Presents 570 newly discovered letters from Jane Morris to diverse correspondents, which radically revise the popular view of a silent, discontented invalid and instead portray her as an independent thinker following her own causes. The vast majority of the letters are unpublished, and are fully annotated. Jane Morris [1839-1914] was a famous Pre-Raphaelite model, wife of William Morris and one of the Victorian age's most enigmatic figures. Her long love affair with Dante Gabriel Rossetti has become the stuff of legend. Latershe had a romantic relationship with the adventurer Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. Through her daughter May, she had a contentious interaction with George Bernard Shaw. The greater fame of husband and lovers caused her to be overlooked, but she has always aroused historical interest and partisan debate. Like other women in history her emergence from mute image into speaking subject has come about through feminist scholarship, but is of wide appeal. The editorsof this volume have discovered more than 500 letters from Jane to many and diverse correspondents, which radically revise the popular view of a silent, discontented invalid and reveal the range of her interests and opinions. The majority of the letters are unpublished and are fully annotated. They reveal Jane's involvement in many of Morris's endeavours such as the family firm Morris & Co., the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, the 1882 Icelandic Relief Committee, and the Kelmscott Press, and offer new insights into the life of the Morris family. An independent thinker, Jane was politically engaged, although voteless, and her letters are informed by theturbulent events of the 1880s. She did not follow Morris into the Socialist movement, but retained Liberal allegiances and became an ardent supporter of Irish Home Rule. Jane Morris's letters complement those of her husbandWilliam Morris [edited by Norman Kelvin] and her lover Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In addition to the texts, the book includes a selection of the portraits and paintings through which Jane became a Pre-Raphaelite icon and archetypal femme fatale. JAN MARSH is the author of Jane and May Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Painter and Poet and other books on the Pre-Raphaelite circle, and is the current president of the William Morris Society.FRANK C. SHARP is an independent Victorian studies scholar and the author of numerous articles on William Morris and his circle.

'Jan Marsh's book is the best researched and fullest biography of Rossetti we have yet had.' Fiona MacCarthy, New York Review of Books 'Although never formally part of the Pre-Raphaelite poetic school, which included her brother Gabriel, William Morris, and Algernon Swinburne, Christina Rossetti has always been linked to it. [Jan Marsh] gives full attention to both the individual and her unique variety of fantastic and devotional poetry... Marsh delineates an appealing person while examining her adolescent nervous breakdown, abortive engagement to a lapsed Catholic painter, frustrated love for an absentminded scholar, and relationships with her devout but hearty sister, Maria, and with her brothers... The author's steady, sympathetic course through Rossetti's divided life enables readers to delve into the intense and original self most fully expressed in her poetry.' Kirkus Review

The first fully illustrated and comprehensive introduction to May Morris's work as an artist, designer and embroiderer, published in association with the V&A. May Morris (1862-1938), younger daughter of William Morris, was a significant figure in the British Arts and Crafts movement and a pioneer of 'art embroidery'. She ran the embroidery department of Morris & Co., as well as designing textiles, wallpapers and jewellery. May was also an influential teacher and lectured in the UK and America. May Morris: Arts & Crafts Designer is the first publication to present the full range of May Morris's work and reveals her exceptional skill and originality. It draws together her designs, exquisite embroideries, watercolours, costume and jewellery from museums around the world, and in particular the rich collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the William Morris Gallery, London. The book contains more than 180 items in colour and detailed information on their materials and provenance compiled by leading experts. There are also new insights into May's personal life and relationships, her social activism and her support for other craftswomen. This authoritative and illuminating study places May Morris, whose reputation has been overshadowed by that of her father, firmly among the leading British designer-makers of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898) was only 25 when he died from tuberculosis, but in his short life he established a reputation as one of the most accomplished - and controversial - illustrators of his day, whose contribution to the visual language of Art Nouveau was profound. Astonishingly, all his work was created in the course of only six years, and is today instantly recognizable for its use of black ink and flowing lines on white paper - and its erotically charged subject matter. Not all his work was lubricious - some of it was political, poking fun at the decadent mores of the time - but much of it was, taking its stylistic inspiration from Japanese shunga and Greek vase painting and its thematic inspiration from mythology, history, poetry and drama. This beautifully designed, accessibly priced gift book offers a wealth of illustrations by Beardsley, and introduces his exquisitely wrought drawings and prints to a new audience. With a text by Jan Marsh and around 110 illustrations from the extensive collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, this book brings together a carefully curated selection of works from Beardsley's tragically short but highly productive life.

