressColophone](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/KelmscottPressColophone.jpg)
In January 1891, Morris founded the
Kelmscott Press
The Kelmscott Press, founded by William Morris and Emery Walker, published fifty-three books in sixty-six volumes between 1891 and 1898. Each book was designed and ornamented by Morris and printed by hand in limited editions of around 300. Many ...
, a
private press
Private press publishing, with respect to books, is an endeavor performed by craft-based expert or aspiring artisans, either amateur or professional, who, among other things, print and build books, typically by hand, with emphasis on design, gra ...
which would go on to publish the celebrated ''Kelmscott Chaucer''.
By the early 1890s, Morris was increasingly ill and living largely as an invalid; aside from his
gout
Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intens ...
, he also exhibited signs of epilepsy. In August 1891, he took his daughter Jenny on a tour of Northern France to visit the Medieval churches and cathedrals. Back in England, he spent an increasing amount of time at Kelmscott Manor. Seeking treatment from the prominent doctor
William Broadbent, he was prescribed a holiday in the coastal town of
Folkestone. In December 1894 he was devastated upon learning of his mother's death; she had been 90 years old. In July 1896, he went on a cruise to Norway with construction engineer
John Carruthers, during which he visited
Vadsö and
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...
; during the trip his physical condition deteriorated and he began experiencing hallucinations. Returning to Kelmscott House, he became a complete invalid, being visited by friends and family, before dying of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
on the morning of 4 October 1896. Obituaries appearing throughout the national press reflected that at the time, Morris was widely recognised primarily as a poet. Mainstream press obituaries trivialised or dismissed his involvement in socialism, although the socialist press focused largely on this aspect of his career. His funeral was held on 6 October, during which his corpse was carried from Hammersmith to
Paddington rail station, where it was transported to Oxford, and from there to Kelmscott, where it was buried in the churchyard of St. George's Church.
Personal life
![Dante Gabriel Rossetti The Salutation of Beatrice 1869](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti_The_Salutation_of_Beatrice_1869.jpg)
Morris's biographer
E. P. Thompson described him as having a "robust bearing, and a slight roll in his walk", alongside a "rough beard" and "disordered hair". The author Henry James described Morris as "short, burly, corpulent, very careless and unfinished in his dress ... He has a loud voice and a nervous restless manner and a perfectly unaffected and businesslike address. His talk indeed is wonderfully to the point and remarkable for clear good sense." Morris's first biographer Mackail described him as being both "a typical Englishman" and "a typical Londoner of the middle class" albeit one who was transformed into "something quite individual" through the "force of his genius". MacCarthy described Morris's lifestyle as being "late Victorian, mildly bohemian, but bourgeois", with Mackail commenting that he exhibited many of the traits of the bourgeois Victorian class: "industrious, honest, fair-minded up their lights, but unexpansive and unsympathetic". Although he generally disliked children, Morris also exhibited a strong sense of responsibility toward his family. Mackail nevertheless thought he "was interested in things much more than in people" and that while he did have "lasting friendships" and "deep affections", he did not allow people to "penetrate to the central part of him."
Politically, Morris was a staunch revolutionary socialist and anti-imperialist, and although raised a Christian he came to be an
atheist. He came to reject
state socialism
State socialism is a political and economic ideology within the socialist movement that advocates state ownership of the means of production. This is intended either as a temporary measure, or as a characteristic of socialism in the transition ...
and large centralised control, instead emphasising localised administration within a socialist society. Later political activist
Derek Wall
Derek Norman Wall (born 26 May 1965) is a British politician and former member of the Green Party of England and Wales. He was the joint International Coordinator for the Green Party and stood against Prime Minister Theresa May as the Maidenhea ...
suggested that Morris could be classified as an
ecosocialist
Eco-socialism (also known as green socialism or socialist ecology) is an ideology merging aspects of socialism with that of green politics, ecology and alter-globalization or anti-globalization. Eco-socialists generally believe that the expansi ...
