Morris, William, 1834-1896

Socialist, artist, and poet of England.

William Morris (1834-1896) was a British socialist, poet, artist and architect, and a leading figure in the Arts and Craft movement. He founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, was a cofounder and leader of the Socialist League and financed its organ Commonweal. He also founded his own publishing company, the Kelmscott Press, in 1893, and was active in organizing guilds of designers and decorative craftsmen.

Born 1834; educated Marlborough College and Exeter College, Oxford University, 1853-1856, where he met Edward Coley Burne-Jones; entered Oxford office of the gothic revivalist architect, George Edmund Street, 1856; financed first 12 monthly issues of The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, 1856; persuaded by Dante Gabriel Rossetti to give up architecture for painting, and joined a group painting the walls of the Oxford Union with scenes from Arthurian legend, 1856; shared a studio in Red Lion Square with Burne-Jones, 1856-1859; married Jane Burden, 1859; commissioned Philip Speakman Webb to build the Red House at Bexleyheath, 1859-1860; founded the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company, 1861, which included Ford Madox Brown, Rossetti, Webb and Burne-Jones and produced fine art furniture, stained glass and embroideries; moved to Bloomsbury, 1865; published various works of poetry, including The defence of Guenevere , 1858, the Death of Jason , 1867 , The Earthly Paradise , 1868-1870, and the Book of Verse , 1870; moved to Kelmscott, Oxfordshire, 1871; visited Iceland, 1871 and 1873; reorganised the firm under his sole proprietorship as Morris and Co, 1874, and began revolutionary experiments with vegetable dyes; gave first public lecture on 'The Decorative Arts', 1877, and published Hopes and fears for Art , 1882; founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, 1877; moved to Kelmscott House, Hammersmith, 1878; moved the firm to Merton Abbey, Surrey, 1881; joined the Democratic (later Social Democratic) Federation, 1883; formed the Socialist League and the Hammersmith Socialist Society, 1884; started the Kelmscott Press, 1891; died 1896.

British artist, craftsman, publisher, poet and writer.

English craftsman, writer, socialist, and proprietor of the Kelmscott Press.

William Morris (1834-1896) was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist, associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement. In 1891, he set up the Kelmscott Press, with which he printed his own works as well as reprints of medieval texts and English classics.

William Morris was born on 24 March 1834 at Elm House, Walthamstow, London. Morris received his education at Marlborough College, 1848-1851, and Exeter College, Oxford, 1853-1855, where he originally intended to take holy orders. While studying at Oxford Morris became interested in social criticism and medieval art. On leaving university Morris began work at the architectural office of G. E. Street. By 1856 Morris abandoned architecture as a career to become an artist. He painted the Oxford Union frescoes which set in place his career as a designer and established the Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company, renamed Morris and Company in 1876. In 1862 he designed his famous textiles and wallpaper for the company. Morris also wrote poetry and prose. His first volume of poetry, The Defence of Guenevere appeared in 1858 and the poem which established his reputation as a poet, The Earthly Paradise was published between 1868-1870. Morris became involved in national politics. In 1876 he became treasurer of the Eastern Question Association and in 1879, a year after the Morris family moved to Kelmscott House in Hammersmith, he became treasurer of the National Liberal League. In 1883 Morris was made an honorary fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. That year he joined H. M. Hyndman's Socialist Democratic Federation. In 1884 Morris published Art and Socialism with Hyndman and after disagreements with Hyndman, Morris left to form the Socialist League and later the Hammersmith Socialist Society. He became editor of the Socialist Society's journal, Commonweal in 1885. In the 1880s and 1890s Morris lectured and wrote widely on socialism. In 1890 Morris founded the Kelmscott Press at premises near his Hammersmith home. Morris designed typefaces for the company and printed sixty-six volumes. Morris died at Kelmscott House on 3 October 1896.

William Morris was an English artist, designer, poet and socialist. In the last decade of his life he turned to fine printing and operated theKelmscott Press at his home in Hammersmith, London.

