Customer Reviews (3)

Patterns
If you are looking for ideas on what to do, it is not a bad book.If you are looking for patterns on designs, this is not the book for you.This book is just a collection of some of his work, which is not what I was looking for.

small packages
This book has quality color reproductions covering a broad spectrum of Morris's work. I love it. However, I wish Phaidon had come out with the same book at a much larger scale in hardcover. The large book "WilliamMorris" edited by Linda Parry contains good visuals and a greatcollection of essays about him, so I would recommend that book instead ifyou are looking for something big and comprehensive. "Designs ofWilliam Morris" is very nice for the price, though, and makes a goodintroduction to his work.

Check out the dimensions of the book
This is basicly a picture book, but you will need a magnifying glass to look at many of the designs.Otherwise the content is fairly comprehensive. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
Light, airy, rooms...clean-lined wooden furnishings...richly patterned rugs and fabrics in colors inspired by nature. William Morris was the first to champion the styles that remain quintessentially modern today. William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Home is both a profile of this innovative tastemaker and a lavishly illustrated guide to decorating with these ever-popular elements. Over 200 photographs capture the Arts and Crafts look, both in Morris's own residences as well as in contemporary homes where the classic Morris aesthetic of simple beauty prevails. Organized by element, chapters on the legendary patterned fabrics and wallpapers he designed, his artisan wooden furniture, curtains and carpets, ceramics and metalwork all serve to illustrate Morris's unique vision. Informative, engaging, and delightful to peruse, William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Home captures the beauty and simplicity of these influential designs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Lovely details
If you appreciate anything to do with the Arts & Crafts movement, you'll really like this book -- even if you look only at the pictures. It's separated into sections on exteriors and gardens; interiors (architecture); decorative patterns (wallpapers and woven fabric); furniture; softer elements (curtains, rugs, carpets, etc.); finishing touches (ornament, tiles).

Each has plenty of detail: you see the overall effect (the entire wall of wallpaper) and the specific design (a zoom in on the wallpaper's design). Even if you care about only one element (you're into fabric for instance) you'll get plenty out of this book.

For Lovers of Arts and Crafts Homes
William Morris changed people's attitudes towards architecture and interior decoration when Victorian excess was at it's height.I love the use of wood in an Arts and Crafts house.For others who feel this way, this book is a treat.At the back are two useful sections: Where to See Arts and Crafts Homes and a listing of Specialist Supplies for anyone renovating an Arts and Crafts Home.
You might also want to read The William Morris Stained Glass Pattern Book and The Life and Works of William Morris.Take a look also at Craftsman Homes: Architecture and Furnishings of the American Arts and Crafts Movement.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Well Written Biography
Fiona MacCarthy's background is in design, which brings a lovely perspective to her biography of Morris.MacCarthy also writes well, which is a plus in a book this size.She writes with affection for her subject,but without any of the bizarre idolatry with which some people approachMorris.He was a crashing bore as a poet, a mere amateur painter, a giftedfabric designer (but there are many gifted fabric designers), and aSocialist who knew only marginally more about what people actually do for aliving than did Ruskin.Nevertheless, Morris was a volcano of artisticactivity and heart-felt social ideas, and therein lay his genius. MacCarthy does an excellent job bringing Morris's genius to life in thisfirst rate biography.

The Final Biography on Morris
Most books about William Morris are like rainbows, filled with colorful images. Simply because he made so many wonderful and colorful embroideries, tapestries and patterns, and because color itself is something people like,and therefore buy.

This book doesn't have many colors inside, but itcontains many black and white photographs, that are of great interest forthose who like to read about William Morris and his time.And thecombination of text and photographs create so many images in your mind,that you forget about color.

For the same people, this is the the finalbook about William Morris and his life. It's not the book to buy, if youwant to know all about his printing of books in Kelmscott Press (there youhave to go for Peterson's books), but it's the book about all the otherstuff you want to know about Morris - and everything, you didn't know, youwould want to know.

