William Morris

Contents

Introduction

Dent-Beardsley
Malory

King Arthur

Books for Children

Fine Press

William Morris & Kelmscott Press

References

Links

Credits

Morris' Instructions

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Story of Gunnlaug the Worm-Tongue and Raven the Skald

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This book was printed for Morris in Caxton type on Whatman paper at the Chiswick Press as a typographical experiment. Only 75 copies were printed on paper and 3 on vellum, and the spaces left for hand-painted initials were never filled in, except in one of the vellum copies. The book was never properly published, and it was after this experiment that Morris decided to found his own press.

Floure and the leafe

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Sir Thomas Clanvowe, Floure and the leafe, & The boke of Cupide, god of love, or The cuckow and the nightingale (Hammersmith: Kelmscott, 1896).

Printed in Troy type. 300 paper copies and 10 vellum copies. The first bound copy of this book reached Kelmscott House a few hours before Morris’s death.

The Roots of the Mountains

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William Morris, The Roots of the Mountains (London: Reeves & Turner, 1890).

This is another Morris book printed by the Chiswick Press: this is Morris’s signed presentation copy to Lady Burne-Jones, wife of Edward Burne-Jones, the eminent Victorian artist who provided illustrations for many of the Kelmscott books (and designs for Morris and Co.) The binding is Morris chintz. William Morris was so satisfied with the appearance of this book that he bought all 250 copies of the superior edition, and “declared it to be the best-looking book issued since the seventeenth century.”

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Printing the Middle Ages
The University of British Columbia's Special Collections Division