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Dissertation Information for Joseph R. Dunlap

NAME:
- Joseph R. Dunlap

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- Columbia University (USA) (1972)

ADVISORS:
- None

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Ambiguous

Title: THE ROAD TO KELMSCOTT: WILLIAM MORRIS AND THE BOOK ARTS BEFORE THE FOUNDING OF THE KELMSCOTT PRESS

Abstract: William Morris (1834-1896) turned to

printing in the last half dozen
years of a very busy life as a writer,

designer: lecturer, business
man and socialist. This dissertation

describes his contacts with, and
excursions into, the book arts before

he founded the Kelmscott Press.
The Road to Kelmscott begins ,with a

brief description of some of
the principal features of the England

in which William Morris grew up
and to which he reacted favorably or

unfavorably. A love for art,
beauty and the Middle Ages, and a

hatred of ugliness, poor workmanship
and human exploitation characterized

all his works, artistic or
literary, throughout his career.
Next, an account of the period before

Morris tried his hand at
the book arts describes his contacts

with books and illustrations, with
Illuminated manuscripts and

incunabula, with Edward Burne-Jones,
Gabriel Rossetti and F. S. Ellis, with

the Chiswick Press and with the
decorative arts as applied to the

products of his firm, Morris & Co.
His first attempts at book design

resulted in two ambitious but
unfulfilled projects with Burns-Jones

to reproduce his poetical works
with woodcut illustrations and

decorations. They show Morris

unsuccessfully applying vigorous

decoration to the undistinguished

letterpress
of the 1860's and 1870's.

A major portion of the dissertation

describes the calligraphic
and illuminated manuscripts which

Morris produced between 1870 and 1875;
the development of Morris's scripts

and of his colorful decorations; and
their relationship, on the one hand,

to medieval and renaissance work,
and to the decoration he used in his

Ke1Iilscott Press volumes, on the
other. The lettering for inscriptions

at Red House in Kent, his home
for five years, and for stained glass

produced by his firm, is also
considered.
Until 1888, Morris's preoccupation

with other matters, especially
with Socialism, kept him from paying

much attention to the voices and
the publications of the decade which

were advocating improved book
design; but in that year, under the

combined influence of Emery Walker,
Charles Jacobi and the Arts and Crafts

Exhibition, his interest and
energy turned permanently to the book

arts. The dissertatIon closes
with Morris designing type, studying

the art of printing at the Chiswick
Press and preparing to set up his own

printing establishment, having
learned the importance of unity and

coherence in book design.
Morris drew on, but did not imitate,

the tradition of the medieval
and renaissance book which he

considered to be superior to current
practices. Followers who imitated him

were less successful than were
those who understood his message and

sought to achieve his aims in
their own ways.
Though comparisons frequently made in

the dissertation between
Morris's works before he founded the

Kelmscott Press and the
products of the Press itself, the

former are shown to be significant
and worth attention in their own

right, and not mere1y as ancillary to
the latter.

MPACT Scores for Joseph R. Dunlap

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:01:43

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