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William Morris ( March 24 , 1834 – October 3 , 1896 ) was an English artist, writer, Socialist and activist. He was one of the principal founders of the British Arts And Crafts Movement , best known as a designer of Wallpaper and patterned fabrics, a writer of Poetry and Fiction and a pioneer of the socialist movement in Britain. His family was wealthy, and he went to school at Marlborough College , but left in 1851 after a student rebellion there. He then went to Exeter College , Oxford after studying for his matriculation to the university. He became influenced by John Ruskin there, and met his life-long friends and collaborators, Dante Gabriel Rossetti , Edward Burne-Jones , Ford Madox Brown and Philip Webb there as well. He also met his wife, Jane Burden , a working-class woman whose pale skin, figure, and wavy, abundant dark hair were considered by Morris and his friends the epitome of beauty. and favoured a return to hand-craftsmanship, raising Artisan s to the status of artists. He espoused the philosophy that art should be affordable, hand-made, and that there should be no hierarchy of artistic mediums. Morris had two daughters, Jane (called Jenny) and Mary (called May ). BUSINESS CAREER and William Morris in Trinity Church, Boston , Massachusetts.]] Morris left Oxford to join an architecture firm, but soon found himself drawn more and more to the Decorative Arts . He and Webb built Red House at Bexleyheath in Kent, Morris's wedding gift to Jane. It was here his design ideas began to take physical shape. (In honour of his connection with Bexleyheath, a bust of Morris was added to an original niche in the brick clock tower in the town centre in 1996.) He also built Standen House in Sussex along with Webb. In 1861, he founded the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. with Gabriel Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown and Philip Webb. In 1874 Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown decided to leave the firm, requiring a return on their shares which proved to be a costly business. Throughout his life, he continued to work in his own firm, although the firm changed names. Its most famous incarnation was as Morris And Company . The company encouraged the revival of traditional crafts such as stained glass painting, and Morris himself single-handedly recreated the art of tapestry weaving in Britain. His designs are still sold today under licences given to Sanderson And Sons and Liberty Of London . POETRY Morris had already begun publishing poetry and short stories through a magazine founded with his friends while at university. His first independently published work, ''The Defence of Guenevere '' was coolly received by the critics, and he was discouraged from publishing more for a number of years. He had also made a painting of King Arthur's Queen Consort. However, " The Haystack In The Floods ", probably these days his best-known poem, dates from just after this time. It is a grimly realistic piece set during the Hundred Years War in which the doomed lovers Jehane and Robert have a last parting in a convincingly portrayed rain-swept countryside. When he returned to poetry it was with ''The Earthly Paradise'', a huge collection of poems loosely bound together. The theme was of a group of medieval wanderers who set out to search for a land of everlasting life; after much disillusion, they discover a surviving colony of Greeks with whom they exchange stories. The collection brought him almost immediate fame and popularity. The last-written stories in the collection are retellings of Icelandic Sagas . From then until his Socialist period Morris's fascination with the ancient Germanic and Norse peoples dominated his writing. Together with his Icelandic friend Eirikr Magnusson he was the first to translate many of the Icelandic sagas into English, and his own epic retelling of the story of Sigurd The Volsung was his favourite among his poems. Due to his wide poetic acclaim, Morris was offered the Poet Laureate ship, after the death of Tennyson in 1892, but declined. ARCHITECTURE Although Morris never became a practising architect, his interest in architecture continued throughout his life. In 1877, he founded the Society For The Protection Of Ancient Buildings . His preservation work resulted indirectly in the founding of the National Trust . Combined with the inspiration of John Ruskin — in particular his essay "The Nature of Gothic" from the second volume of ''The Stones of Venice'' — architecture played an important symbolic part in Morris's approach to socialism. FANTASY NOVELS In the last nine years of his life, Morris wrote a series of fantasy novels later to be a strong influence on J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis . In many respects, Morris was an important milestone in the history of fantasy, because, while other writers wrote of foreign lands, or of dream worlds, Morris' works were the first to be set in an entirely invented Fantasy World .Lin Carter, ed. ''Kingdoms of Sorcery'', p 39 Doubleday and Company Garden City, NY, 1976 These were attempts to revive the genre of Medieval Romance , and not wholly successful, partly because he eschewed many literary techniques from later eras. L. Sprague De Camp , '' Literary Swordsmen And Sorcerers : The Makers of Heroic Fantasy'', p 46 ISBN 0-87054-076-9 In particular, 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.L. Sprague de Camp, ''Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers: The Makers of Heroic Fantasy'', p 40 ISBN 0-87054-076-9 Nevertheless, large subgenres of the field of fantasy have sprung from the romance genre, but indirectly, through their writers' imitation of William Morris.L. Sprague de Camp, ''Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers: The Makers of Heroic Fantasy'', p 26 ISBN 0-87054-076-9 SOCIALISM Morris and his daughter May were amongst Britain's first socialists, working directly with Eleanor Marx and Engels to begin the socialist movement. In 1883, he joined the Social Democratic Federation , and in 1884 he organised the breakaway Socialist League . Morris found himself rather awkwardly positioned as a mediator between the Marxist and Anarchist sides of the socialist movement, and bickering between the two sides eventually tore the Socialist League apart. This side of Morris's work is well-discussed in the biography (subtitled "Romantic to Revolutionary") by E. P. Thompson . It was during this period that Morris wrote his best-known prose works, in particular '' A Dream Of John Ball '' and the utopian '' News From Nowhere ''. Morris and Rossetti rented a country house, in Hammersmith, the Kelmscott Press, and Kelmscott Manor. At his death in 1896 he was interred in the Kelmscott village churchyard. , printed by Kelmscott Press. First page of text, with typical ornamented border.]] THE KELMSCOTT PRESS In January 1891, Morris founded the Kelmscott Press at Hammersmith, London , in order to produce examples of improved Printing and book design. The books were designed to make reference to the methods and techniques he used, which he saw as traditional methods of printing and craftsmanship, in line with the Arts and Crafts movement as a whole, and in response to the prevalence of Lithography , particularly those lithographic prints designed to look like woodcut prints. He designed clear Typeface s, such as his Roman 'golden' type, which was inspired by that of the early Venetian printer Nicolaus Jenson , and medievalizing decorative borders for books that drew their inspiration from the Incunabula of the 15th century and their Woodcut illustrations. Selection of Paper and Ink , and concerns for the overall integration of type and decorations on the page made the Kelmscott Press the most famous of the Private Press es of the Arts and Crafts movement. It operated until 1898, producing 53 works, comprising 69 volumes, and inspired other private presses, notably the Doves Press . Among book lovers, the Kelmscott Press edition of ''The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer'', illustrated by Burne-Jones, is considered one of the most beautiful books ever produced. A fine edition facsimile of the Kelmscott ''Chaucer'' was published in 2002 by The Folio Society . MORRIS TODAY The Morris Societies in Britain, the US , and Canada are active in preserving Morris's work and ideas. The influence of William Morris lives on in modern interiors and architecture. Companies such as Harvest House and Stickley Furniture continue to sell Arts and Crafts-style pieces. In April 2007, '' The Guardian '' newspaper reported that funding for the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow was threatened by cost cutting by the London borough of Waltham Forest . A campaign to avoid the reduction in opening times and dismissal of key staff is underway. News from Waltham Forest LITERARY WORKS
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