Description

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This well illustrated book celebrates every aspect of the wide-ranging achievements of William Morris - writer, designer, cultural critic, revolutionary socialist - with particular emphasis on their relevance to our own times. The book makes available up-to-date Morris scholarship in accessible form.  Written by a group of international scholars who took part in a conference marking the centenary of the death of Morris in 1896, the book has sections devoted to Morris and Literature (covering texts from The Earthly Paradise to the late romances); Morris, the Arts & Crafts and the New World (including discussions of his influence in Rhode Island, Boston, Ontario and New Zealand); and Morris, Gender and Politics (with fresh consideration of his relation to Victorian ideas of manliness and of the particular qualities of his anti-statist politics). The latter section also draws attention to a hitherto unknown play by Morris's daughter May and concludes with an account of his biographer, the late E.P. Thompson.

About the Author

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Peter Faulkner is Reader in Modern English Literature, University of Exeter. He is currently editor of the Journal of the William Morris Society. Peter Preston is Senior Lecturer in Literature, University of Nottingham, and was formerly Honorary Secretary of the William Morris Society and Editor of its Newsletter.

Praise For…

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“The essays have two main foci: the revaluation of Morris in the context of his own time, and the revaluation of his legacy.  The strength of the book as a whole is that it answers to those two concerns admirably well.  The editors risked analytical depth in deciding to print so many (eighteen) essays touching not just on, say, Morris’s literary accomplishments, but also on his work as a designer, as a politician, and as a businessman.  But here too, the book succeeds, because nearly all of the essays are grounded by one overarching issue: Morris’s own relationship to history.  These pieces are concerned not only with his interest in the past, but also with his vigorous engagement with his historical present.” –Utopian Studies, 30 June 2000

— Utopian Studies

“This is a challenging volume of essays which will no doubt further encourage Morrisian studies as we approach the new millennium. The editors, and the University of Exeter Press, are to be congratulated for producing such a fitting tribute to one of the greatest men of the Victorian age.” –Journal of the William Morris Society, Volume XIII, Number 3 Autumn 1999
— Journal of the William Morris Society

“William Morris: Centenary Essays should be regarded by Morrisian scholars as an essential source, now and for many years to come. The scope, variety and mostly high-sometimes outstanding-quality of the essays make it worthy of wider attention too. Expertly edited and attractively produced, moreover, the actual book truly befits its subject. Peter Faulkner, Peter Preston and the University of Exeter Press deserve congratulations and thanks.” –The David Jones Journal, 1999

— The David Jones Journal