William Morris: Artist, Writer, Socialist

A tireless champion of her father William, and a gifted designer and craftswoman in her own right, Mary (May) Morris (1862-1938) had a unique insight into his extraordinary career and creativity. It was she who undertook the exacting task of editing the twenty-four volumes of her father’s collected works (also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection). In 1936, towards the end of her life, she published this supplementary two-volume work, which includes further writings and sympathetic commentary, revealing ‘the development of a mind which was singularly of one piece, however many-sided’. Volume 2 addresses William Morris’ political aims and ideals. Opening with the essay ‘Morris as I Knew Him’ by George Bernard Shaw, it includes May’s substantial assessment of her father’s socialism, along with many previously unpublished examples of his output of lectures, articles and letters on the subject. Also included is the index to the entire collected works.