Morris, William

(1834-1896)

   Born to a wealthy family from Walthamstow, Northeast London, he was educated at Marlborough College and Exeter College, Oxford, and was elected fellow in 1883. He was one of the founding members of the firm of Morris, Marshal, Faulkener and Co., producing expensive printed textiles, wallpaper and furniture; the designs of William Morris are still popular more than a century later. In 1877 he founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and in 1879 he became treasurer of the National Liberal League. He published many socialist tracts and pamphlets, and his interest in socialism resulted in at least one arrest, though he was released without charge. He died at Hammersmith, London. Some of his poetry publications: The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems, 1858. The Life and Death of Jason, 1867. Books of Verse, 1879. Poems by the Way, 1891. Some of his poems: "Golden Wings," "Love is Enough," "Shameful Death," "The Haystack in the Floods," "The Man Who Never Laughed Again," "The Sweet Valley of Deep Grass," "Two Red Roses across the Moon."

   Sources: Biography and Works of William Morris (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/wmorris.htm). Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. ChadwyckHealey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Poems of Christmas. Myra Cohn Livingston, ed. Atheneum, 1980. Seven Centuries of Poetry: Chaucer to Dylan Thomas. A.N. Jeffares, ed. Longmans, Green, 1955. The Collected Works of William Morris (24 vols). May Morris, ed. Longmans, Green and Company, 1910-1915. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Earthly Paradise: A Poem by William Morris. Longmans, Green, and Co., 1896. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Victorian Web (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/morris/wmbio.html).