News from Nowhere and Other Writings

by William Morris, Clive Wilmer (Editor), Clive Wilmer (Introduction)

Overview

Poet, pattern-designer, environmentalist and maker of fine books, William Morris (1834-96) was also a committed socialist and visionary writer, obsessively concerned with the struggle to achieve a perfect society on earth. News From Nowhere, one of the most significant English works on the theme of utopia, is the tale of William Guest, a Victorian who wakes one morning to find himself in the year 2102 and discovers a society that has changed beyond recognition into a pastoral paradise, in which all people live in blissful equality and contentment. A socialist masterpiece, News From Nowhere is a vision of a future free from capitalism, isolation and industrialisation. This volume also contains a wide selection of Morris's writings, lectures, journalism and letters, which expand upon the key themes of News From Nowhere.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780141927428
Publisher:	Penguin UK
Publication date:	12/02/2004
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	829,552
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

William Morris (1834-1896) was one of the most influential thinkers and artists of his time. At Oxford, with the painter Burne-Jones, he fell under the influence of Ruskin and Rossetti. Preoccupied with the poverty of modern design he taught himself at least thirteen crafts and founded his own design firm, Morris&Co. In the late 1870s he became active in political and environmentalist matters and converted to socialism in 1883, helping to found the Socialist League a year later.


Clive Wilmer read English at King's College, Cambridge. He also edited Ruskin and Rossetti for the Penguin Classics, and has translated poetry from several languages.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chronology
Bibliographical Note
Romance
The Story of the Unknown Church
A King's Lesson
Two Extracts from A Dream of John Ball
News from Nowhere
Lectures
The Lesser Arts
Some Hints on Pattern-designing
Useful Work versus Useless Toil
The Hopes of Civilization
Gothic Architecture
Occasional Prose
"Looking Backward": a review of Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy
Under an Elm-tree; or, Thoughts in the Countryside
Preface to The Nature of Gothic by John Ruskin
Foreword to Utopia by Sir Thomas More
How I Became a Socialist
A Note by William Morris on His Aims in Founding the Kelmscott Press
Letters
[The Eastern Question]: letter to the Daily News
[Anti-Scrape]: letter to the Athenaeum
[St. Mark's, Venice]: letter to the Daily News
Notes

What People are Saying About This

Clive Wilmer

We are not expected to swallow Morris' dreams. On the contrary, we are encouraged to dream for ourselves.