Beautiful Useful Things
What William Morris Made
by Beth Kephart
art by Melodie Stacey
2022
Beautiful Useful Things is a children's picture book and a biography of the Victorian polymath William Morris, though it's very light on biographical detail.
Today, most people who recognize that name probably know Morris for his detailed patterns, which are still used on wallpapers and rugs. But Kephart focuses on Morris's love of nature and his work designing and handmaking a variety of goods, especially books. Rather than trying to reproduce Morris's dense patterns, Stacey uses similar natural motifs, but paints them big and loose, with a lot of negative space.
More than anything else, I think this book is trying to capture how Morris thought about things, and encourage young readers to adopt that mindset, at least for the length of the book. We learn about Morris's close observation of nature, and his desire to preserve artisan production in the face of industrialization. The cadence of Kephart's text, and the way the paragraphs are spread across the pages encourages slow reading.
The author's note mentions that Morris was an environmentalist and a founder of the Arts & Crafts movement in England, both of which show up clearly in this book. He was also a socialist, although I think you'd be hard pressed to guess that just from this book. The one-paragraph author's note also contains more historical detail about Morris than the entire rest of the book.
Stacey's watercolor art demonstrates the idea of reproducing natural images, and they're accentuated by images of knights and princesses, which reference the kinds of stories Kephart says Morris loved to read and to write himself. Fittingly, the font of this book is very pretty.
There is an irony, I suppose, to the way that Morris's drawings have become something else that's mass produced. His philosophy isn't dead, but it also isn't enacted nearly as much as he'd like, and his name is associated less with the content of his ideas than with the appearance of specific patterns. This book depicts Morris hand printing and sewing hardbacks of his own text - but is itself produced in the usual way. I wonder if any young readers will notice that disconnect?
Today, most people who recognize that name probably know Morris for his detailed patterns, which are still used on wallpapers and rugs. But Kephart focuses on Morris's love of nature and his work designing and handmaking a variety of goods, especially books. Rather than trying to reproduce Morris's dense patterns, Stacey uses similar natural motifs, but paints them big and loose, with a lot of negative space.
More than anything else, I think this book is trying to capture how Morris thought about things, and encourage young readers to adopt that mindset, at least for the length of the book. We learn about Morris's close observation of nature, and his desire to preserve artisan production in the face of industrialization. The cadence of Kephart's text, and the way the paragraphs are spread across the pages encourages slow reading.
The author's note mentions that Morris was an environmentalist and a founder of the Arts & Crafts movement in England, both of which show up clearly in this book. He was also a socialist, although I think you'd be hard pressed to guess that just from this book. The one-paragraph author's note also contains more historical detail about Morris than the entire rest of the book.
Stacey's watercolor art demonstrates the idea of reproducing natural images, and they're accentuated by images of knights and princesses, which reference the kinds of stories Kephart says Morris loved to read and to write himself. Fittingly, the font of this book is very pretty.
There is an irony, I suppose, to the way that Morris's drawings have become something else that's mass produced. His philosophy isn't dead, but it also isn't enacted nearly as much as he'd like, and his name is associated less with the content of his ideas than with the appearance of specific patterns. This book depicts Morris hand printing and sewing hardbacks of his own text - but is itself produced in the usual way. I wonder if any young readers will notice that disconnect?
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