William Morris and the Early Days of the Socialist Movement/App2
II
LETTERS FROM MORRIS,
WITH INTRODUCTION BY J.B.G.
Among the few treasures I possess are letters, books, and photographs of my co-workers in the Socialist movement, and among the most valued of these are those relating to William Morris. Small as is my little collection of relics of Morris, it includes, besides autographed copies of several of his books, and one or two photographs, one very great treasure, namely, a collection of letters written by him to me between 1885 and 1901. These form in themselves an exceedingly interesting record of Morris' views and of his intense absorption in the work of the League during its period of greatest propaganda activity. Mr. Mackail did not know of their existence when he wrote Morris' Life, though he has since read them. May Morris, however, has made a number of extracts from them in her biographical introductions to her complete edition of Morris' works. She has also most kindly had the letters handsomely bound for me in red leather by Mr. Douglas Cockerell, who, together with Mr. T.J. Cobden-Sanderson, has done so much both by his writings and his own handiwork to revive and advance the art of bookbinding.
In vol. xx, page xlii, of the complete edition, May Morris introduces several quotations from these letters in a paragraph in which she says that Morris looked forward to his provincial tours, especially those to Glasgow and Scotland generally, as 'his annual holiday,' so to speak. 'Wearied by efforts in London to keep the peace between impossible elements in the League, it was no small pleasure to him to meet these men who delighted in him, and who gathered around him in the evenings clamouring for news from down south, and singing him old ballads and rollicking college songs till the small hours. Like their friend from the south, they had their minds fixed on the ultimate goal of perfect freedom and on the immediate study and understanding of the claims of Socialism. Bruce Glasier, perhaps thanks to his mother, a sympathetic lady of Gaelic blood, had a strong poetic strain in him too, and enthusiasm of a quality that years have not impaired.'
Morris was so frankly outspoken in all his utterances, public and private, that except with regard to occasional personal remarks about his colleagues and other people, and concerning some of his more private affairs, his letters rarely reveal any shade of opinion or deliverance, which those who are generally acquainted with his writings would discover with surprise. But they reveal some of those traits of point-blankness of opinion, or right-downness of conviction, and above all those whimsicalities of mood, which as a rule he only permitted himself to express in his freest conversations with friends.
In all I received some seventy letters from him, but possess now only fifty-six of them, as I gave some away to comrades who were eager to possess a memento of him. The letters cover a period of ten years, from February 1886 to September 1896—a few weeks before he died. The majority of them were written between the years 1887 and 1889, when I was associated with him in the work of the Socialist League. After that period I rarely corresponded with him by letter, as I had during the succeeding three or four years to go more frequently to London, and saw him often at Hammersmith.
The letters relate chiefly to the work of the Socialist League, especially to the internal controversies in the party, and to the Commonweal. They contain, however, frequent allusions to public affairs, and are sprinkled over with characteristic obiter dicta concerning the personalities of the movement.
My intention at first was only to give a very few extracts here and there from them, but on reading them over afresh I feel that for Socialist readers, at any rate, they possess so much interest—alike because of the intimate light which they throw upon the early circumstances of the movement, and because they display not only Morris' intense earnestness in the work of Socialism, but the zeal and sound common-sense with which he tackled the practical difficulties and controversial problems which beset the movement in its beginning—that I have decided to give the greater portion of them as they stand. Besides simply as letters coming from his pen, they are, as I have said, so characteristic in purpose and form, that I feel sure they will be welcomed by all lovers of Morris.
Morris had the disability, if it be such, of being incapable of assuming any character or views other than his own. He could never have been an actor; he had no histrionic talent. In his speech, his writings, his art, in all things that he did, he was always William Morris. There never perhaps was an artist or writer whose work was invariably so unmistakably his own. From but a sentence or two of any writing of his, or the smallest scrap of one of his designs, his authorship can be discovered at once.
It follows from this that one can hardly, as in the case of many authors, speak of his letter-writing as being different in character from his book-writing. His letters are just as his books, except that in the former he is sometimes more blunt in phrase or whimsical and off-hand in his mood of the moment. Whether, therefore, he is to be classed among those authors who rank as great letter-writers, I am unable to give an opinion. There appear to be as many varieties in what is reckoned first-rate letter-writing as in every other department of literature. Chesterfield, Rutherford, Cowper, Burns, Byron, Shelley, Lord Acton, are all famed as letter-writers, yet how different in substance and style are their respective productions!
February 20th (1886).
Dear Mr. Glasier,—I must ask your pardon re your 'Law and Order.'[1] We shall not have room for it this month; but I will try to put it in next (April). You will excuse me, I hope, for keeping other poems out in favour of my own; but as mine is a 'continuation' the effect is bad if I slip a number, as I have sometimes been obliged to do. I think your 'Ballade' is good; brisk and spirited.
William Morris.
13 Farringdon Road, London, E.C.
My dear Glasier,—About coming to Glasgow. I have promised the Industrial Remuneration people[2] to lecture (the same lecture) at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dundee, beginning on June 23rd. I could not come before as the weekly Comm. and my Dublin journey absolutely prevented me. Perhaps something might be done as to giving a special lecture under the auspices of the branch when I come. Commonweal:—I want you to write for us whatever you think you can do well, and please let us have something soon.
April 24th (1886).
My dear Glasier,—Thanks for your note. Perhaps an extra lecture or lectures could be managed on my return from Dundee, which is the last place where I give my lecture for those folk. See how it can be done and make proposals; as the Ind. Rem. people pay me, it would be well to use the occasion.
As to your letter re Bax, I am not quite sure that it would be wise to put it in as it would be cutting the dam of the waters of controversy, since, of course, Bax must be allowed to reply. I will consult with him next Wednesday, and do you please consider the matter yourself. The letter is well written and there is of course much reason in it, but on the whole I agree with Bax. The religion-education-family question is a difficult one, if one looks at it from the point of view of transitional Socialism, and we might, I think (not agreeing with Bax here) be content to let it alone in that stage. But when Socialism is complete the new economics will have transformed the family, and this will clear up the difficulty; nor do I believe there will be any necessity for using compulsion towards rational education. Meantime we must be clear about one thing, that, in opposition to the present bourgeois view, we hold that children are persons, not property, and so have a right to claim all the advantages which the community provides for every citizen. Again, as to the woman matter, it seems to me that there is more to be said on Bax's side than you suppose. For my part, being a male man, I naturally think more of the female man than I do of my own sex: but you must not forget that child-bearing makes women inferior to men, since a certain time of their lives they must be dependent on them. Of course we must claim absolute equality of condition between women and men, as between other groups, but it would be poor economy setting women to do men's work (as unluckily they often do now) or vice versa.
However, this is rambling. I hope you will do all you can to push Commonweal, and have a little patience if it is not all you could desire at first. I think the May 1st number will be a good one. Notes especially on Labour questions are much looked for from the branches; we want to keep alongside the times as much as possible.