The Pursuit
Of The Ideal:
The Life And Art Of
William Morris
An Exhibition at the University of Michigan
Special Collections Library
September 9 - November 2,
1996
Such was the man William Morris: painter, poet, translator, designer, decorator,
craftsman, manufacturer, businessman, printer, artist, socialist, reformer, husband, father,
friend. To honor this life and commemorate the hundredth anniversary of his death, the Special
Collections Library at The University of Michigan has mounted this exhibit. Included are first
and early editions, descriptions and photos of his art, and a fine array of books from his
Kelmscott Press. The story describes one of the great Victorians, a man who was at once a
dreamer and idealist as well as a realist and pragmatist. At the time of his death, his attending
physician is said to have remarked that here lived a man who accomplished “more work than
most ten men.” Literary critic George Sampson, when he was summing up Morris’s amazing
career, said, “His whole strength of purpose was dedicated to the reconstitution of modern life,
upon conditions that would bring beauty to all men.” Morris’s enlightened vision still beckons
to our contemporaries, and perhaps is one explanation for his enduring reputation.
BIOGRAPHY | WRITINGS | SOCIALISM | KELMSCOTT PRESS |