1834-1896. English designer, socialist, and
poet who shared the Pre-Raphaelite painters'
fascination with medieval settings. His first
book of verse was The Defence of Guenevere
1858. In 1862 he founded a firm for the
manufacture of furniture, wallpapers, and the
like, and in 1890 he set up the Kelmscott
Press to print beautifully decorated books.
The prose romances A Dream of John Ball 1888
and News from Nowhere 1891 reflect his
socialist ideology. He also lectured on
socialism. Morris abandoned his first
profession, architecture, to study painting,
but had a considerable influence on such
architects as William Lethaby and Philip
Webb. A founder of the Arts and Crafts
movement, Morris did much to raise British
craft standards. He published several volumes
of verse romances, notably The Life and Death
of Jason 1867 and The Earthly Paradise
1868-70; a visit to Iceland 1871 inspired
Sigurd the Volsung 1876 and general interest
in the sagas. He joined the Social Democratic
Federation 1883, but left it 1884 because he
found it too moderate, and set up the
Socialist League. To this period belong the
critical and sociological studies Signs of
Change 1888 and Hopes and Fears for Art 1892.
William Morris was born in Walthamstow,
London, and educated at Oxford, where he
formed a lasting friendship with the
Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones and
was influenced by the art critic John Ruskin
and the painter and poet Dante Rossetti.