. Morris was greatly influenced by
Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
, with Thompson asserting that Romanticism was "bred into his bones, and formed his early consciousness." Thompson argued that this "Romantic Revolt" was part of a "passionate protest against an intolerable social reality", that of the
industrial capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...
of Britain's Victorian era. He believed that it led to little more than a "yearning nostalgia or a sweet complaint" and that Morris became "a realist and a revolutionary" only when he adopted socialism in 1882. Mackail was of the opinion that Morris had an "innate Socialism" which had "penetrated and dominated all he did" throughout his life. Given the conflict between his personal and professional life and his socio-political views, MacCarthy described Morris as "a conservative radical".
Morris's behaviour was often erratic. He was of a nervous disposition, and throughout his life relied on networks of male friends to aid him in dealing with this. Morris's friends nicknamed him "Topsy" after a character in ''
Uncle Tom's Cabin
''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U. ...
''. He had a wild temper and when sufficiently enraged could suffer seizures and blackouts. Rossetti was known to taunt Morris to enrage him for the amusement of himself and their other friends. Biographer
Fiona MacCarthy
Fiona MacCarthy (23 January 1940 – 29 February 2020) was a British biographer and cultural historian best known for her studies of 19th- and 20th-century art and design.
Early life and education
Fiona MacCarthy was born in Sutton, Surrey in ...
suggests that Morris might have suffered from a form of
Tourette's syndrome
Tourette syndrome or Tourette's syndrome (abbreviated as TS or Tourette's) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that begins in childhood or adolescence. It is characterized by multiple movement (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) ...
as he exhibited some of the symptoms. In later life he suffered from
gout
Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intens ...
, a common complaint among middle-class males in the Victorian period. Morris's ethos was that one should "have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." He also held to the view that "No work which cannot be done with pleasure in the doing is worth doing" and adopted as his motto "As I can" from the fifteenth-century Flemish painter
Jan van Eyck.
Work
Literature
William Morris was a prolific writer of poetry, fiction, essays, and translations of ancient and medieval texts. His first poems were published when he was 24 years old, and he was polishing his final novel, ''
The Sundering Flood'', at the time of his death. His daughter May's edition of Morris's ''Collected Works'' (1910–1915) runs to 24 volumes, and two more were published in 1936.
Morris began publishing poetry and short stories in 1856 through
''The'' ''Oxford and Cambridge Magazine'' which he founded with his friends and financed while at university. His first volume, ''The Defence of
Guenevere
Guinevere ( ; cy, Gwenhwyfar ; br, Gwenivar, kw, Gwynnever), also often written in Modern English as Guenevere or Guenever, was, according to Arthurian legend, an early-medieval queen of Great Britain and the wife of King Arthur. First men ...
and Other Poems'' (1858), was the first book of Pre-Raphaelite poetry to be published. The dark poems, set in a sombre world of violence, were coolly received by the critics, and he was discouraged from publishing more for a number of years. "
The Haystack in the Floods", one of the poems in that collection, is probably now one of his better-known poems. It is a grimly realistic piece set during the
Hundred Years War
The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of England and France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French throne between the English House of Plantagen ...
in which the doomed lovers Jehane and Robert have a last parting in a convincingly portrayed rain-swept countryside. One early minor poem was "
Masters in this Hall
"Masters in This Hall" (alternative title: "Nowell, Sing We Clear") is a Christmas carol with words written around 1860 by the English poet and artist William Morris to an old French dance tune. The carol is moderately popular around the world but ...
" (1860), a Christmas carol written to an old French tune.
Another Christmas-themed poem is "The Snow in the Street", adapted from "The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon" in ''
The Earthly Paradise''.
