William Morris
“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or consider to
be beautiful.”
The founder and leading light of the Victorian Arts and Crafts movement, Morris was a committed socialist and a passionate opponent of the oppressive practices of the industrial society.
He was also quite prodigiously talented. As a designer he created wallpapers, textiles, furniture, stained glass and books; he wrote many volumes of verse, works of fantasy and romance, and political essays and journalism. His utopian fantasy News From Nowhere, was the inspiration behind many of the leading lights of the early Labour movement and remains a powerful and inspiring – albeit at times hopelessly idealistic – picture of a rural utopian economy.
He was, simply, the greatest Englishman of his generation and one of the finest and most influential artists this country has ever produced. The best biography is Fiona MacCarthy’s William Morris – A Life For Our Time. I would heartily recommend anyone to read News From Nowhere and essays such as ‘The Art of the People’, ‘The Beauty of Life’ and ‘How We Live and How We Might Live.’
These sites have an excellent selection of resources.