News from Nowhere

Reflecting his lifelong love of medieval calligraphy and early printed books, in 1891 Morris set up the Kelmscott Press ‘to produce books which it would be a pleasure to look upon as pieces of printing and arrangement of type ’. It ignited an enthusiasm for the ideals of good book design and inspired the private press movement. Morris’s endeavours within book design and production continue to resonate today.  News from Nowhere is perhaps Morris’ best-known book and has his socialist ideals at its heart. The title refers to an imagined England in 2102, an ideal pastoral society born out of revolution. Pictured here is the frontispiece (which faces the title-page) designed by Charles March Gere and engraved by W. H. Hooper, showing the front entrance to the manor, which features in the story as the architectural ideal, in complete harmony with its past and its rural setting. The Society’s copy was given by Morris himself to his daughter May in 1893.