Morris met
Eiríkur Magnússon in 1868, and began to learn the
Icelandic language
Icelandic (; is, íslenska, link=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national language. Due to being a West Scandinavian language, it is most closely re ...
from him. Morris published translations of ''Gunnlaugs saga, The Saga of Gunnlaug Worm-Tongue'' and ''Grettis Saga'' in 1869, and the ''The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs, Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs'' in 1870. An additional volume was published under the title of ''Three Northern Love Stories'' in 1873.
In the last nine years of his life, Morris wrote a series of imaginative fictions usually referred to as the "prose romances". These novels – including ''
The Wood Beyond the World
''The Wood Beyond the World'' is a fantasy novel by William Morris, perhaps the first modern fantasy writer to unite an imaginary world with the element of the supernatural, and thus the precursor of much of present-day fantasy literature. It wa ...
'' and ''
The Well at the World's End
''The Well at the World's End'' is a high fantasy novel by the British artist, poet, and author William Morris. It was first published in 1896 and has been reprinted repeatedly since, most notably in two parts as the 20th and 21st volumes of th ...
'' – have been credited as important milestones in the history of fantasy fiction, because, while other writers wrote of foreign lands, or of dream worlds, or the future (as Morris did in ''News from Nowhere''), Morris's works were the first to be set in an entirely invented fantasy world.
These were attempts to revive the genre of medieval romance, and written in
imitation of medieval prose. Morris's prose style in these novels has been praised by Edward James (historian), Edward James, who described
them as ''"among the most lyrical and enchanting fantasies in the English language."''
On the other hand, L. Sprague de Camp considered Morris's fantasies to be not wholly successful, partly because Morris eschewed many literary techniques from later eras. In particular, De Camp argued the plots of the novels are heavily driven by coincidence; while many things just happened in the romances, the novels are still weakened by the dependence on it. Nevertheless, large subgenres of the field of fantasy have sprung from the romance genre, but indirectly, through their writers' imitation of William Morris.
Early fantasy writers like Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany, Lord Dunsany, E. R. Eddison
and James Branch Cabell
were familiar with Morris's romances. ''
The Wood Beyond the World
''The Wood Beyond the World'' is a fantasy novel by William Morris, perhaps the first modern fantasy writer to unite an imaginary world with the element of the supernatural, and thus the precursor of much of present-day fantasy literature. It wa ...
'' is considered to have heavily influenced C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, Narnia series, while
J. R. R. Tolkien was inspired by Morris's reconstructions of early Germanic life in ''
The House of the Wolfings
''A Tale of the House of the Wolfings and All the Kindreds of the Mark'' is a fantasy novel by William Morris, perhaps the first modern fantasy writer to unite an imaginary world with the element of the supernatural, and thus the precursor of muc ...
'' and ''The Roots of the Mountains''. The young Tolkien attempted a retelling of the story of Kullervo from the ''Kalevala'' in the style of ''The House of the Wolfings'';
Tolkien considered much of his literary work to have been inspired by an early reading of Morris, even suggesting that he was unable to better Morris's work; the names of characters such as "Gandalf, Gandolf" and the horse Silverfax appear in ''
The Well at the World's End
''The Well at the World's End'' is a high fantasy novel by the British artist, poet, and author William Morris. It was first published in 1896 and has been reprinted repeatedly since, most notably in two parts as the 20th and 21st volumes of th ...
''.
Sir Henry Newbolt's medieval allegorical novel Aladore was influenced by Morris's fantasies. James Joyce also drew inspiration from his work.
Textile design
During his lifetime, Morris produced items in a range of crafts, mainly those to do with furnishing, including over 600 designs for wall-paper, textiles, and embroideries, over 150 for stained glass windows, three typefaces, and around 650 borders and ornamentations for the Kelmscott Press. He emphasised the idea that the design and production of an item should not be divorced from one another, and that where possible those creating items should be designer-craftsmen, thereby both designing and manufacturing their goods. In the field of textile design, Morris revived a number of dead techniques, and insisted on the use of good quality raw materials, almost all natural dyes, and hand processing. He also observed the natural world first hand to gain a basis for his designs, and insisted on learning the techniques of production prior to producing a design.
