Morris, William (1834-1896), was an English poet, artist, and socialist reformer. He fell in love with medieval culture and acquired a deep knowledge of English Gothic architecture. Morris wanted to replace the mass-produced objects of his time with the beauty and individuality he saw in medieval art.
Morris retold many myths and epics. His romantic narrative The Life and Death of Jason (1867) recounts the adventures of the Greek mythological hero. The Earthly Paradise (1868-1870) is a poem modeled on Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.
Morris became interested in interior design as an art form. In 1861, he founded a company that produced furniture, wallpaper, stained glass, tapestries, and other decorative articles for the home. His experiments in furniture led to the design of the popular Morris chair.
Morris created his own publishing company, the Kelmscott Press, in 1890. The press printed artistic editions of distinguished literary works. It stimulated artistic book design and printing in other countries. See Book (The 1800’s) .
In his later years, Morris became a lecturer and propagandist for socialist solutions to problems created by the Industrial Revolution. He wrote the romances A Dream of John Ball (1888) and News from Nowhere (1891), both landmarks of the English socialist movement. Morris was born on March 24, 1834, in Walthamstow, near London, and died on Oct. 3, 1896.
