The Well at the World's End: Morris's Longest Romance

What the sources establish about Morris's late prose

Towards the end of his career Morris focused increasingly on his writing, publishing prose narratives including News from Nowhere (1890). The Victoria and Albert Museum describes News from Nowhere as his most celebrated prose narrative. That is the documented setting into which a work like The Well at the World's End belongs, even though the checked records say nothing about the work itself.

For readers who want a Morris prose work we can document in detail, our explainer goes further on News from Nowhere. It is the one late narrative this page's evidence covers directly.

The Kelmscott Press and the late-career setting

The Victoria and Albert Museum records that in 1891 Morris set up the Kelmscott Press, the same year he turned down the Poet Laureateship after the death of Tennyson. The Press produced a total of 66 books printed and bound in a medieval style, with Morris designing their typefaces, initial letters and borders. Any late prose romance would sit alongside this printing venture, though the checked sources do not connect The Well at the World's End to the Press.

Morris was an accomplished writer as well as a designer, combining his love of words with design in calligraphy and page decoration. This pairing of literary and book-design work is the clearest documented feature of his final years.

What this page cannot yet confirm

We flag the gaps plainly rather than fill them. The evidence checked for this page contains no date for The Well at the World's End, no description of its story, and no statement by Morris about it.

Specifically, the checked sources do not establish:

• Any date of publication for The Well at the World's End.
• Any claim that it is Morris's longest romance, despite the title of this page.
• Any connection between the work and the Kelmscott Press.
• Any editions, printings or museum holdings of the work.
• Any quotation from Morris about the work.

If you hold sourced material, such as a dated edition record or a museum catalogue entry, we would like to hear from it so this page can be corrected and expanded.

Where the romance genre fits in Morris's writing

Morris was born on March 24, 1834, in Walthamstow, near London, England, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. His writing life therefore spans the Victorian period, and the prose romances belong to its final phase, after decades of design work.

In 1875 Morris became sole director of the renamed and restructured Morris & Company, so the late prose narratives followed a long career in the decorative arts. The V&A also notes that Morris's lasting significance as a designer is due in part to the careful management of his legacy by his younger daughter, Mary 'May' Morris, who bequeathed a sizeable collection of her father's work to the V&A on her death.

The romance form sits within a wider literary output that includes poetry and translations. For the poetic side of that output, see our page on Morris's poetry. His Icelandic interests, covered in our guide to William Morris and Iceland, belong to the same late period of literary work.

Morris's romances are also often discussed in connection with later fantasy writing. Our explainer on how William Morris influenced Tolkien covers that reception, though the checked evidence for this page does not link The Well at the World's End to any specific later author.