Having spent more than 5 years on this matter, FionaMacCarthy has succeeded in making an extraordinary and therefore the finalbiography on William Morris.

More than 700 pages with more than 100pages of source and reference notes.

It's a book to read and to readagain and to use, when you're working with text about the period, the arts& crafts movement - or simply with Morris. Buy it, even if you don'thave the money - wear the old jacket another year. You won't regret.

Aslong as it's out of print, you have to go to the library, where you shouldtell them to order some more books, so they print more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The flowers of William Morris
When I bought this book I was expecting pictures of flowers.Instead I end up reading a book on Mr. Morris' life.His love of flowers and wonderful drawings have made this book better than I could have imaginedit. ... Read more

Book Description
William Morris was a pioneering socialist, book designer, decorative artist, and author of intense short lyrics, long poetic narratives and utopian, socialist prose romances. This annotated critical edition is the first attempt to make Morris's 42,000-word verse sequence accessible to a modern audience. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A virtual warehouse of information
To chronicle the life of William Morris, his biographer, E.P. Thompson, purposely reminds the reader that the English Romantic period in literature strongly influenced Morris, from his childhood on. Tracing the steps of Morris' formal education, he documents how Morris was deeply affected by his studies of medieval art and literature and deeply influenced by the writings of both Carlyle and Ruskin, influences that had repercussions for the direction of Morris's artistic and political life.

Thompson worked from a treasure trove of material: letters, public documents, articles about William Morris, and, of course, the vast collection of literary works and political articles and speeches that Morris published.

He shows Morris as being at odds with Victorian sensibilities, both as an artist and political reformer, all tempered to some degree, by his illusory yearning for an ideal love, a yearning that doomed any hope of true happiness in his marriage to Jane Burden but made him an ardent reformer striving to bring about more equality for his fellow man.

Thompson chronicles specific incidents, such as Morris infamous arrest under false charges, with reams of details and viewpoints. This technique, while thorough, does not make for easy or quick reading. This biography is heavily weighted toward Morris's activities as a socialist reformer, and at times Thompson's commentary on Morris's literary output seems unduly colored by these socialist beliefs. This argument may be valid, as Thompson notes about Morris: "He looked upon the history of arts, not---as did many of his contemporaries---as the record of individual geniuses, each "inspired" and each influencing each other, but as part of wider social processes."

Likewise, he quotes Morris as saying "I never set up for a critic," by which me means that art is a "solace," an expression of "pleasure," thus, in some measure, confirming that Morris trivialized both the creative process and the role of art in society.

There is, in my view, not enough balanced information on the myriad contributions Morris made to literature---especially The Wood beyond the World, The Well at the World's End, and The Water of the Wondrous Isles---and other novels he wrote during the final decade of his life. Those works are worth more scrutiny, if for no other reason, because they clearly and firmly are the seminal works in what is now the genre of fantasy, in which Tolkien, deservedly so, reigns supreme. Yet without Morris, who was the first to combine elements from classical epic and medieval romance with conventions of the novel, this genre may not have taken form until much later.

I would also have expected more about the magnificent work from the Kelmscott Press, especially the much-revered Kelmscott Chaucer (if you are a book-lover, you owe it to yourself to see if a library near you has a facsimile) instead of a detailed footnote citing the various works of other experts.

More could have been done with the vast accomplishments Morris was responsible for in the visual arts, in his design of wallpapers, chintzes, and tapestries, as well as his furniture designs (the Morris chair indeed comes from this William Morris).

One other shortcoming, in my view, is that one gleans little about what Morris experienced as a child or adolescent. Also, surprisingly, there is much less detail about his marriage, his wife's affair, and his children than one would expect from a book of this scope.

