"Two impressive figures, William Morris as subject and E.P. Thompson as author, are conjoined in this immense biographical-historical-critical study, and both of them have gained in stature since the first edition of the book was published... The book that was ignored in 1955 has meanwhile become something of an underground classic–almost impossible to locate in second-hand bookstores, pored over in libraries, required reading for anyone interested in Morris and, increasingly, for anyone interested in one of the most important of contemporary British historians... Thompson has the distinguishing characteristic of a great historian: he has transformed the nature of the past, it will never look the same again; and whoever works in the area of his concerns in the future must come to terms with what Thompson has written. So too with his study of William Morris."
–Peter Stansky, The New York Times Book Review
"An absorbing biographical study A glittering quarry of marvelous quotes from Morris and others, many taken from heretofore inaccessible or unpublished sources."
–Walter Arnold, Saturday Review
"Thompson's is the first biography to do justice to Morris's political thought and so assemble the man whole... It is not only the standard biography of Morris; it makes us realize, as no other writer has done, how completely admirable a man this Victorian was–how consistent and honest to himself and others, how incapable of cruelty or jargon and, above all, how free."
–Robert Hughes, Time Magazine
