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William Morris was born on March 24, 1834, at Elm House, Walthamstow. He was the third of nine children and the oldest child of William and Emma Shelton Morris. His famile was very well off and during Morris's youth became increasingly wealthy: at twenty-one, Morris had an income of 900, quite a sum in those days.
Childhood
Morris's childhood was a happy one. He was spoiled by everyone, and was rather tempermental, as in fact he would be for the rest of
his life: he would throw his dinner out of the window if he did not approve of the manner in which it had been prepared. He was smitten at a very early age, as many young gentlemen of his day were, with a great passion for all things mediaeval.
At age four he began to read Sir Walter Scott's Waverley Novels, and he had finished them all by the time he was nine.
1859
In 1859 Morris married Jane at Oxford.
Morris's marriage was a very difficult one: Jane was moody and frequently ill, and within a few years of their marriage, playing Guenevere this time, had embarked upon a long affair with Rossetti, which permanently strained Morris's relationship not only with Jane herself but also with the man who had been first one of his heroes and then one of his closest friends.
1862
In 1862 Morris designed the first of many enormously influential wallpapers for the Company.
1870
1870 saw the publication of Morris's prose translation of the Volsunga Saga, The Story of the Volsungs. Morris saw the Socialist movement as a way to resolve the problems his problems of poverty, unemployment.
He also thought that the movement could help fix the death of art and the growing gap between the upper and lower Classes which he saw as being the pervasive legacy, in Victorian society, of the ongoing Industrial Revolution.
1887
Over the next few years Morris wrote socialist pamphlets, sold socialist literature on street corners, went on
speaking tours, encouraged and participated in strikes and took part in several political demonstrations. In July, 1887 Morris was arrested after a demonstration in London.
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In 1891 William Morris became seriously ill with kidney disease. He continued to write on socialism and
occasionally was fit enough to give speeches at public meetings. Morris political views had been influenced by the anarchist theories of Peter Kropotkin.
Wallpapers
The intricate layering and intertwining of organic forms in Morris's
patterns for wallpapers, such as Jasmine, and textiles, such as his design for the printed textile Iris, are still instantly recognizable today.
DAISY WALLPAPER
Morris designed two wallpapers, Daisy and Trellis, in the early 1860s when he was living at Red House. Both
designs were registered in February 1864 and the wallpapers were hand-printed for Morris by Jeffrey & Company of Islington. The Daisy pattern was directly inspired by a wall-hanging depicted in a 15th-century manuscript of Froissarts Chronicles. Morris used similar clumps of flowers for embroidery and tile designs of the 1860s.
http://www1.walthamforest.gov.uk/wmg/images/daisy1.gif
WANDLE CHINTZ
Like a number of Morriss chintz patterns of the 1880s, Wandle is named after a tributary of the river Thames, the
Wandle being the stream which flowed past the Morris & Company workshops at Merton Abbey, Surrey. Morris began the design in September 1883, writing to his daughter Jenny that, although the wet Wandle is not big but small, he wanted to make the pattern very elaborate and splendid to honour our helpful stream.
Bloody Sunday
Four months later he participated in what became known as Bloody Sunday, when three people were killed and
200 injured during a public meeting in Trafalgar Square. The following week, a friend, Alfred Linnell, was fatally injured during another protest demonstration and this event resulted in Morris writing, Death Song.
Socialist
He became a committed socialist, joining the Democratic Federation and later founding the Socialist
League and working tirelessly as a political activist. His embrace of socialism was a response to the new conditions of labor resulting from the industrialization of Britain.
Books
He founded the Kelmscott Press, named after his beloved home, to print books "with the hope of
producing some which would have a definite claim to beauty." For Morris, the book was an art object to be appreciated in the same way as a beautiful home or a painting.
Legacy
Morris's ideas lived on even after his death, not only in the work of his protg John Henry Dearle (18601932), who took over as artistic director of the Firm and guided it almost until its end, but in that of countless other artists and designers who, for a century and a half, have looked to Morris for inspiration. His influence extended from the Arts and Crafts Movement of the late nineteenth century to the organic modernism of Frank Lloyd Wright in America and the stark functionalism of the Bauhaus in Europe.
Bibliography
1. 13 Oct. 2007 <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jmorris.htm>.