When William Morris died at the age of sixty-two on 3rd October 1896, an eminent doctor wrote: ‘I consider the case is this: the disease is simply being William Morris, and having done more work than ten men’.

Morris was indeed a man of prodigious energy and versatility; any single one of his activities would have totally exhausted the energies of a lesser man. Part of his genius lies in his intense vitality. In his own day he was famous as a poet, as a designer of wallpapers, textiles and furniture and notorious as a fiercely committed socialist. He founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, which is still active today, and was one of the first to translate the Icelandic sagas into English. In the last few years of his life when he was a sick man he still had the energy to explore a whole new area of design, that of printing and typography, and to establish the Kelmscott Press.

This book is a comprehensive survey of this busy, varied and productive life. It gives an account of Morris’s early years, his important friendships with Burne-Jones, Philip Webb and Rossetti and the ideas which led to the foundation of Morris & Co. It discusses his writing throughout his life and charts his relationship with socialism. Finally it assesses the influence left behind by the man, the poet, the designer and the socialist.