Mackail asserted that Morris became "a manufacturer not because he wished to make money, but because he wished to make the things he manufactured." Morris & Co.'s designs were fashionable among Britain's upper and middle-classes, with biographer
Fiona MacCarthy
Fiona MacCarthy (23 January 1940 – 29 February 2020) was a British biographer and cultural historian best known for her studies of 19th- and 20th-century art and design.
Early life and education
Fiona MacCarthy was born in Sutton, Surrey in ...
asserting that they had become "the safe choice of the intellectual classes, an exercise in political correctitude." The company's unique selling point was the range of different items that it produced, as well as the ethos of artistic control over production that it emphasised.
It is likely that much of Morris's preference for medieval textiles was formed – or crystallised – during his brief apprenticeship with G. E. Street. Street had co-written a book on ''Ecclesiastical Embroidery'' in 1848, and was a staunch advocate of abandoning faddish Berlin wool work, woolen work on canvas in favour of more expressive embroidery techniques based on Opus Anglicanum, a surface embroidery technique popular in medieval England.
He was also fond of hand-knotted Persian carpet and advised the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington Museum in the acquisition of fine Kerman carpets.
Morris taught himself embroidery, working with wool on a embroidery hoop, frame custom-built from an old example. Once he had mastered the technique he trained his wife Jane, her sister Bessie Burden and others to execute designs to his specifications. When "embroideries of all kinds" were offered through Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. catalogues, church embroidery became and remained an important line of business for its successor companies into the twentieth century. By the 1870s, the firm was offering both embroidery patterns and finished works. Following in Street's footsteps, Morris became active in the growing movement to return originality and mastery of technique to embroidery, and was one of the first designers associated with the Royal School of Needlework, Royal School of Art Needlework with its aim to "restore Ornamental Needlework for secular purposes to the high place it once held among decorative arts."
Morris took up the practical art of dyeing as a necessary adjunct of his manufacturing business. He spent much of his time at Staffordshire dye works mastering the processes of that art and making experiments in the revival of old or discovery of new methods. One result of these experiments was to reinstate indigo dyeing as a practical industry and generally to renew the use of those vegetable dyes, such as the red derived from Rubia, madder, which had been driven almost out of use by the aniline dyes, anilines. Dyeing of wools, silks, and cottons was the necessary preliminary to what he had much at heart, the production of woven and printed fabrics of the highest excellence; and the period of incessant work at the dye-vat (1875–1876) was followed by a period during which he was absorbed in the production of textiles (1877–1878), and more especially in the revival of carpet-weaving as a fine art.
Morris's patterns for woven textiles, some of which were also machine made under ordinary commercial conditions, included intricate double cloth, double-woven furnishing fabrics in which two sets of warp (weaving), warps and wefts are interlinked to create complex gradations of colour and texture. Morris long dreamed of weaving tapestries in the medieval manner, which he called "the noblest of the weaving arts." In September 1879 he finished his first solo effort, a small piece called "Cabbage and Vine".
Book illustration and design
Nineteenth and twentieth century avant-garde artistic movements took an interest in the typographical arts, greatly enriching book design and illustration. Morris's designs, like the work of the Pre-Raphaelite painters with whom he was associated, referred frequently to medieval motifs. In 1891 he founded the Kelmscott Press, which by the time it closed in 1898 had produced over fifty works using traditional printing methods, a hand-driven press and hand-made paper. They included his masterpiece, an edition of the ''Works of Geoffrey Chaucer'' with illustrations by Edward Burne-Jones. Morris invented three distinctive typefaces – Golden, Troy, and Chaucer, with the text being framed with intricate floral borders similar to illuminated medieval manuscripts. His work inspired many small private presses in the following century.