English designer, author, and visionary socialist.

English artist, architect, designer, and writer.

British poet, artist, decorator, manufacturer, printer, and socialist.

William Morris was an English poet and artist who worked at architecture and painting, and founded the Kelmscott Press.

Although best known as a craftsman, a writer, and for his Kelmscott Press, William Morris became active in socialist causes in the early 1880s.

English poet and artist.

William Morris, English poet, artist, manufacturer and socialist.

Morris is credited with being the founder of the Arts and Crafts Movement as well as being an artist , illustrator and architect.

William Morris (1834-1896) was an English poet, artist, socialist and private press founder. A major figure in the English Arts and Crafts Movement, Morris was known for creating fine decorative crafts such as furniture and textiles. He also initiated the private press movement with the founding of his Kelmscott Press in 1891. Morris created beautiful art books using traditional printing methods and medieval-inspired typography and design.

William Morris was an English artist, designer, poet and socialist. In the last decade of his life he turned to fine printing and established the Kelmscott Press at his home in Hammersmith, London.

Epithet: designer, author, and visionary socialist

English poet and critic.

Although best known as a craftsman, a writer, and for his Kelmscott Press, William Morris became active in socialist causes in the early 1880's.

An ancient French romance based upon a legend of love and sacrifice, the story of Amis and Amile was translated and published by William Morris in 1894. The plot of the romance revolves around devoted friends, near twins in resemblance. When stricken with leprosy, Amis received a visitation from the archangel Raphael and was informed that his cure would be brought about only by telling Amile to slaughter his children and then bathe in their blood. Although Amis refused, Amile too had heard the angel, killed his children, bringing their blood to his sick friend, and immediately healed him. Miraculously, the children were restored to life thereafter, although both Amis and Amile were killed in battle, even death did not part them: though buried apart, their coffins were found together the next morning.

A textile designer, artist, writer, and publisher, William Morris was a deep proponent of traditional craftsmanship in an era of industrialization. Associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and a major figure in the English Arts and Crafts movement, Morris built on the writings of John Ruskin to develop a philosophy that at once prized craftsmanship and aesthetics and resisted the homogenization of mass production. Often drawing on medieval and romantic motifs and technologies, Morris's work reflected his socialist leanings, Morris operated the Kelmscott Press from 1891 to 1898 on the principle of employing traditional methods of book production, down to and including derivatives of fifteenth century typography and illustration. His version of Amis and Amile was printed in an edition of 500 at the Kelmscott Press in 1894 and by Thomas Bird Mosher in Maine later that year.

William Morris was born March 24, 1834 in Walthamstow, then a suburb of London; he attended Exeter College, Oxford and in 1855 he embarked on a varied career as a poet, artist, decorator, manufacturer, printer and lecturer. He helped to begin the Arts & Crafts movement in England and also strove to better the lives of the working class through his work with Socialist causes; after a lingering illness he died in London on October 3, 1896.

Sanford and Helen Berger, creators of the famous collection of William Morris, British Pre-Rafaelites, fine printing, and private presses. The Bergers became interested in Morris in 1965. In 1968, they acquired, from the descendants of John Henry Dearle, Morris's successor, the archives of Morris and Company and its successor firms, which included designs, cartoons for stained glass, designs for wallpaper, figure studies drawn by Morris, printed and woven textiles, carpets, tapestries, and embroideries, photographs, and important business records. The Bergers collection of stained glass, furniture, tiles, pottery, art work, manuscripts and printed books, one of the premier nineteenth century Arts & Crafts collections in the world, was exhibited in the United States, Australia, and Europe. The Huntington Library acquired the collection in 1999.

William Morris (1834-1896) was a British socialist, poet, artist and architect, and leading figure in the Arts and Crafts movement. He founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, was a cofounder and leader of the Socialist League and financed its organ Commonweal . He founded his own publishing company, the Kelmscott Press, in 1893 and was active in organizing guilds of designers and decorative craftsmen.

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