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Definition: Morris from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary

William Morris 1834–1896 Eng. poet, artist, & socialist

Morris, William

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
English designer, socialist, and writer. A founder of the Arts and Crafts Movement , he condemned 19th-century mechanization and sought a revival of traditional crafts, such as furnituremaking, book illustration, fabric design, and so on. He linked this to a renewal of society based on Socialist principles. Morris was born in London and educated at Oxford, where he formed a lasting friendship with the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones and was influenced by the art critic John Ruskin and the painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti . He abandoned his first profession, architecture, to study painting, but had a considerable influence on such architects as William Lethaby and Philip Webb. In 1861 he cofounded Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company (‘the Firm’) which designed and produced stained glass, furniture, fabric, carpets, and decorative wallpapers; many of the designs, inspired by medieval, classical, and oriental sources, are still produced today. Morris's first book of…
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Full text Article Morris, William

From Philip's Encyclopedia
The Red House, Bexleyheath, near London, was...
English artist, craftsman, writer, social reformer, and printer. Associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) , he founded (1861) the Arts and Crafts Movement , a collection of decorators and designers influenced by medieval craftsmanship. Morris is perhaps best remembered for his wallpaper…
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Architect, designer, painter, printer, socialist, and poet, Morris was strongly influenced by the ideas of both Ruskin, the art and social critic, and Pugin, the architect who spearheaded the Gothic Revival movement. In 1861 Morris and a group of like-minded friends, including Ford Madox Brown…
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Full text Article Morris, William

From Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought
English painter, designer, poet and social critic, inspired by the writings of Ruskin , who founded, in 1861, the organization which was later to be known as the Arts and Crafts movement, and, in 1884, the Socialist League. The Arts and Crafts movement opposed what it saw as the degradation of…
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Full text Article WILLIAM MORRIS

From Great Victorian Lives: An Era in Obituaries
The death of Mr. William Morris, which, we regret to say, took place shortly after 11 o’clock on Saturday morning at Kelmscott House, Hammersmith, after a long illness, removes from the world a man whom we do not hesitate to call a great artist. A poet, and one of our half dozen best poets, even…
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Full text Article Morris, William

From Chambers Biographical Dictionary
1834-96 English craftsman, poet and socialist William Morris was born in Walthamstow, near London, into a middle-class family. He was educated at Marlborough School and Exeter College, Oxford. He studied for holy orders, but renounced the Church and studied architecture, with his friends and fellow…
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Full text Article Morris, William

From Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature
" Poet, designer of textiles and wallpaper, successful businessman, father (often so-called) of the Arts and Crafts movement, radical socialist, writer of prose romances, translator (in collaboration) of the Icelandic sagas and Virgil’s Aeneid (1875), as well as the Odyssey (2 vols., 1887), and…
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Full text Article Morris, William (1834–96)

From The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Graphic Design and Designers
Designer, Socialist writer, painter and member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Leader of the British arts and crafts movement . Influenced by the philosophy of the art critic John Ruskin, Morris was a medievalist, dedicated to rediscovering the traditional standards of craftsmanship, materials…
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Full text Article Kelmscott Press

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
printing establishment in London. There William Morris led the 19th-century revival of the art and craft of making books (see arts and crafts ). The first book made by the press was The Story of the Glittering Plain (1891), by William Morris. The masterpiece of the press was The Works of Geoffrey…
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Full text Article Kelmscott Press

From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
A private printing press founded in 1890 by William Morris (1834–96) in a cottage adjoining his residence, Kelmscott House, at 26 Upper Mall, Hammersmith, which he had bought in 1878 from the novelist George MacDonald and renamed after his earlier home, Kelmscott Manor, near Faringdon, Berkshire…
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Full text Article Kelmscott Press (1891–98)

From The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Graphic Design and Designers
Printing press established by William morris at Kelmscott Manor, Hammersmith, London as a reaction to mediocre standards of contemporary book production. Morris used the press to create luxurious volumes, printed on handmade paper and vellum, for wealthy collectors. He employed his own typeface…
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