About the author …

William Morris (1834-1896) was born in a small village east of London. Educated at Oxford, he formed with Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti a Medieval art group. With these Pre-Raphælite friends, Morris set up a business producing decorative art including dyeing, weaving, and stained glass. During this time also Morris constructed epic poems, prose romances, and classical translations. As English industry began to replace the beauty of the Medieval countryside, Morris became active in the socialist movement. As our reading below indicates, he thought work without pleasure was a form of slavery. The story is widely told that when in Paris, Morris spent much of his time writing in the restaurant on the first platform of the Eiffel Tower. When asked if he admired the Tower itself, he is said to reply that he stayed there for the sole reason that was the only place in the city he couldn't see the awful thing.