Morris's aesthetic and social values became a leading force in the Arts and Crafts Movement. The Kelmscott Press influenced much of the fine press movement in England and the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It brought the need for books that were aesthetic objects as well as words to the attention of the reading and publishing worlds.
At Kelmscott Press the book-making was under his constant supervision and practical assistance. It was his ambition to produce a perfect work to restore all the beauty of illuminated lettering, richness of gilding and grace of binding that used to make a volume the treasure of a king. His efforts were constantly directed towards giving the world at least one book that exceeded anything that had ever appeared. Morris designed his type after the best examples of early printers, what he called his "golden type" which he copied after Jenson, Parautz, Coburger and others. With this in mind, Morris took equal care on the choice of his paper which he adapted to his subject with the same care that governed his selection of material for binding. As a result only the wealthy could purchase his lavish works; Morris realized that creating works in the manner of the middle ages was difficult in a profit-grinding society.
Legacy
President of the William Morris Society Hans Brill referred to Morris as "one of the outstanding figures of the nineteenth century", while Linda Parry termed him the "single most important figure in British textile production".
At the time of Morris's death, his poetry was known internationally and his company's products were found all over the world. In his lifetime, he was best known as a poet, although by the late twentieth century he was primarily known as a designer of wallpapers and fabrics.
He was a major contributor to the revival of traditional British
textile arts
Textile arts are arts and crafts that use plant, animal, or synthetic fibers to construct practical or decorative objects.
Textiles have been a fundamental part of human life since the beginning of civilization. The methods and materials u ...
and methods of production. Morris's ethos of production was an influence on the Bauhaus movement. Another aspect of Morris's preservationism was his desire to protect the natural world from the ravages of pollution and industrialism, causing some historians of the Green politics, green movement to regard Morris as an important forerunner of modern environmentalism.
Aymer Vallance was commissioned to produce the first biography of Morris, published in 1897, after Morris's death, per the latter's wishes. This presented the creation of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings as Morris's greatest achievement. Morris's next biographer was Burne-Jones's son-in-law John William Mackail, who authored the two-volume ''Life of William Morris'' (1899) in which he provided a sympathetic portrayal of Morris that largely omitted his political activities, treating them as a passing phase that Morris overcame.
MacCarthy's biography, ''William Morris: A Life for Our Time'', was first published by Faber and Faber in 1994, and a paperback edition was published in 2010. For the 2013 Venice Biennale, artist Jeremy Deller selected Morris as the subject of a large-scale mural titled "We Sit Starving Amidst our Gold", in which Morris returns from the dead to hurl the yacht of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich into the waves of an ocean.
MacCarthy curated the "Anarchy & Beauty" exhibition—a commemoration of Morris's legacy—for the National Portrait Gallery in 2014, for which she recruited around 70 artists who were required to undertake a test regarding Morris's ''News from Nowhere'' to be accepted.
Writing for ''The Guardian'' prior to the opening of the exhibition on 16 October 2014, MacCarthy asserted:
Morris has exerted a powerful influence on thinking about art and design over the past century. He has been the constant niggle in the conscience. How can we combat all this luxury and waste? What drove him into revolutionary activism was his anger and shame at the injustices within society. He burned with guilt at the fact that his "good fortune only" allowed him to live in beautiful surroundings and to pursue the work he adored.
"Anarchy & Beauty"'s arts and crafts section featured Morris's own copy of the French edition of Karl Marx's ''Das Kapital'' handbound in a gold-tooled leather binding that MacCarthy describes as "the ultimate example of Morris's conviction that perfectionism of design and craftsmanship should be available to everyone."
Notable collections and house museums
![Blue plaque outside Red House](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Blue_plaque_outside_Red_House.jpg)
A number of galleries and museums house important collections of Morris's work and decorative items commissioned from Morris & Co. The William Morris Gallery in
Walthamstow, England, is a public museum devoted to Morris's life, work and influence.