Still, this biography is an excellent reference for the, I suspect, ever-dwindling number of scholars reviewing William Morris and his life. Bibliophiles who love biographies will not, I also suspect, readily enjoy Thompson's writing style, in which passages sometimes seem welded together with multiple colons, and who writes much more like a reporter than in the biographical style elevated by writers such as Walter Jackson Bate or David McCullough. Thompson had a daunting task before him in attempting to distill, to a single volume, the life of William Morris, of whom, upon hearing of Morris' death, remarked, "I consider the case is this: the disease is simply being William Morris, and having done more work than most ten men."

Thompson no doubt did much of his research in the late 1940s and early 1950s, as the first copyright date for this book is 1955, and his writing style may seem at times harsh if compared with current biographical writing. Still, this volume is a virtual warehouse crammed with facts, accounts, details, and remembrances. ... Read more

Book Description
From a quantitative point of view the achievement of the Kelmscott Press may not seem impressive: between 1891 and 1898 it produced fifty-two books and a set of specimen pages for another book. Yet each was remarkably beautiful. Designed by William Morris, printed on hand-presses, ornamented with initials and borders by Morris, and illustrated often by Edward Burne-Jones, these few Kelmscott Press books are famous everywhere today. Why they have so profoundly affected twentieth-century theories of book design and what cultural significance the founding of the Kelmscott Press played are some of the questions the author considers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

classic book
a classic for anyone who loves the history of type and design. a great tribute and history of william morris, one of the most celebrated designers of all time! he is brilliant! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Book
Excellent book!Delivered as described.Thank you!

The Gardens of William Morris
I loved this book. It demonstrated for me the real "art" of gardening. William Morris was a clever and far sighted man who advocated staying within the parameters of nature and natural beauty when making gardens. He also perpetuated the "garden room" theme which hasbeen enormously popular since the eighteeth century. I refer to this bookcontinuously and strive to design and construct garden rooms in my owngarden which are as beautiful. ... Read more

Book Description

William Morris was a Victorian master of all trades, standing at the forefront of five historic movements in western culture. As the author of The Defence of Guenevere in 1858, he wrote the first book of Pre-Raphaelite poetry. Co-founder of Morris & Co. in 1861, he was the leader of the Arts and Crafts movement, designing textiles, wallpapers, and stained glass. Editor of The Commonweal for the Socialist League in the 1880s and lecturing at political rallies, he was the leader of the socialist movement for revolution in Britain. Founder of the Kelmscott Press in 1891, he was the leader of the private-press movement, with his Kelmscott Chaucer among the most beautiful books ever printed. The innovative author of eight prose romances in the 1890s, he was the leading force in shifting the genre of fiction from the novel to the romance, the primary influence on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Writing on the Image is a collection of essays that showcases the varied canon of Morris. The essays demonstrate how the most revolutionary artist, writer, and socialist of the nineteenth century now stands at the centre of interdisciplinary studies in the twenty-first century, challenging academics and artisans alike to pursue an ideal community of scholarship, craftsmanship, and subversive statesmanship.

Book Description
Bradley Macdonald offers a brilliant reappraisal of one of the most influential and revered British intellectuals of the Victorian age. William Morris was, by turns, an artist, writer, social critic, and political radical who shaped both the British (Fabian) socialist tradition and the internationally influential arts and crafts movement. Macdonald focuses on the interplay between Morris's aesthetic vision and his socialist ideology. He argues compellingly that because these two sides of Morris's personality and career are generally considered separately, by art or literary historians on the one hand, and social theorists on the other, their integral relationship has often been neglected. Thus, Morris's career is divided artificially between a "Romantic" early period and a later "revolutionary socialist" phase. In place of this model, Macdonald offers a holistic portrait of Morris as a lifelong "materialist aestheticist"-that is, one who believed in the redemptive power of beautiful objects and everyday, simple pleasures for all classes. This important book is strongly recommended reading for anyone with an interest in modern British culture, politics, and art, as well as for students of Marxist ideology in the West. ... Read more

Book Description
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