William Morris : his life, work, and friends / Philip Henderson ; foreword by Allan Temko ; with 82 blakc-and-white illustrations and 8 color plates.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Henderson, Philip, 1906-1977, author.

Contributor:

McGraw-Hill Book Company, publisher.

Jarrold and Sons, printer.

Jean-François Vilain and Roger S. Wieck Collection of Private Presses, Ephemera, & Related References (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Morris, William, 1834-1896.

Morris, William.

Friends and associates.

Morris, William, 1834-1896--Friends and associates.

Medievalism--England--History--19th century.

Medievalism.

England.

History.

Authors, English--19th century--Biography.

Authors, English.

Medievalists--Great Britain--Biography.

Medievalists.

Great Britain.

Socialists--Great Britain--Biography.

Socialists.

Designers--Great Britain--Biography.

Designers.

Middle Ages in literature.

Middle Ages in art.

Friendship.

Genre:

Biographies.

History.

Dust jackets (Binding)

Illustrated works.

Penn Provenance:

Vilain, Jean-François, 1942- (donor) (Vilain-Wieck Collection copy)

Wieck, Roger S. (donor) (Vilain-Wieck Collection copy)

Oklahoma County Libraries (stamp) (Vilain-Wieck Collection copy)

Physical Description:

16 unnumbered pages, 388 pages, 40 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm

Manufacture:

Norwich : Printed in Great Britain by Jarrold and Sons Ltd.

Place of Publication:

New York ... : McGraw-Hill Book Company, [1967]

Summary:

On May 24, 1834, was born one of the most influential, enigmatic and memorable of Victorians: William Morris, poet, designer, socialist. Considered so much a part of Victorian life, only now are his genius and vision finding fulfillment in our own turbulent era. As Allan Temko observes in his Foreword, "It has been in America that his vision of a new physical order of civilization has come closest to fulfillment." Here, in his long-awaited, definitive biography, the editor of the Morris family letters presents the first full-length portrait of Morris since Mackail's heavily censored "official" biography of 1899. Historian and critic Philip Henderson is the first to make full use of much new material only recently made available. At Oxford, Morris, the son of a successful Welsh businessman, met the highly talented group that were to become lifelong friends and collaborators: Edward Burne-Jones, Cormell Price, Charles Faulkner, Philip Webb. It was in the medieval town of Oxford, too that Morris developed two of the devotions that were to dominate his life: passionate commitment to the social and artistic ideals he saw in medieval culture, and friendship with Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who was to be mentor, rival and--ultimately--bête noire. Henderson traces Morris' development from those early, colorful, brightly optimistic days into the extraordinary later years--when he was "working" poet, architect, decorator, fabric designer, weaver, dyer, embroiderer, and printer, the guiding spirit of "The Firm" of Morris and his associates, as well as passionate political activist, lecturer, and conservationist. He was one of the most influential men in England in both the arts and politics--truly, as Wylie Sypher has called him, "the Leonardo of the Victorians." Henderson at last explains the riddle of Morris' tragic marriage, separating the private torment from the confused public image. He also reveals in rich detail how William Morris carved out his important place in hi story, through an astonishing variety of accomplishments. The reader--even one well acquainted with Morris' work-- may be surprised to discover just how much Morris has contributed, for here at last, as Temko observes, emerges "a protean figure ... rising from the sea of Victorian confusion to confront our disruptive age, [which] Morris foretold with particular relevance for contemporary America."--Adapted from dust jacket.

Contents:

Part one: Romance, 1834-1876. Walthamstow to Marlborough, 1834-1852 ; Oxford : Ruskin, Rossetti and Pre-Raphaelitism, 1853-1856 ; Red Lion Square : the Oxford Union, 'Iseult' and 'Guenevere', `856-1859 ; Red House : Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. fine art workmen, 1859-1865 ; Queen Square : 'of utter love defeated utterly', 1865-1871 ; Kelmscott and Iceland, 1871-1875 ; Wallpapers, textiles, embroidery : 'Sigurd the Volsung'

Part two: Commitment, 1876-1890. The Anti-Turk campaign, Kelmscott House, visits to Italy, experiments in weaving, 1876-1879 ; Architecture and the arts of life ; Hammersmith, Kelmscott, Merton Abbey, 1879-1883 ; The Social Democratic Federation, 1883-1884 ; The Socialist League, 1885-1887 ; 'A dream of John Ball' : 'The Odyssey', Bloody Sunday and the end of the Socialist League, 1887-1890

Part three: Utopia. 'News from Nowhere' : the Kelmscott Press, 1890-1893 ; Last years, 1894-1896.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 370-379) and index.

Local Notes:

Kislak Center Vilain-Wieck Collection of Private Presses copy presented to the Penn Libraries in 2013.

Vilain-Wieck Collection copy has stamp ("OKLAHOMA COUNTY LIBRARIES") on title leaf.

Vilain-Wieck Collection copy: dust jacket retained.

OCLC:

1991852