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
Advisors and Advisees Graph
|