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William Morris and the Kelmscott Press
- April 2009
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The Kelmscott Chaucer (1896), the most ambitious of the Press' works,
is considered one of the finest volumes in the entire history of the book
arts.
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"The most celebrated private press in the
history of printing"1 was founded by William Morris (1834-1896) in 1891.
At age 56, Morris was internationally known for the furniture, stained glass,
wallpaper, and textiles sold through his firm, Morris & Co; for his
many literary works; and for founding the breakaway Socialist League.
Morris wanted to return to pre-Industrial production methods because he
claimed printing had reached a low point. He embarked on what he termed
his "typographical adventure" at his Oxfordshire home, Kelmscott
Manor. Biographer Fiona MacCarthy explains that the Press was Morris' most
personal project in both form and content: he executed detailed design work
and supervised an overall aesthetic in order to publish his own writings
and to distribute texts of great personal significance.
Admirers marvel at the artistry of the books, but the productivity of the
Press is equally impressive. In just seven years, they produced over 22,000
copies of 53 titles. The most famous of these is The Works of Geoffrey
Chaucer (1896), known as the Kelmscott Chaucer, which Secretary of the
Press Sydney Cockerell identifies as their most important achievement.
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Click on an image for a larger view
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For more on William Morris...
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| Initially, Morris was so eager
to start that he printed the first book in 1891 before Walter Crane's slated
illustrations were even finished. The Glittering Plain, which appeared
with engravings in 1894, was the only title printed twice at the Kelmscott
Press. |
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The Glittering Plain, 1891
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The Glittering Plain, 1894
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The success of Kelmscott was due
to the talents of men like editor F. S. Ellis (1830-1901), illustrator Edward
Burne-Jones (1833-1898), and engraver W. H. Hooper (1834-1912). Morris originally
hired the young Sydney Cockerell (1867-1962) to catalog his personal library
but he "soon made himself indispensable"2 and was ultimately Morris'
literary executor. His diary and records constitute the most significant
primary sources available on the Press.
Upon his deathbed, Morris asked Cockerell to continue the Kelmscott Press.
Cockerell wanted to close the Press to preserve the integrity and quality
of Morris' publications. It took a year and a half to finish all existing
projects and to close the Press.
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An illustrated catalog of Morris' library would have been too expensive
to produce, so Cockerell featured thirty-five reproductions in Some German
Woodcuts (1898) after Morris' death.
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Cockerell recorded in his diary that the first bound copy of The Floure
and the Leafe was brought to Morris' bedside just before he died at
Kelmscott House on October 3, 1896. |
Aesthetic of the Press
The Kelmscott style is very consistent, unlike some small presses which
make separate design decisions for each title. All the volumes feature thick,
handmade linen paper; Morris' ideal margin proportions; and durable, handsewn
binding. On the Albion letterpress, Morris insisted on old-fashioned black
ink so difficult to use that the printers threatened to strike.
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Poems by the Way
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Love is Enough
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| Poems by the Way (1891)
was the first Kelmscott book to appear in two colors. Love is Enough
(1897), which also used blue ink, is one of just two tri-colored volumes
by the Press. |
Morris designed each of the three
Kelmscott fonts. The Golden Legend (1892) uses the Press' first type,
a roman now referred to as Golden. The black-letter Troy type is named after
the book in which it first appeared. Chaucer type, a smaller version of
Troy designed for use in the mammoth Chaucer, first appeared in The
Order of Chivalry (1892).
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The Golden Legend (1892), Golden type.
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The Historyes of Troye (1892), Troy type.
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The Order of Chivalry (1892), Chaucer type.
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This woodcut title page was designed by William Morris for the only Kelmscott book to use a non-Morris type. Atlanta in Calydon's (1894) Greek passages were set from Macmillan electrotype.
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The plain Kelmscott covers arguably belie their handsome contents, but
they create a dramatic contrast with highly ornamented pages such as Morris'
woodcut title and border found in Charles Algernon Swinburne's Atlanta
in Calydon (1894).
The beauty of the Kelmscott books is unquestioned; the technical handiwork
marks the highest standards of craftsmanship. It is also widely agreed
that Morris almost single-handedly spurred the small and fine press movement.
Interpretations of Kelmscott, however, are wildly divergent. Susan Thompson
summarizes: "Its influence has had to be granted; its intrinsic value
has been hotly debated since the days of Morris himself."3
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One possible reading is to focus
solely on aesthetic merits; for an example of the book as apolitical art
object with beauty as its only goal, see the Minneapolis Institute of Arts
exhibition catalog William Morris and His Circle: 25 January - 4 June
1989.
Most critics, however, debate whether the Kelmscott Press represents a
reactionary conservativism or a radically progressive vision. Does this
collection reveal a disturbing "fetish,"4 function as the stale
"19th century equivalent of oldies radio,"5 or document the "significant
cultural act" of a "radical craftsman" at work?6 Is there
a discrepancy between Morris' Socialism and his Press or, as Elizabeth
Carolyn Miller argues, "a concord between his aesthetics and his
politics?"7
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Miller argues that work such as The Water of Wondrous Isles (1897)
should be read as "simultaneously archaic and futuristic."8
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The Surprise
Bequest
The Kelmscott Collection was given to the Ingalls Library as part of a surprise
bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art by William H. (1869-1937) and Julia
Morgan Marlatt (1873-1939).
During their lives, they never contributed more than their CMA membership
dues and they did not socialize with museum benefactors. Yet curator of
paintings Henry Francis wrote to museum director William Milliken explaining
that Julia was known to "frequent the Museum Sunday afternoons with
her husband and watch quietly the enjoyment of others."9
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This invoice from prominent London book dealer Bernard Quaritch dated October
3, 1917 provides the only known documentation of the Marlatts' collecting.
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The Marlatts bequethed one milliion dollars of their estate to CMA. Thanks
to their generous donation, which included over three hundred books, the
Ingalls Library boasts a nearly complete run of the Kelmscott Press. All
fifty-three titles are represented; only volume six of William Morris' eight-volume
collection of stories The Earthly Paradise is missing. |
1William S. Peterson, "Introduction,"
in A Note by William Morris (New York: Grolier Club/William Morris
Society, 1996), xi.
2Fiona MacCarthy, "William Morris: The Building of a Book,"
Matrix: A Review for Printers and Bibliophiles 15 (Winter 1995):
16.
3Susan Thompson, "Kelmscott Press: Golden Type's Golden
Touch?" Book Collector's Market 2 (August 1976): 12.
4Douglas Dowd, "Meditations on the C-word," Contemporary
Impressions 3 (Spring 1995): 7.
5Dowd, 8.
6Dowd, 7.
7Elizabeth Carolyn Miller, "William Morris, Print Culture,
and the Politics of Aestheticism," MODERNISM / modernity 15
(2008): 479.
8Miller, 492.
9Louis V. Adrean and Marsha A. Morrow, "A Quiet Bequest,"
Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine, September
2006, 13.
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