To chronicle the life of William Morris, his biographer, E.P. Thompson, purposely reminds the reader that the English Romantic period in literature strongly influenced Morris, from his childhood on. Tracing the steps of Morris' formal education, he documents how Morris was deeply affected by his studies of medieval art and literature and deeply influenced by the writings of both Carlyle and Ruskin, influences that had repercussions for the direction of Morris's artistic and political life.

Thompson worked from a treasure trove of material: letters, public documents, articles about William Morris, and, of course, the vast collection of literary works and political articles and speeches that Morris published.

He shows Morris as being at odds with Victorian sensibilities, both as an artist and political reformer, all tempered to some degree, by his illusory yearning for an ideal love, a yearning that doomed any hope of true happiness in his marriage to Jane Burden but made him an ardent reformer striving to bring about more equality for his fellow man.

Thompson chronicles specific incidents, such as Morris infamous arrest under false charges, with reams of details and viewpoints. This technique, while thorough, does not make for easy or quick reading. This biography is heavily weighted toward Morris's activities as a socialist reformer, and at times Thompson's commentary on Morris's literary output seems unduly colored by these socialist beliefs. This argument may be valid, as Thompson notes about Morris: "He looked upon the history of arts, not---as did many of his contemporaries---as the record of individual geniuses, each "inspired" and each influencing each other, but as part of wider social processes."

Likewise, he quotes Morris as saying "I never set up for a critic," by which me means that art is a "solace," an expression of "pleasure," thus, in some measure, confirming that Morris trivialized both the creative process and the role of art in society.

There is, in my view, not enough balanced information on the myriad contributions Morris made to literature---especially The Wood beyond the World, The Well at the World's End, and The Water of the Wondrous Isles---and other novels he wrote during the final decade of his life. Those works are worth more scrutiny, if for no other reason, because they clearly and firmly are the seminal works in what is now the genre of fantasy, in which Tolkien, deservedly so, reigns supreme. Yet without Morris, who was the first to combine elements from classical epic and medieval romance with conventions of the novel, this genre may not have taken form until much later.

I would also have expected more about the magnificent work from the Kelmscott Press, especially the much-revered Kelmscott Chaucer (if you are a book-lover, you owe it to yourself to see if a library near you has a facsimile) instead of a detailed footnote citing the various works of other experts.

More could have been done with the vast accomplishments Morris was responsible for in the visual arts, in his design of wallpapers, chintzes, and tapestries, as well as his furniture designs (the Morris chair indeed comes from this William Morris).

One other shortcoming, in my view, is that one gleans little about what Morris experienced as a child or adolescent. Also, surprisingly, there is much less detail about his marriage, his wife's affair, and his children than one would expect from a book of this scope.

Still, this biography is an excellent reference for the, I suspect, ever-dwindling number of scholars reviewing William Morris and his life. Bibliophiles who love biographies will not, I also suspect, readily enjoy Thompson's writing style, in which passages sometimes seem welded together with multiple colons, and who writes much more like a reporter than in the biographical style elevated by writers such as Walter Jackson Bate or David McCullough. Thompson had a daunting task before him in attempting to distill, to a single volume, the life of William Morris, of whom, upon hearing of Morris' death, remarked, "I consider the case is this: the disease is simply being William Morris, and having done more work than most ten men."

Thompson no doubt did much of his research in the late 1940s and early 1950s, as the first copyright date for this book is 1955, and his writing style may seem at times harsh if compared with current biographical writing. Still, this volume is a virtual warehouse crammed with facts, accounts, details, and remembrances.

I honestly had trouble staying awake reading this one. I'm very interested in type design and typography but the pace of this book made me feel like a kid with attention deficit disorder watching C-Span. There's a lot of interviews so definitely get your money's worth. Illustrations are bit sparse for a book on type and the whole book comes across as überconservative.

The four stars are for the content, which is generally excellent and has not been published in other books. Everyone will have their favorite chapters, but the interview with Dwiggins is particularly illuminating and amusing.

