Kelmscott Press edition of 'The Earthly Paradise, Vol 1'

Taking the form of a compendium of different narratives, ‘The Earthly Paradise’ is an epic poem structured as a frame story similar to Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’. Morris had been writing poetry since his time at university but his first publication, ‘The Defence of Guenevere’ in 1857, was poorly received and dissuaded him from publishing anything for ten years. However, after the success of ‘The Life and Death of Jason’ in 1867, Morris published the first volume of ‘The Earthly Paradise’ in 1868.

The first volume of ‘The Earthly Paradise’ was very well received, and Morris went on to publish further volumes until 1870. This Kelmscott Press edition is the first in an eight-volume set held at the William Morris Gallery. In Morris’s poem a group of Norsemen have fled a plague in Europe in search of the mythical earthly paradise, where they will never grow old. However, their search is unfruitful and they become ‘shrivelled, bent, and grey’ during their lengthy quest. Eventually they come to a land where the inhabitants still worship the ancient Greek gods. They decide to stay there and each month the wanderers and the city elders exchange tales; the poem lasts a whole year, comprising twenty-four stories. Through this narrative Morris draws both upon Greek myths and medieval romance tales, including Icelandic sagas.

‘The Earthly Paradise’ helped to forge Morris’s reputation as a poet and all his subsequent books were sold as ‘by the author of The Earthly Paradise’. Although nowadays we think of William Morris primarily as a designer, during his lifetime he was best known as a writer.