News from Nowhere and Other Writings

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.

Part 1 Romance: the story of the unknown Church; a King"s lesson; two extracts from "A Dream of John Ball"; "News from Nowhere". Part 2 Lectures: the lesser arts; some hints on pattern-designing; useful work versus useless toil; the hopes of civilization. Part 3 Occasional prose: "Looking Backward" - a review of "Looking Backward" by Edward Bellamy; under an elm-tree, or, thoughts in the countryside; preface in "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. Part 4 Letters: [the Eastern question]: letter to the "Daily News"; [anti-scrape]: letter to the "Athenaeum"; [St Mark"s, Venice]: letter to the "Daily News".