CRANE, WALTER. Autograph manuscript signed of the essay "William Morris," with many deletions, emendations and revisions, [dated at end October 1896 - February 1897]. 25 pages, folio, written on the rectos of 25 leaves of foolscap paper, some of Crane's revisions made on various versos, others type-written and attached to relevant pages, scattered ink smudges, edges worn, first leaf missing upper right-hand corner, originally folded once, half a dozen pages now separated horizontally (without text loss) at old fold line, laid in a folding cloth case, gilt-lettered. A detailed account of Morris's life and artistic achievements, and of Crane's friendship and collaboration with him. Morris had died in October 1896. "The art of Morris & those associated with him was really but the outward & visible sign of a great movement of protest & against the commercial & conventional conceptions & standards of life & art which had obtained so strong a hold in the industrial nineteenth century. Essentially Gothic in spirit as opposed to the authoritative classical: its leader was essentially & even passionately Gothic in his conception of art... The inspiration of his poetry was no less medieval than the spirit of his designs..." (pp. 6-7). Crane also considers Morris as a book collector, printer, type designer and socialist.