My problem with this book is its astonishingly poor design. The layout of the pages works well, even though there are few illustrations. The paper is a shiny, bright white that positively hurts my eyes. If the book featured photography, I could understand. But it's all black type on snow -- nasty. Not to mention that the stock itself stinks. It has a heavy chemical odor, and consequently is difficult to hold at a comfortable reading distance.

If Rauri McLean did not want to use ligatures, he should have choosen a type that did not require their use. The crashing fs disturb me. Also, the beginnings of chapters are not flagged well. They begin with a drop cap followed by a short introduction in italics. This would probably work if the drop caps were larger, or in a different color. As it is, it's difficult to pick out a subject by simply thumbing through the book.

I understand that McLean was trained by the great typographer Jan Tschichold, whom I admire enormously. However, I don't see much of his influence in this glaring white, smelly book.

This is a great compilation of the thoughts of numerous renowned typographers and type designers. It is not light reading, but consequently provides great insight. McLean has done a great job with all aspects of the book, including its layout

This is basicly a picture book, but you will need a magnifying glass to look at many of the designs. Otherwise the content is fairly comprehensive.

This book has quality color reproductions covering a broad spectrum of Morris's work. I love it. However, I wish Phaidon had come out with the same book at a much larger scale in hardcover. The large book "William Morris" edited by Linda Parry contains good visuals and a great collection of essays about him, so I would recommend that book instead if you are looking for something big and comprehensive. "Designs of William Morris" is very nice for the price, though, and makes a good introduction to his work.

I much prefered The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson. The Morris book seemed very random, while the work by Hendrickson seemed more in-depth.

As a budding linguist (by hobby not vocation) it's kind of fun to be able to cross-reference with other dictionaries of word origins. But if you are of limited funds or just want a better source, I'd definitely suggest you give this a miss and go for something by Ayto or Oxford.

This book is an enjoyable read, with some phrases I have not found in other work phrase books (and I have about six such type books.) However, I think the title of the book has given this book and average rating among reviewers. Those expecting a comprehensive amount of word/phrase origins will be disappointed, but no fault of theirs, the book's title is misleading. The book's title should be something like "Interesting Word and Phrase Origins". It's also a little high-priced for what you get new, so definately get a used version.

This book was written for seasoned professionals. I am a engineering student, and I depend on this book to help me understand mechanics of materials, but it simply doesn't do this. The authors of the book assume that all readers already know the material. It is extremely frustrating to read this book. The example problems are ambigous. The reading simply does not prepare the reader for the problems at the end of each chapter. The only reason why I give this book two stars is because they have very good visual illustrations.

I bought this book as a supplementary reference for mechanics of materials, which I do at my job. The book is well written, with plenty of example problems sprinkled throughout. I also found this book to be very comprehensive. For example, I found material on the mechanics of shrink wrapping, which I don't see in many other books on strength of materials. The only thing I would fault is that some of the chapters are too long and would have been better from a pedogical standpoint if they'd been broken up into smaller chapters. In particular, Chapter 7 on beam stresses could have been divided into separate chapters concentrating on pure bending and transverse loading. That way, a discussion of pure bending leads naturally into transverse loading. Instead, these topics are sort of thrown together into one big chapter, overwhelming the student. But overall, it's an excellent volume. Given a choice, I'd recommend Beer and Johnston, but you won't go wrong with Riley et al. either.

This is a fascinating book on the lives of the men and women of the venerable William Morris talent agency -- the agency that has defined Hollywood and television since both came into being.

