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[Illustration: _William Morris_]




  WILLIAM MORRIS

  POET
  CRAFTSMAN
  SOCIALIST


  BY
  ELISABETH
  LVTHER
  CARY


  ILLVSTRATED


  G. P. PVTNAM'S SONS
  THE KNICKERBOCKER PRESS
  NEW YORK & LONDON




  COPYRIGHT, 1902
  BY
  G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

  Published, October, 1902
  Reprinted, June, 1903; December, 1905


  The Knickerbocker Press, New York




PREFACE.


The personal life of William Morris is already known to us through Mr.
Mackail's admirable biography as fully, probably, as we shall ever know
it. My own endeavour has been to present a picture of Morris's busy career
perhaps not less vivid for the absence of much detail, and showing only
the man and his work as they appeared to the outer public.

I have used as a basis for my narrative, the volumes by Mr. Mackail;
_William Morris, his Art, his Writings, and his Public Life_, by Aymer
Vallance; _The Books of William Morris_, by H. Buxton Forman; numerous
articles in periodicals, and Morris's own varied works.

I wish to express my indebtedness to Mr. Bulkley of 42 East 14th Street,
New York City, for permission to reproduce a number of Morris patterns in
his possession, notably a fragment of the St. James's wall-paper.

Much material for the letter-press and for the illustrations I have
obtained through the Boston Public Library. The _Froissart_ pages were
found there and most of the Kelmscott publications from which I have
quoted.

The bibliography is that prepared by Mr. S. C. Cockerell for the last
volume of Mr. Morris issued by the Kelmscott Press, under the title of _A
Note by William Morris on His Aims in Founding the Kelmscott Press_. To
the Cockerell bibliography have been added a few notes of my own.

E. L. C.

BROOKLYN, Sept. 10, 1902.




CONTENTS.


  CHAPTER                                               PAGE

     I.--BOYHOOD                                           1

    II.--OXFORD LIFE                                      21

   III.--FROM ROSSETTI TO THE RED HOUSE                   46

    IV.--MORRIS AND COMPANY                               69

     V.--FROM THE RED HOUSE TO KELMSCOTT                  96

    VI.--POETRY                                          114

   VII.--PUBLIC LIFE AND SOCIALISM                       146

  VIII.--PUBLIC LIFE AND SOCIALISM (_Continued_)         174

    IX.--LITERATURE OF THE SOCIALIST PERIOD              194

     X.--THE KELMSCOTT PRESS                             219

    XI.--LATER WRITINGS                                  239

   XII.--THE END                                         255

         BIBLIOGRAPHY                                    269

         INDEX                                           291




ILLUSTRATIONS.


                                                                  _Page_

  _William Morris_                                        _Frontispiece_
      _From Life._

  _Title-page of "The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine"_               _32_

  _Portrait of Rossetti_                                            _36_
      _By Watts._

  _Illustration by Rossetti to "The Lady of Shalott" in the
  Moxon "Tennyson." The Head of Launcelot is a Portrait of
  Morris_                                                           _42_

  _Portrait of Jane Burden (Mrs. Morris)_                           _58_
      _By Rossetti_

  _Wall-Paper and Cotton-Print Designs_                             _60_

    _"Acanthus" Wall-Paper_

    _"Pimpernel" Wall-Paper_

    _"African Marigold" Cotton-Print_

     