KELMSCOTT PRESS: MORRIS, William.

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Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair. First edition, inscribed in the first volume on the day of publication, "To F. S. Ellis from William Morris Sept. 25, 1895". Frederick Startridge Ellis was Morris's close friend and an enthusiastic supporter of the Kelmscott Press. In 1874, Ellis took over from Dante Gabriel Rossetti as joint tenant at Kelmscott Manor.Morris was introduced to Ellis (1830-1901) by Swinburne. A bookseller, Ellis advised Morris on his manuscript purchases and worked as the official buyer for the British Museum for several years. Ellis was also a small-scale publisher who brought out works by Morris and Gabriel Rossetti, including Morris's The Earthly Paradise (1868-70). Upon his retirement from bookselling and publishing, Ellis took up editing and worked on many of the Kelmscott Press publications, including proof-reading the Kelmscott Chaucer. He frequently visited Morris during the poet's final illness and Ellis was named as one of his executors.This is one of 600 copies on paper. Morris's re-imagining of the medieval Lay of Havelock the Dane is part of his series of magic-realist prose romances set in imaginary historic landscapes.

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