Printed at the Kelmscott Press

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The Kelmscott Press published fifty-two books and a set of specimen pages for Froissart's Chronicles, a book that was never completed.

William Morris had many ideas for volumes he hoped to print at the Kelmscott Press. Books already in production were completed after Morris's death in 1896; however the press was closed in 1898 after these works were completed. There were many works that Morris had hoped to print but never produced. These included Shakespeare's plays, a catalogue of William Morris's library, John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, and novels by Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens

What did William Morris print at his press?

  • Works and translations by William Morris
  • Medieval literature, especially works printed by William Caxton
  • Classics of English literature
  • Works of colleagues and contemporaries

A complete timeline of Morris' setting up and running of the press is available below.

To learn more about the works and translations authored by William Morris see Morris as Translator and Morris as Author.

Image: Kelmscott Press employees sitting with William Morris, circa 1893.


Medieval Literature

Laudes Beatae Mariae Virginis

Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1896

The History of Godefrey of Boloyne and of the Conquest of Iherusalem

Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1893


Classics of English Literature

Maud: a Monodrama

by Lord Alfred Tennyson
Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1893

Poems Chosen Out of the Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1896

The Poems of John Keats

by John Keats
Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1894

The Poems of John Keats

Poems chosen out of the works of Robert Herrick

by John Keats
Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1895


Works by Morris, His Colleagues, and Contemporaries

The Love-Lyrics and Songs of Proteus

by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1892

Hand and Soul

by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1895

The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems

by William Morris
Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1892

The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems

 

Timeline

View the events leading up to William Morris' creation of the Kelmscott Press and details about books printed at the press.