Since his death in 1896, William Morris has come to be recognized as one of the giants of the 19th century. But his genius was so many-sided and so profound that its full extent has rarely been grasped. This biography looks at the life and work of one of the greatest English designers of all time, who was also internationally renowned as a founder of the socialist movement and ranked as a poet together with Tennyson and Browning. The book manages to examine all facets of Morris's character, shedding light on his immense creative powers as artist and designer of furniture, fabrics, wallpaper, stained glass, tapestry and books and as a poet, novelist and translator. The book also looks at his psychology and his emotional and sexual life, his frenetic activities as a polemicist and reformer with a burning desire for new world order and his circle of literary, artistic and political friends.