The
William Morris Society
The William Morris Society was founded in 1955 in London, England. The Society's office and museum are located at Kelmscott House, Hammersmith, where Morris lived from 1879 until his death in 1896.
The Society aims to make more well-known th ...
is based at Morris's final London home, Kelmscott House,
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
...
, and is an international members society, museum and venue for lectures and other Morris-related events. The Art Gallery of South Australia is "fortunate in holding the most comprehensive collection of Morris & Co. furnishings outside Britain".
The collection includes books, embroideries, tapestries, fabrics, wallpapers, drawings and sketches, furniture and stained glass, and forms the focus of two published works (produced to accompany special exhibitions).
The former "green dining room" at the Victoria and Albert Museum is now its "Morris Room". The V&A's British Galleries house other decorative works by Morris and his associates.
One of the meeting rooms in the Oxford Union, decorated with the wallpaper in his style, is named the Morris Room.
Wightwick Manor in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England, is a notable example of the Morris & Co. style, with lots of original Morris wallpapers, fabrics, carpets, and furniture, May Morris art and embroidery, De Morgan tiles, and Pre-Raphaelite works of art, managed by the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, National Trust. Standen in West Sussex, England, was designed by Webb between 1892 and 1894 and decorated with Morris carpets, fabrics and wallpapers. The illustrator Edward Linley Sambourne chose to decorate his London family home 18 Stafford Terrace with many Morris & Co wallpapers, which have been preserved and can still be seen today. Morris's homes
Red House and
Kelmscott Manor
Kelmscott Manor is a limestone manor house in the Cotswolds village of Kelmscott, in West Oxfordshire, southern England. It dates from around 1570, with a late 17th-century wing, and is listed Grade I on the National Heritage List for Engla ...
have been preserved. Red House was acquired by the National Trust in 2003 and is open to the public. Kelmscott Manor is owned by the Society of Antiquaries of London and is open to the public.
The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, acquired the collection of Morris materials amassed by Sanford and Helen Berger in 1999. The collection includes stained glass, wallpaper, textiles, embroidery, drawings, ceramics, more than 2000 books, original woodblocks, and the complete archives of both Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. and Morris & Co.
These materials formed the foundation for the 2002 exhibition ''William Morris: Creating the Useful and the Beautiful'' and 2003 exhibition ''The Beauty of Life: William Morris and the Art of Design'' and accompanying publication.
A Greater London Council blue plaque at Red House commemorates Morris and architect
Philip Webb
Philip Speakman Webb (12 January 1831 – 17 April 1915) was a British architect and designer sometimes called the Father of Arts and Crafts Architecture. His use of vernacular architecture demonstrated his commitment to "the art of commo ...
.
7, Hammersmith Terrace is the former home of Emery Walker, Sir Emery Walker, a close friend and colleague of Morris. The house is decorated in the Arts & Crafts style, including with extensive collections of Morris wallpaper, furniture, and textiles. 7, Hammersmith Terrace is operated by the Emery Walker Trust, and is open to the public for tours.
In 2013, the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at Rochester Institute of Technology bought William Morris's London-built Hopkinson & Cope Improved Albion press (No. 6551) at auction for $233,000. This printing press was specially reinforced to produce Morris's ''Chaucer'' in 1896. Other owners of Morris's Albion press include Frederic Goudy and J. Ben Lieberman.
Literary works
Source
Morris Online Edition
at William Morris Archive. Morris's literary works, translations, life and images, the Book Arts
Collected poetry, fiction, and essays
* ''The Hollow Land'' (1856)
* ''The Defence of Guenevere, and other Poems'' (1858)
* ''The Life and Death of Jason'' (1867)
* ''
The Earthly Paradise'' (1868–1870)
* ''Love is Enough, or The Freeing of Pharamond: A Morality'' (1872)
* ''The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs'' (1877)
* ''Hopes and Fears For Art'' (1882)
* ''
The Pilgrims of Hope'' (1885)
* ''
A Dream of John Ball'' (1888)
* ''Signs of Change (poem), Signs of Change'' (1888)
* ''The House of the Wolfings, A Tale of the House of the Wolfings, and All the Kindreds of the Mark Written in Prose and in Verse'' (1889)
* ''
The Roots of the Mountains
''The Roots of the Mountains: Wherein is Told Somewhat of the Lives of the Men of Burgdale, Their Friends, Their Neighbors, Their Foemen, and Their Fellows in Arms'' is a fantasy romance novel by William Morris, perhaps the first modern fantasy ...
