William Morris

WILLIAM MORRIS (1834-1896), diseñador, artesano, empresario, poeta, editor, activista político, visionario…, un auténtico polímata en plena época victoriana, es conocido sobre todo como el más influy

William Morris es una de las figuras culturales y políticas más importantes de la Inglaterra de finales del siglo xix. Su labor se extendió por la poesía, la pintura, la novela, el grabado, la edición, la decoracion y un largo etcetera de facetas a las que hay que sumar la de socialista y revolucionario durante las ultimas decadas de su vida. Sin embargo, Morris siempre estuvo convencido de que a traves de la arquitectura se podian conjugar todos estos aspectos parciales en una actividad artistica que en verdad estuviera unida a la vida de las gentes y facilitara tanto las relaciones sociales como la expresion artistica de la comunidad de la que salia. Sobre esta conviccion, Morris desarrollo a lo largo de toda su vida una deslumbrante labor teorica acerca del papel social de la arquitectura, asi como de la forma en que se crean, suceden y decaen los diferentes estilos, cuyas particularidades serian consecuencia del estado de las relaciones sociales, culturales y economicas concretas de cada sociedad en el tiempo. Aunque Morris nunca recopilo sus ensayos sobre el tema, esta preocupacion por la arquitectura recorrio toda su obra y le inspiro algunos de sus textos mas importantes. La presente antologia recoge una amplia seleccion razonada de estos escritos, muchos de ellos ineditos en castellano hasta la fecha.

William Morris was highly eclectic: novelist, thinker, artist, politician, trend-setter in various subjects such as architecture, design, graphic and interior design. In this novel, which tones are strongly utopian, Morris tells us about a time and a place transformed not so much by ideology - Morris is a tireless defender of the British socialism - but by the desire of men to regain some of the dignity lost with the advent of the industrial era: for example, for people to spend together better quality time; doing work that is driven by the real needs of the people and not by the logic of profit; educate young people according to principles that go back to the natural development of things; focusing on personal relationships oriented on social acceptance and sharing.Morris is also a firm believer in the recovery of manual labor and the ancient crafts. Not coincidentally he founded the company Arts and Crafts, still in business; its teachings are the basis of some recent Italian examples (Brunello Cucinelli identified Morris in reference to his School of Trades started in Solomeo). Rediscovering Morris and his News from Nowhere holds an important meaning: discovering an ideal of life close to the principles that were the cornerstones of the humanistics, reaffirming the value of man over things, taking care in the education of people through knowledge, following the example of the masters and expressing the love that sustains the beauty of "doing things".

Il romanzo che riafferma il valore delluomo sulle cose In questo romanzo dai sapori decisamente utopistici (il titolo scelto per questa edizione cerca di rendere omaggio al pensiero positivo che Morris trasferisce piuttosto che identificare nessun luogo con un carico negativo che la traduzione italiana di nowhere con nessun luogo riporta), Morris ci descrive un tempo e un luogo trasformati non tanto da una ideologia Morris e uno strenuo difensore del socialismo britannico quanto dal desiderio degli uomini di riacquistare alcune fondamentali dignita andate perdute con lavvento dellepoca industriale: tempo per le persone per stare qualitativamente meglio insieme; lavoro che tende ad una produzione che segue i reali bisogni delle persone e non le logiche del profitto; gioventu educata secondo principi che si rifanno allo sviluppo naturale delle cose; relazioni sociali orientate allaccoglienza e alla condivisione. Riscoprire Morris e le sue Cronache da Utopia riveste un significato importante: riscoprire un ideale di vita vicino ai principi che furono i capisaldi della cultura umanistica, riaffermando il valore delluomo sulle cose, avendo cura nella formazione delle persone attraverso il sapere, lesempio dei maestri, lamore che sostiene il "fare le cose" con bellezza. "Un testo che ha fatto scuola per moltissimi, un esempio di mondo non proprio cosi impossibile, che spesso oggi cerchiamo e crediamo sia la soluzione a molti dei guai che stiamo attraversando." (Recensione) LAUTORE: William Morris fu personaggio eclettico: romanziere, pensatore, artista, politico, trend-setter in settori quali larchitettura, la grafica, larredamento e il design. Morris e anche un convinto sostenitore del recupero del lavoro manuale e degli antichi mestieri. Non a caso fonda la societa Arts and Crafts, ancora oggi in attivita, e i suoi insegnamenti sono alla base di alcuni recenti esempi italiani (Brunello Cucinelli ha individuato in Morris il riferimento della sua Scuola dei mestieri iniziata a Solomeo).

