Born in London in 1834, William Morris was a radical thinker whose democratic vision for society and art has continued to influence designers, artists and writersto this day, long after his death in 1896. He was a gifted poet, architect, painter, writer and textile designer, who also founded the Kelmscott Press, the most famous of the Arts and Crafts private presses.  During Morris's lifetime, Oscar Wilde thought him a master of all exquisite design and of all spiritual vision, while forty years after Morris's death George Bernard Shaw observed: He towers greater and greater above the horizon beneath which his best advertised contemporaries have disappeared.
This collection of quotations by Morris, his friends, associates and those who came after, reveals and explores his passionately held view that beautiful, functional design should be accessible to all.
Published by The National Portrait Gallery, London.
144 pp, 171 x 191mm