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Letter From William Morris to William Wess

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  • Letter From William Morris to William Wess

    Hello all,

    I am watching now a recorded British Antiques Roadshow originally aired from Walthamstow Town Hall in 2014, and was shocked to see up for evaluation a letter from William Morris to William Wess...brought in by a Wess descendant...explaining why he couldnt see fundraising under the guise of his being an anarchist for his old friend, because what he perceived as anarchist values were unlike his own, which were more toward socialist ideals.

    I wondered immediately if this letter was his turning down speaking at a meeting at Wess's anarchist club on Sept 30th, 1888. The appraiser didnt seem to recognize the name Wess in context with another great story of the LV Era.

    Has anyone heard of this letter before?
    Michael Richards

  • #2
    I found this letter to Wolf Wess from 1889.

    These volumes bring to a close the only comprehensive edition of the surviving correspondence of William Morris (1834-1896), a protean figure who exerted a major influence as poet, craftsman, master printer, and designer. Volumes III and IV, taken together, give in detail the comments and observations that articulate his problematic political and artistic stands and equally problematic position within the aesthetic movement as it developed in the 1890s. Most eloquently voiced also are the complexities of his troubled marriage and his devotion to his epileptic daughter, Jenny, and his other daughter, May. But dominating all these themes, organizing and structuring them, are the Kelmscott Press and the building of Morris's important library of medieval manuscripts and early printed books. The letters record the way in which the Press becomes not only the center of Morris's aesthetic ambitions and achievements but also the site for his closest human relations and for much of his connecting with the makers of early modernism.The letters in Volumes III and IV are thoroughly annotated, and through texts and notes provide a new assessment of Morris's career. Included also, as appendices to Volume IV, are two important documents: the first, never before published, is F. S. Ellis's Valuation List of Morris's library, made after Morris's death, and the second, never before reprinted, is the text of what was to be Morris's final essay on socialism, published in April 1896.Originally published in 1995.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


    The one you are asking about may be in an earlier collection of Morris' letters, vol 2 part B, which covers 1885-1888.

    If you scroll down a page or two there's a photo of Wess.
    Last edited by Joshua Rogan; 10-19-2017, 02:35 AM.

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    • #3
      If the video doesn't automatically scroll to the appropriate point, move the slider to 26:59

      Andrew's the man, who is not blamed for nothing

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