'' (1889)
* ''
News from Nowhere
''News from Nowhere'' (1890) is a classic work combining utopian socialism and soft science fiction written by the artist, designer and socialist pioneer William Morris. It was first published in serial form in the ''Commonweal'' journal begin ...
(or, An Epoch of Rest)'' (1890)
* ''
The Story of the Glittering Plain'' (1891)
* ''Poems By the Way'' (1891)
* ''Socialism: Its Growth and Outcome'' (1893) (With E. Belfort Bax)
* ''
The Wood Beyond the World
''The Wood Beyond the World'' is a fantasy novel by William Morris, perhaps the first modern fantasy writer to unite an imaginary world with the element of the supernatural, and thus the precursor of much of present-day fantasy literature. It wa ...
'' (1894)
* ''Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair'' (1895)
* ''
The Well at the World's End
''The Well at the World's End'' is a high fantasy novel by the British artist, poet, and author William Morris. It was first published in 1896 and has been reprinted repeatedly since, most notably in two parts as the 20th and 21st volumes of th ...
'' (1896)
* ''
The Water of the Wondrous Isles'' (1897)
* ''
The Sundering Flood'' (1897) (published posthumously)
* ''A King's Lesson'' (1901)
* ''The World of Romance'' (1906)
* ''Chants for Socialists'' (1935)
* ''Golden Wings and Other Stories'' (1976)
Translations
* ''Grettis Saga: The Story of Grettir the Strong'' with Eiríkur Magnússon (1869)
* ''The Story of Gunnlaug the Worm-tongue and Raven the Skald'' with Eiríkur Magnússon (1869)
* ''The Völsunga Saga: The Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs, with Certain Songs from the Elder Edda'' with Eiríkur Magnússon(1870) (from the ''Volsunga saga'')
* ''Three Northern Love Stories, and Other Tales'' with Eiríkur Magnússon (1875)
* ''The Aeneids of Virgil Done into English'' (1876)
* ''The Odyssey of Homer Done into English Verse'' (1887)
* ''Of King Florus and the Fair Jehane'' (1893)
* ''The Tale of Beowulf Done out of the Old English Tongue'' (1895)
* ''Old French Romances Done into English'' (1896)
Morris's ''
Beowulf
''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...
'' was one of the first translations of the Old English poem into modern English.
Published lectures and papers
* ''Lectures on Art delivered in support of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings'' (Morris lecture on The Lesser Arts). London, Macmillan, 1882
* ''Architecture and History & Westminster Abbey''. Papers read to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1884 and 1893. Printed at The Chiswick Press. London, Longmans, 1900
*
Communism: a lecture' London, Fabian Society, 1903
Gallery
Morris & Co. stained glass
File:MIDDLETON CHENEY,NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.jp
All Saints, Middleton Cheney, Northamptonshire
File:MIDDLETON CHENEY All Saints (48496349741).jp
All Saints, Middleton Cheney – Solomon
File:William Morris King Arthur and Sir Lancelot.png, William Morris King Arthur and Sir Lancelot, (1862)
File:William Morris Queen Guenevere and Isoude Les Blanches Mains.png, William Morris Queen Guenevere and Isoude, (1862)
File:Detail, William Morris window, Cattistock Church.jpg, Detail, William Morris window, Cattistock Church, (1882).
