Eloquent and engrossing, this meticulously researched revisionist account of Jane and William Morris restores the great designer's wife to her rightful place as an equal partner in the couple's creative collaborations.
William Morris - poet, designer, campaigner, hero of the Arts & Crafts movement - was a giant of the Victorian age, and his beautiful creations and provocative philosophies are still with us today: but his wife Jane is too often relegated to a footnote, an artist's model given no history or personality of her own.
In truth, Jane and William's personal and creative partnership was the central collaboration of both their lives. The homes they made together - the Red House, Kelmscott Manor and their houses in London - were works of art in themselves, and the great labour of their lives was life itself: through their houses and the objects they filled them with, they explored how we all might live a life more focused on beauty and fulfilment.
In How We Might Live, Suzanne Fagence Cooper explores the lives and legacies of Jane and William Morris, finally giving Jane's work the attention it deserves and taking us inside two lives of unparalleled creative artistry.
Publisher: Quercus Publishing
ISBN: 9781529409505
Number of pages: 544
Weight: 381 g
Dimensions: 196 x 130 x 38 mm
Lyrical...enjoyable - Mail on Sunday
Jane is fortunate in her biographer - The Times
Well researched and extensive - BBC History Magazine
Fascinating - The Field
[Cooper] traces the Morrises' shared and separate lives with clarity and judicious assessment - History Today
Fagence Cooper succeeds, against the odds, in restoring some reality to our view of Jane Morris, giving a proper sense of a woman with striking gifts and talents identifiably her own - Literary Review
Delightful, accessible and insightful - Church Times
Jane Morris's creative influence on her husband's design empire has finally been revealed in a new book [...] the first joint biography of the couple will shine a light on their personal and creative partnership, and reassert the rightful place of Jane Morris - a skilled embroiderer and talented designer - in the history books. - Guardian
I really enjoyed this book. I have been interested in the life and work of William Morris for the best part of fifty years, and a book like this comes along once in a generation. It is beautifully written, and it... More
Having just been to see the Rossettis exhibition at the Tate I was really excited to read this. The exhibition worked hard to include Christina Rossetti and give her her due. It also looked at the women who were... More
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