The Cambridge companion to William Morris

Abstract

"In his short life, William Morris (1834-96) combined the roles of poet, author, painter, designer, translator, lecturer, political activist, journalist, weaver, bookmaker, and businessman. This accessible volume gathers influential, cross-disciplinary voices who have participated in his recent critical, political, and curatorial revival"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Introduction / Marcus Waithe -- Part I. Senses of place. Oxford / Tony Pinkney -- Red House / Tessa Wild -- Kelmscott Manor / Julia Griffin -- The Thames Basin / Clive Wilmer -- Part II. Authorship. Experimental medievalism : the defence of Guenevere and other poems (1858) / Martin Dubois -- Troubling the heroic ideal : Morris's midlife poetry / Florence Boos -- Skaldic Morris : translations from Old Norse / Heather O'Donoghue -- '[T]he whole man' : Morris's public lectures / Simon Grimble -- Northern epic : Sigurd the Volsung (1876) / Herbert Tucker -- Utopian fiction : News from nowhere (1890; 1891) / Matthew Beaumont -- Morris's prose romances and the origins of fantasy / Anna Vaninskaya -- Part III. The practical arts. Morris & Company : the poet as decorator / Elizabeth Helsinger -- Pattern : textiles and wallpaper / Caroline Arscott -- Technologies of the book : revisiting the Kelmscott Press / Marcus Waithe -- Part IV. Movements and causes. Practical socialism : newspaper and propaganda work / Ingrid Hanson -- Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement / Mary Greensted -- Female fellowship : Morris, feminism and the new woman / Zoë Thomas -- Landscape and environment / Elizabeth Carolyn Miller -- Part V. Influences and legacies. Morris and John Ruskin / Stuart Eagles -- Morris and Marxism / Ruth Levitas -- William Morris's 'medieval modern' afterlives / Michael T. Saler -- Morris in the twenty-first century / Sara Atwood.