The Best Books About William Morris: A Reading List

How this reading list was chosen

Most reading lists about Morris open with a shelf of biographies, design histories and printed collections. This one cannot, and the reason matters. A list of books about Morris is only as good as its bibliographic detail, and the verified record here supplies full publication details for almost none of the candidate titles a reader might expect.

The rule applied throughout is simple: a book appears only when the record names its author, publisher or year, or when the book is Morris's own and can be catalogued from museum documentation. That still leaves a substantial and unusual list.

Readers who want the wider context of Morris's afterlife will find it in the parent guide to Morris's legacy.

The biography to watch: Michael Robertson at Thames & Hudson

One biography earns its place now, even before publication. The William Morris Society confirms that Professor Michael Robertson's biography of William Morris is forthcoming from Thames & Hudson. Its title and publication date are not yet given, so readers should watch the Society's announcements rather than trust any detail not yet confirmed.

Robertson speaks about Morris in the Society's 2026 Kelmscott Lecture, titled 'Morris in Our Moment'. According to the William Morris Society, the lecture is a hybrid event, held at the Birmingham & Midland Institute in the Lyttelton Theatre and online, and it is included in the cost of a MorrisFest 2026 ticket. The Society also states that MorrisFest 2026 runs from Friday 20 to Sunday 22 November 2026 at the Birmingham & Midland Institute, as a three-day festival celebrating Morris's life, work, ideas and continuing influence.

The story of the William Morris Society, the body staging the lecture, is told in its own guide on this site.

Morris's own books: the Kelmscott Press list

The closest thing to a primary reading list is the list of books Morris made himself. According to the Victoria and Albert Museum, Kelmscott Press was set up in 1891, in a building a minute's walk from Morris's home in Hammersmith. The V&A records that Morris published 66 titles there in the five years until his death in 1896, and that he wrote 23 of the press's books himself, with the rest consisting mainly of medieval works in translation or contemporary poetry.

It nearly did not happen. The V&A notes that Morris only began to think seriously about setting up a publishing company at the end of the 1880s, when he was in his mid-50s, and that he wanted to design his own type but lacked the skill and patience to hand-cut the steel punches that begin the traditional print process. The problem was solved in 1888, when Morris realised he could apply a projection technology introduced to him by his friend Emery Walker, who had wide experience of the printing trade and ran a photo-engraving business. That technology let Morris create intricate type designs at a normal scale and reduce them for accurate translation onto steel punches by skilled craftsmen.

The books themselves, for a reader building the list:

What the V&A record establishes about the Kelmscott list:

• 66 titles published at Kelmscott Press in the five years until Morris's death in 1896.
• 23 of those books written by Morris, with the others mainly medieval works in translation or contemporary poetry.
• According to the V&A, bespoke typefaces designed by Morris, first 'Golden' and then 'Troy', along with initial letters, borders, ornaments, frames for illustrations, title pages and printer's marks.
• Illustrations by other hands: the V&A notes Morris relied on other people, conscious of his limitations as a figurative artist, with major contributions from Edward Burne-Jones.

Anyone collecting Kelmscott volumes today is collecting the visible work of that team.

Before the press: the manuscript books of 1870 to 1875

Before Kelmscott Press there were the manuscript books, and they belong on any serious list. According to the V&A, between 1870 and 1875 Morris experimented with calligraphy, writing out and in whole or part decorating 21 manuscript books. For these he developed a repertoire of five scripts, teaching himself roman and italic and how to produce gilded letters.

The V&A dates the enthusiasm earlier still. Illuminated manuscripts Morris saw in Canterbury Cathedral as a boy ignited his interest in historical texts, fuelled further by visits to the Bodleian Library as an Oxford student, after which he made his own attempts at decorating manuscripts.

The texts he chose matter too. Many were Morris's translations of 'The Sagas of Icelanders', prose narratives based on events in Iceland between the 9th and 11th centuries. The V&A also records that Morris visited Iceland in 1871 and 1873, seeing in the country's people and homes a simple and dignified alternative to the society of industrial Britain.

The outstanding example is A Book of Verse. The V&A dates it to 1870 and describes it as a completed manuscript made for Morris's close friend Georgiana Burne-Jones. It was a collaborative effort, with poems and calligraphy by Morris and figurative decoration by Edward Burne-Jones and two other artists, whose names the record does not give. The V&A's reading of these books is that they show an interest in decoration appropriate to the content of the text, and an understanding of original scribal methods rather than superficial copying of historical styles.

Where these manuscript books and Kelmscott volumes survive, our guide to Morris museum collections worldwide is the practical next step for planning a viewing.

The historical backdrop on the page

The V&A describes the Gothic Revival, a 19th-century fashion looking back to medieval forms and patterns, which had brought Gothic ornament into the public realm with books such as Owen Jones and Noel Humphreys' Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages (1844). That volume is the named backdrop for Morris's book design: a model of the illuminated page that reached a wide Victorian audience before Morris began making his own.

It earns a place on the list for exactly that reason.

Where to go next: talks, lectures and the Society

Books are not the only way in, and the living sources are worth listing alongside them. The William Morris Society is a charity founded in 1955 to share knowledge of the life and works of William Morris amongst its members and the wider public. It runs talks, workshops and events, both online and at Kelmscott House, throughout the year.

The Society states that it is open every Thursday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm, all year round, with last entry at 3.30pm and entry costing £5.

One event fits this page directly. According to the William Morris Society, a talk on Thursday 5th November 2026, from 7:00pm to 8:00pm online, covers Morris's time at Kelmscott House in Hammersmith, where he pursued new creative directions for Morris & Co., experimented with book design and private printing, and became a leading voice in the Socialist League. For a list centred on Morris's books, that is the talk to hear.

The Society's story, and the network of Morris organisations beyond it, is covered in our guide to the William Morris Society in the UK and US, and the museums angle in our guide to Morris museum collections.

What this list cannot yet include

Honesty about gaps is part of the method. The record does not yet supply full bibliographic details, with author, publisher and year, for most candidate books about Morris. It gives no verbatim Morris quotations about books, printing or publishing. The title of the Robertson biography is not yet public. The names of the two artists besides Burne-Jones who decorated A Book of Verse are not recorded here, and neither is the title or speaker of the November 2026 talk.

That means no invented titles, no guessed publication dates, and no paraphrased lines dressed up as quotes. As records are verified, this list will grow, and the sections above mark where each addition will sit.