In this most interesting book Jan Marsh examines the paradox underlying the transformation of England from an economy based on agriculture to one based on industry. By 1880 that had happened irreversibly and yet while the rural population was rapidly declining, the back-to-the land movement began to pervade all areas of life and thought. Jan Marsh chronicles the many manifestations of the pastoral impulse. From simple nostalgia to sophisticated political thought she looks at agrarian communes, the folk-song movement, peasant arts, garden cities, the reclamation of common lands, schools, dress and diet, and at the life and thought of such key figures as John Ruskin, William Morris and Edward Carpenter.

The book is divided into four parts: The Cult of the Countryside, Tilling the Earth, Rustic Arts and Crafts, Pioneers of the New Life.

'I read it with delight. It is beautifully done - the research, the argument and above all the clarity of the writing.' Adam Nicholson

'An eminently readable survey of the pastoral aspect of the aesthetic movement dominated by Ruskin, Morris and Carpenter around the turn of the century'. Deborah Singmaster, "Times Literary Supplement"

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'A synoptic study which includes dress reform, the folk-song and folk-dance movement, the impulse to safeguard commons, footpaths and ancient monuments, the revolution ins gardening, progressive schools like Abottsholme and Bedales... when we dine out in Fulham and sit round a scrubbed deal table with a string of onions hanging over earthenware crocks, we are paying tribute to the potency of the ideologies this book entertainingly chronicles.' Colin Ward, "New Society"

A lively and multi-faceted account of Evelyn and William De Morgan, exploring a unique artistic partnership that spanned several cultural circles including the Pre-Raphaelites and Arts and Crafts movement With a partnership spanning two centuries, the Pre-Raphaelite painter Evelyn (1855-1919) and Arts and Crafts potter and author William De Morgan (1839-1917) influenced several significant art movements in nineteenth-century Britain. Despite this, their impact has been relatively overlooked in comparison with their better-known contemporaries. Evelyn & William De Morgan is the first major publication devoted to the work of either artist and their unique relationship. It draws out each artist's individuality while providing a comprehensive view of the expanded cultural milieu in which they functioned, not least with regard to new attitudes towards Victorian marriage as a working partnership. The fully illustrated publication features numerous contributions which explore the reach of the De Morgans' partnership, their political and spiritual interests, and their immersion within several influential cultural circles of the day, including Pre-Raphaelite, Arts and Crafts, and Aesthetic Movement groups. The book presents a lively and multifaceted account of the De Morgans and their creative partnership. Published in association with Delaware Art Museum Exhibition Schedule: Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington October 22, 2022-January 29, 2023 Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA September 17, 2023- January 7, 2024 Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL January 27, 2024-May 2024

Red House occupies an extraordinary place in British architectural history. It was the first and only house that William Morris ever built. It was the first independent architectural commission from his friend, Philip Webb. The challenge of furnishing the house inspired Morris to found the design firm of Morris & Co. It had a great influence on the Arts & Crafts Movement. But it is also a house that captured William Morris's heart. He was only twenty-five when, in 1858 he decided to buy the site at Bexleyheath, just outside London, but in a rural Kentish setting. He had recently married Jane Burden, daughter of an Oxford ostler, whose particular beauty became inspiration for so much pre-Raphaelite art. With his young wife and his wealth he planned to produce a vision of earthly paradise at Red House. Rosetti described it as 'more a poem than a house', Morris called it 'our place of art', and when he was obliged to give it up for financial reasons in 1865, he resolved never to return. His biographer recorded that he could 'never set eyes on it again, confessing that the sight of it would be more than he could bear'. Red House was saved from an uncertain future in January 2003 by the