Do you know where it is -- the Hollow Land?I have been looking for it now so long, trying to find it again the Hollow Land for there I saw my love first.I wish to tell you how I found it first of all; but I am old, my memory fails me: you must wait and let me think if I perchance can tell you how it happened. Yea, in my ears is a confused noise of trumpet-blasts singing over desolate moors, in my ears and eyes a clashing and clanging of horse-hoofs, a ringing and glittering of steel; drawn-back lips, set teeth, shouts, shrieks, and curses.

Long ago there was a little land, over which ruled a regulus or kinglet, who was called King Peter, though his kingdom was but little. He had four sons whose names were Blaise, Hugh, Gregory and Ralph: of these Ralph was the youngest, whereas he was but of twenty winters and one; and Blaise was the oldest and had seen thirty winters.Now it came to this at last, that to these young men the kingdom of their father seemed strait; and they longed to see the ways of other men, and to strive for life. For though they were kings sons, they had but little worlds wealth; save and except good meat and drink, and enough or too much thereof; house-room of the best; friends to be merry with, and maidens to kiss, and these also as good as might be; freedom withal to come and go as they would; the heavens above them, the earth to bear them up, and the meadows and acres, the woods and fair streams, and the little hills of Upmeads, for that was the name of their country and the kingdom of King Peter.

Walter El Dorado decide escapar de una vida de frustraciones y llega a una lejana y extraña tierra habitada por seres enigmáticos, enanos, doncellas, hombres, osos... al frente de una pequeña expedicion de robinsones. Una genuina historia fantastica. Walter Morris es uno de los mas claros precursores de la fantasia moderna. Su vida fue la de un artista completo, interesandose produndamente por la pintura, la arquitectura, el diseño... ademas de destacar como poeta y pensador utopico.

Of all the stories kept in being by the saga-tellers and left for our delight, there is none that so epitomises human experience; has within the same space so much of nature and of life; so fully the temper and genius of the Northern folk, as that of the Volsungs and Niblungs, which has in varied shapes entered into the literature of many lands. In the beginning there is no doubt that the story belonged to the common ancestral folk of all the Teutonic of Scando-Gothic peoples in the earliest days of their wanderings. Whether they came from the Hindu Kush, or originated in Northern Europe, brought it with them from Asia, or evolved it among the mountains and rivers it has taken for scenery, none know nor can; but each branch of their descendants has it in one form or another, and as the Icelanders were the very crown and flower of the northern folk, so also the story which is the peculiar heritage of that folk received in their hands its highest expression and most noble form.

Awhile ago there was a young man dwelling in a great and goodly city by the sea which had to name Langton on Holm. He was but of five and twenty winters, a fair-faced man, yellow-haired, tall and strong; rather wiser than foolisher than young men are mostly wont; a valiant youth, and a kind; not of many words but courteous of speech; no roisterer, nought masterful, but peaceable and knowing how to forbear: in a fray a perilous foe, and a trusty war-fellow. His father, with whom he was dwelling when this tale begins, was a great merchant, richer than a baron of the land, a head-man of the greatest of the Lineages of Langton, and a captain of the Porte; he was of the Lineage of the Goldings, therefore was he called Bartholomew Golden, and his son Golden Walter.Now ye may well deem that such a youngling as this was looked upon by all as a lucky man without a lack; but there was this flaw in his lot, whereas he had fallen into the toils of love of a woman exceeding fair, and had taken her to wife, she nought unwilling as it seemed. But when they had been wedded some six months he found by manifest tokens, that his fairness was not so much to her but that she must seek to the foulness of one worser than he in all ways; wherefore his rest departed from him, whereas he hated her for her untruth and her hatred of him; yet would the sound of her voice, as she came and went in the house, make his heart beat; and the sight of her stirred desire within him, so that he longed for her to be sweet and kind with him, and deemed that, might it be so, he should forget all the evil gone by. But it was not so; for ever when she saw him, her face changed, and her hatred of him became manifest, and howsoever she were sweet with others, with him she was hard and sour.

William Morris nos lleva en El sueño de John Ball a un mundo deslumbrante por la perfecta simbiosis del hombre rural del siglo xiv con la naturaleza y por sus habilidades artesanas ancestrales. Por otro lado, en las apasionadas conversaciones del misterioso protagonista (contemporáneo del autor) con John Ball apunta una cierta desesperanza ante el camino recorrido en el pasado y las dificultades que aguardan en el futuro a la lucha por la liberación del hombre y por la dignificación del trabajo. Una hermosa historia que cuenta el sueño utópico socialista con extraordinario poder de evocación.

Contents: / The Message of the March Wind / The Bridge and the Street / Sending to the War / Mother and Son / New Birth / The New Proletarian / In Prison and at Home / The Half of Life Gone / A New Friend / Ready to Depart / A Glimpse of the Coming Day / Meeting The War-Machine / The Storys Ending