Dreamer of Dreams
The Vision of William Morris
Nicholas FrankelWilliam Morris’s radical, transformative vision of art
Dreamer of Dreams is a critical biography that highlights William Morris’s radical and transformative vision of art. Through close exploration of his visual designs, poems and stories, as well as his prolific career as a lecturer and activist and his creation of the Kelmscott Press later in life, Nicholas Frankel demonstrates Morris’s commitment to the idea of beauty as a vehicle for social transformation, justice and heightened environmental consciousness.
Art was a means for change, not an end in itself, and Morris despised the idea that it should be enjoyed by only a privileged few. Serving as a portrait of the artist as a committed agent of change, this book underscores Morris’s relevance to our own times, no less than to the world in which he lived.
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Embodiment of Dreams
Chapter 2: Redesigning England
Chapter 3: An Isle of Bliss
Chapter 4: The Poetry of the North
Chapter 5: ‘To Break Silence at Last’
Chapter 6: The Birth of a Revolutionary
Chapter 7: Envisioning Social Change
Chapter 8: Imagining a New World
Chapter 9: A Revolution of the Printed Word
Chapter 10: Morris’s Environmentalism
Postscript: Morris Today
References
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index
Nicholas Frankel is Professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University. His books include Oscar Wilde: The Unrepentant Years (2017) and The Invention of Oscar Wilde (Reaktion, 2021).
