Speaking of Type...William Morris

By Marjorie Crum

Do you know who is given the responsibility of starting the private press movement?

William Morris (1834-1896), a multi-faceted man who was at one time or another (and sometimes simultaneously) a designer and manufacturer of furniture, stained glass, tapestries, wallpaper and chintzes; an accomplished weaver; a pioneering preservationist; an active Socialist and social reformer; a successful poet and novelist; and in his last years, the founder of the Kelmscott Press.

Morris, from early childhood had an extreme love of nature. This is evident from the fond natural descriptions of his letters and poetry, the patterns of his tapestries, and the vining borders of the Kelmscott books. There was also his passionate devotion to the Middle Ages and to everything they represented; romantic Medievalism informs Morris’s literary output, as well as his arts and crafts work and the books from his Kelmscott Press.

Morris often contrasted the social organization of the Middle Ages with the present condition of England during his lifetime. This belief led him to advocate a complete reform of the industrial society. He also believed that it was impossible for an artist to exist outside the context of a community. Thus Morris’s homes in London’s Red Lion Square, Red House in Kent, Kelmscott House in Hammersmith near London, and Kelmscott Manor in Oxfordshire became centers of communal artistic and intellectual endeavor. Morris’s talent for friendship was another continuity in his life. Though he was a somewhat solitary child, as a university student he formed enduring attachments to the Pre-Raphaelite artists Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. These close friendships influenced his choice of a life devoted to art.

Morris believed that it was necessary to rethink all aspects of the printed book, returning to the examples of the fifteenth-century printers, who had managed to create books which were both beautiful and readable. He returned to the use of an iron (Albion) handpress, which not only produced more beautiful results than a machine press but was also capable of economically printing limited editions of several hundred copies.

The Kelmscott Press, established in 1890, used Morris’s designs for the type and ornamental letters printed in editions of the classics and of his own works, notably The Kelmscott Chaucer (1896). In his political writings, he attempted to correct the dehumanizing effects of the Industrial Revolution by proposing a form of society in which people could enjoy craftsmanship and simplicity of expression.

William Morris created three typefaces for the Kelmscott Press, two were based on the type from the incunabula period (Chaucer and Troy) and one (Golden) was based on Nicolas Jenson’s Venetian roman typeface. All of these typefaces are available in digital form today from P22 Type Foundry (p22.com), another Upstate New York connection.

Posted by newyorkupstate in Design Education | January 5, 2010