Morris,
William (1834-1896), English poet, designer, and socialist
reformer, who, in an increasingly industrialized age, urged
a return to medieval traditions of design, craftsmanship,
and community. He was the prime figure in the formation of
the Arts and Crafts Movement.
Morris
was born in Walthamstow, Essex, on March 24, 1834. He was
educated at Oxford University and briefly apprenticed to an
architect. He was one of the founders of the Oxford and Cambridge
Magazine in 1857. The magazine survived for only one year,
but through it Morris became friendly with the English poet
and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In 1858 his Defence of
Guenevere and Other Poems was published and, although it attracted
almost no attention at the time, it has since become regarded
as a minor classic of Victorian poetry. Except for these literary
endeavours, Morris devoted most of his time to architecture
and painting. In 1861 he formed a decorating firm in partnership
with Rossetti, the painter Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and other
Pre-Raphaelite painters. The firm, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner
& Co., designed and manufactured decorations such as carvings,
metalwork, stained glass, and carpets. These products were
noted for their good design and fine workmanship, and directly
inspired the Arts and Crafts Movement, which sought to restore
honest craftsmanship to the design of everyday objects. The
influence of this movement extended throughout Europe and
the United States and contributed to the development of the
Art Nouveau style.
In
his numerous and varied writings, Morris excelled in verse
translations from classic and medieval sources. Among these
were the epic The Earthly Paradise (1868-1870), much in the
manner of the great Middle English poet Geoffrey Chaucer;
The Aeneid of Virgil (1875); and The Odyssey of Homer (1887),
in the metrical style of the English dramatist and classical
translator George Chapman. In 1868, Morris met the Icelandic
scholar Eirikr Magnússon and began avidly to study
Icelandic and translate the sagas. From materials gathered
during two trips to Iceland, Morris wrote Three Northern Love
Songs (1875) and the epic Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall
of the Niblungs (1876). His first novel, The Novel on Blue
Paper, written in 1872 but not published until 1982, reflected
the unhappiness of his personal life at that time.
Morris
became increasingly active in politics but without losing
interest in art and letters. In 1884 he helped to establish
the Socialist League, editing and contributing to its organ,
the Commonweal. He described a fictitious socialist commonwealth
in England in A Dream of John Ball (1886-1887) and News from
Nowhere (1890). He established the Kelmscott Press in 1890,
and, using his own designs for the type and ornamental letters,
he issued editions of the classics and of his own works, notably
The
Kelmscott
Chaucer (1896). Morris died in London on October 3, 1896.
The
work of Morris, both in poetry and in the applied arts, is
characterized by an emphasis on decorative elements, especially
on those that he thought to be characteristic of the art of
the Middle Ages. His designs for books and wallpaper recall
the precision and elegance of illuminated manuscripts, and
his poems and epics treat medieval themes with a rich imagery
and a simplicity of diction derived from the ancient epics
and sagas. In his political writings, he attempted to reverse
the dehumanizing effects of the Industrial Revolution by proposing
a form of society in which people could enjoy craftsmanship
and simplicity of expression.
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