Main entry:

Henderson, Philip, 1906-1977, author.

Title & Author:

William Morris : his life, work, and friends / Philip Henderson ; foreword by Allan Temko.

Publication:

New York : McGraw-Hill, [1967]
©1967

Description:

388 pages, 40 unnumbered pages of plates : 90 illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm

Notes:
"With 82 black-and-white illustrations and 6 color plates."
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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.

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 history, 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.

Subject:

Morris, William, 1834-1896.
Morris, William, 1834-1896 Friends and associates.
Medievalism England History 19th century.
Authors, English 19th century Biography.
Medievalists Great Britain Biography.
Socialists Great Britain Biography.
Designers Great Britain Biography.
Middle Ages in literature.
Middle Ages in art.
Médiévisme Angleterre Histoire 19e siècle.
Écrivains anglais 19e siècle Biographies.
Médiévistes Grande-Bretagne Biographies.
Designers Grande-Bretagne Biographies.
Moyen Âge dans la littérature.
Moyen Âge dans l'art.
Socialists.
Medievalists.
Medievalism.
Friendship.
Designers.
Authors, English.
Great Britain.
England.

Form/genre:

Biography
Biographies.
History.

Added entries:

Morris, William, 1834-1896

Holdings:

Location: Library main 14679
Call No.: 0000473 PO893; ID:87-B4277
Status: Available