William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English designer, artist, writer and socialist.
He is perhaps best known today for his design work: he was a major contributor to the revival of traditional textile arts and a major influence on the Arts and Crafts movement.
Horrified by the ugliness and soullessness of nineteenth-century industrial capitalism, Morris became a committed socialist. He was a leading figure in the Socialist League (along with Karl Marx’s daughter Eleanor), and he believed his art, which valued beauty, craftsmanship and nature over mass-production and consumerism, to be an extension of this.
A prolific poet and prose author, his best known written work is News from Nowhere (1890), a utopian novel depicting the idyllic agrarian society he hoped would be created following a socialist revolution. His pseudo-medieval fantasies, such as The Wood Beyond The World (1894), The Water Of The Wondrous Isles (1895), and The Well at the World's End (1896) were a key influence on both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.
Oh, and he also set up a printing press, translated several Icelandic sagas and founded the movement to protect historic buildings in Britain.
Works by William Morris with their own pages:
Other works by William Morris contain examples of:
- Alliterative Title: The Wood Beyond the World. The Well at the World's End. The Water of the Wondrous Isles.
- Antiquated Linguistics: Morris was fond of using pseudo-medieval English, which can make some of his works a little difficult for modern readers.
- Author Appeal: The Middle Ages, Northern Sagas and nature motifs feature frequently in his work.
- The Dung Ages: Averted. Morris adored the Middle Ages, or rather a romanticized version, which he contrasted with the dirty, ugly cities of Victorian England.
- Gone Swimming, Clothes Stolen: Birdalone, the heroine of The Water of the Wondrous Isles. She spends some time afterwards as an Innocent Fanservice Girl.
- Immortality Seeker: His narrative poem collection The Earthly Paradise is framed by the tale of a quest for a land where nobody dies.
- Misplaced Vegetation: Though they take place in a romanticized Medieval Europe, Morris' works like "The Story of the Unknown Church" and "Gertha's Lovers" frequently mention New World crops like corn and sunflowers. Corn would not be introduced to Europe until the 1490's, and sunflowers not until the 1500's.
- The Quest: Both The Well at the World's End and The Water of the Wondrous Isles are long, rambling examples of this.
- Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: Romanticism. Oh so very much.
- Time Travel: The Dream Of John Ball involves time travel to the peasant’s revolt of 1381.
- Worldbuilding: As noted above, his medieval romances were a model for both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.
- Ye Goode Olde Days: Morris liked to paint an idealized image of the Middle Ages.