File:USA Massachusetts Boston Trinity Nativity-detail-1.jpg, Detail from ''The Worship of the Shepherds'' window (1882).
File:St Cecilia narthex.jpg, Burne-Jones-designed and Morris & Co.-executed ''Saint Cecilia'' window at Second Presbyterian Church (Chicago, Illinois)
File:William Morris window Malmesbury Abbey.jpg, Burne-Jones-designed and Morris & Co.-executed ''Luce Memorial Window'' in Malmesbury Abbey, Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England (1901).
Morris & Co. patterns
File:Morris Windrush textile design 1881-83.jpg, Design for ''Windrush'' printed textile, 1881–1883
File:Embroidered Panel Morris and Company.jpg, ''Acanthus'' embroidered panel, designed Morris, 1890
File:Strawberrythief.jpg, Strawberry Thief (William Morris), Strawberry Thief, furnishing fabric, designed Morris, 1883
File:Morris Strawberry Thief 1883 detail.jpg, Morris Strawberry Thief 1883 detail
File:Brooklyn Museum - Wallpaper Sample Book 1 - William Morris and Company - page029r.jpg, Wallpaper – Hyacinth, pattern #480 – 1915–1917
File:Brooklyn Museum - Wallpaper Sample Book 1 - William Morris and Company - page025r.jpg, Wallpaper – Blackberry, pattern #388 – 1915–1917
File:Morris Little Flower carpet design detail.jpg, Detail of a watercolour design for the Little Flower carpet showing a portion of the central medallion, by William Morris
File:Morris tiles de Morgan 1876.jpg, Panel of ceramic tiles designed by Morris and produced by William De Morgan, 1876
File:Galahad grail.jpg, ''The Vision of the Holy Grail'' tapestry, 1890
Kelmscott Press
File:Kelmscott Press Typefaces Detail.jpg, Kelmscott Press
The Kelmscott Press, founded by William Morris and Emery Walker, published fifty-three books in sixty-six volumes between 1891 and 1898. Each book was designed and ornamented by Morris and printed by hand in limited editions of around 300. Many ...
typefaces and colophon, 1897
File:Wmmorris3248.jpg, William Morris, publisher
See also
* Merry England
* Robert Steele (medievalist), Robert Steele – medievalist who was a disciple of Morris
* Simple living
* Sydney Cockerell – friend of Morris and secretary of Kelmscott Press
* Victorian decorative arts
* William Morris wallpaper designs
* List of works by the Kelmscott Press
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
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External links
Sources
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Works by William Morrisat The Online Books Page
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Morris Online Editionat William Morris Archive. Morris's literary works, translations, life and images, the Book Arts
at sacred-texts.com, including full text of ''The Earthly Paradise''
Works by William Morrisat The Anarchist Library
''Selections from William Morris'' a compilation published in the Soviet Union containing poetry, prose works, and essays by Morris in PDF format
William Morris Index Entry at Poets' Cornerat Marxists Internet Archive
The tale of Beowulf (Sel.3.231) a digital edition of the proof-sheets with manuscript notes and corrections by William Morris in Cambridge Digital Library
* Archive o
William Morris Papersat the International Institute of Social History
William Morris papersat the University of Maryland Libraries
* hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.morris, William Morris Collection. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Other
''William Morris Stained Glass''''William Morris at Art Passions''The William Morris Gallery official websiteThe William Morris Gallery(London Borough of Waltham Forest)
The William Morris SocietyThe William Morris Society in the United States* [http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/web/morris/ William Morris online exhibition] at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
Examples of pages from the Kelmscott Chaucer
Morris's literary writingsThe Morris Online Edition includes images of first editions and Kelmscott editions, as well as online texts and supplementary materials.
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Mingam, Laura. "Victorian printing and William Morris's Kelmscott Press". La Clé des Langues, Lyon, ENS de LYON/DGESCO (ISSN 2107-7029). May 2013. Accessed 27/09/2021.William Morris Facebook
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, William
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