This is the graphic biography of William Morris (1834–1896), the celebrated designer, driven polymath and radical socialist.

Acclaimed cartoonist Nick Thorkelson moves through the events of Morris’s life weaving a rich tapestry of the major artistic, social and political questions which animated him.

He explores Morris’s politics and art, and how his hatred of class tyranny and love of humanity shaped his poetry, design and relationships.

The book brings to life the tension of Morris’s efforts to democratise art while creating pieces for the wealthy, his critique of Britain’s Empire, and his central place in socialist culture and propaganda.

Thorkelson’s striking and idiosyncratic drawings chime with the Arts and Crafts movement’s emphasis on the humanising power of the handmade.

The book also features fourteen pages of immersive and dazzling illustrations by Sharon Rudahl, pioneer of women’s comics, honouring the literary work for which William Morris was best known during his lifetime.

Nick Thorkelson is a cartoonist living in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He is the author and illustrator of Herbert Marcuse: Philosopher of Utopia (2019). He was an editorial cartoonist at The Boston Globe and has created comics and illustrations in support of organisations working on economic justice, peace, public health and industrial safety. He is the co-author and/or illustrator of The Earth Belongs to the People, The Underhanded History of the USA, The Legal Rights of Union Stewards, The Comic Strip of Neoliberalism and Economic Meltdown Funnies, and has contributed to a number of nonfiction comics anthologies. Nick also moonlights as a musician, animator, graphic designer and painter.