I suspect that many people who come across this book will be art lovers, specifically admirers of Art Noveau and perhaps even recent visitors to the exhibition of this particular form of turn-of-the-century expression at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. And this is, notwithstanding the prominence of the title story and Clive Wilmer's introduction, which focuses on the political aspects of Morris's writing, a book about the author's vision of beauty, of craftsmanship not for its own sake, but with the aim of producing work of skill and magnificence, and, as a secondary but vital consideration, the satisfaction of the artist. Morris comes across as a brilliant man, devoted to his many crafts (he taught himself thirteen) and passionate about human equality, though the impression from his writing is that the quality of the artist's skill, and particularly in the field of the decorative (what he calls the 'lesser') arts, matters more to him than the egalitarianism he trumpets. The political pieces, such as the title story, which comprises almost half the book and portrays Morris's vision of an ideal society in the year 2102, are the weakest, speculating as they do about a population of uniform mind in its espousal of the superiority of the Mediaeval ideal of art and its fanatical rejection of progress and technology. Genetics, the evolutionary territorial imperative, the diversity of human imagination which has since spawned the Information Age, are all swept aside by the juggernaut of Morris's Luddite, Gothic world-view (and although I accept the context in which he writes, namely late-Victorian London, I can't ignore his failure to mention the benefits of the industrialisation he despises, such as the increased life-expectancy, the majesty of the scientific leaps within his lifetime). Nonetheless, Morris is an inspiring polemicist: his rejection of the State, his fierce and uncompromising belief in his ideas, his utterly convincing support for the rightness of the individual's potential for common-sense and ability to recognise what is good, what is true, in the face of the pronouncements of authority, mark him as a defender of freedom quite apart from many of his orthodox Marxist contemporaries.

This book has a beautiful cover and lots of useful pictures inside. It also offers information about complementary forms of natural healing and Reiki healing techniques for specific conditions or organs. However, it is focused on maintaining exclusivity for Reiki healers and relies on the Takata/Samdahl stories and lineage, which distort the universality of Reiki healing. Reiki healing is a set of practices for connecting to and transmitting high frequency spiritual/subtle energy, and is not exclusive to any particular Reiki organization or lineage. A Reiki student can develop or NOT develop power and skill as a healer regardless of who taught them. I would make an analogy to establishment education, where people go to colleges and follow a curriculum, and upon completing their coursework some become very skillful and gifted at a profession while others don't. Meanwhile, many people have been quite gifted and accomplished in a field solely through self-education and effort, or innate talent. Expensive and lengthy Reiki courses may garner a higher frequency of commitment (within those taking the course), but they do this by discouraging some people who would otherwise pursue this healing path. There seems to be a fear that quickie Reiki courses will minimize the Reiki profession/art, rather than an appreciation for the spread of interest and availability for basic Reiki training, which benefits many people.

This book gives a more balanced picture of Reiki. It is based on many personal conversations with Virginia Samdahl, the first Reiki Master trained by Madame Takada. Those people complaining about the price of direct linage Reiki would also like to buy a black belt in Karate.

The reviewers heated discussion over the historical facts of the Reiki tradition in "Reiki: Hands That Heal" by Joyce Morris made me believe that this book presented a distorted history of the Reiki tradition. So I bought it as a contraversial history book and discovered that between the covers, there was something else -- a great handbook on natural healing. Page by page -- by the way, superbly designed -- the reader receives detailed instruction on how to tune into universal healing energies, and for God's sake -- to help himself to become more energized, optimistic, vital, and more positive, in other words -- fit to handle daily pressure, emotional and mental challenges.

The reviewers tell that out there are better books about Reiki. If one has interest in Reiki history, yes, it would make sense to buy all of them and compare facts. But if someone is looking for a practical guide how to learn to trust your own healing power, to enforce it through alignment with Reiki, or universal healing force, I cannot recommend a better book than this one. The presentation is beautiful and clear, but most importantly -- it stresses over and over again the simplest truth that we tend to forget -- that health and prosperity stem from faith and purity of our thoughts and intentions. Cleanse your heart, and Reiki will cleanse your body for you!

Sometimes, there is nothing better than a poor review! In the present case, it guided me to a great book that encouraged me to count on the healing power on my own heart. What an idea! Why take my word for it? You may wish to find it out on your own.